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Collaboration Leverages UVA and Hopkins Expertise
Investigating FUS to deliver nanoparticles into the brain
Biomedical engineers at the University of Virginia (UVA) and John Hopkins University (JHU) have developed a prolific collaboration that has generated several long-term, multi-million-dollar focused ultrasound research grants.
Richard Price, PhD, Research Director of the UVA Focused Ultrasound Center, and Justin Hanes, PhD, Director of the Center for Nanomedicine at the Wilmer Eye Institute and JHU School of Medicine, are developing nanoparticles and delivering them deep into the brain with the assistance of focused ultrasound. Their work has earned them nearly $7 million of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding from 2011 to 2020 to propel their discoveries to the clinic.
In their UVA biomedical engineering laboratory, Price and his team are using focused ultrasound to allow the targeted and controlled delivery of nanoparticles deep into the brain. Justin Hanes and his team at JHU are creating the nanoparticles that Price is delivering. These nanoparticles are essentially encapsulated—or coated—molecules, such as chemotherapy drugs or protein-coding nucleic acids.
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Richard Price
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| "With focused ultrasound technology, virtually anything in the central nervous system that was unreachable before is now possible to access for targeted drug and gene delivery." – Richard Price |
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"This is the perfect melding of two technologies,” said Dr. Hanes. “We are working to deliver powerful, therapeutics non-invasively to targeted diseased areas of the brain. Our goal is to achieve important biological effects while minimizing side effects.”
“We are proud to have supported some of the early validating work,” said the Foundation’s Chief Scientific Officer, Jessica Foley, PhD. “Their collaboration is a perfect model for the synergistic potential of focused ultrasound across disciplines and institutions. With these new grants, they will have the resources to quickly translate their research into benefits for patients.”
READ ABOUT THEIR FUNDING MODEL AND INVESTIGATOR PROFILES >
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