"Imaging-mediated Drug Delivery, from Bench to Bedside," was the title of a June 25 satellite symposium held in conjunction with a three-day workshop for cancer researchers sponsored by the FDA and several other leading organizations.
Joy Polefone, Ph.D., director of the Foundation’s newly-launched Focused Ultrasound-mediated Targeted Drug Delivery (FUS-TDD) program, was a speaker at the event. As she observed, “The symposium offered an important opportunity to present the concept of Image-guided Mediated Targeted Drug Delivery, of which FUS-TDD is a key example, to the FDA for potential inclusion in the full workshop in the future.”
Polefone added, ”This could be an important step in initiating a dialogue involving the FDA, academics, and the national labs about the optimal process for evaluation of nanoparticle and drug delivery agents that will facilitate commercial success.”
The satellite symposium was organized by H. Kim Lyerly, M.D., director of the Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Centre, and Professor Andreas Melzer, director of the Institute for Medical Science and Technology (IMSaT) at the Universities of Dundee and St. Andrews in Scotland.
Program presentations included overviews of the technology and current preclinical and clinical results related to imaging-mediated drug delivery. At the program’s conclusion, a roundtable discussion explored the options and potential hurdles for the regulatory pathways. Featured presenters were:
- “Integration of Multi Modality Imaging with Guided Drug Therapy” – Prof. Andreas Melzer “Technology of Magnetic Resonance Guided Focused Ultrasound” – Yoav Medan, D.Sc., M.B.A., InSightec, Haifa, Israel
- “Focused Ultrasound Targeted Drug Delivery, Preclinical Evaluation and Preliminary Results” – Nathan McDannold, Ph.D., National Center for Image Guided Therapy (NCIGT), Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, M
- "Focused Ultrasound-mediated Targeted Drug Delivery: FUS Foundation's Collaborative Model toward Research Roadmap Development" – Joy Polefrone
- "Effect of Particle Size Distribution and Surface Characteristics on Biodistribution of Potential Drug Carriers" – Richard A. Frank, M.D., Ph.D., GE Healthcare, Princeton, NJ
- “Regulatory approach to combined technologies of imaging with drugs” – Roundtable Discussion moderated by Dr. Lyerly
