The University of North Carolina’s (UNC) Carolina Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence has been granted $13.6 million by the National Cancer Institute for research to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer through advances in nanotechnology.
The Chapel Hill center is one of eight original centers in the institute’s Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, started in 2005. Nine centers, including UNC’s, are being funded in the second phase of the alliance.
“Our efforts in nanomedicine show tremendous promise for improving the ways we detect and treat lung, brain and breast cancer,” said Joseph DeSimone in a university release. “We have refined our ability to make nanoparticles with unprecedented control and precision, and continued work in this area will reveal better approaches to targeting cancer cells with potent therapies while leaving healthy cells intact.”
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DeSimone and Dr. Joel Tepper will lead 52 faculty, postdoctoral trainee, student and staff researchers on the grant. DeSimone is Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. Tepper is the Hector MacLean Distinguished Professor of Cancer Research and former chair of radiation oncology.
“Collaboration is fundamental to our success. Our multidisciplinary team of chemists, physicists, biologists, engineers and clinicians drive our innovations in science,” DeSimone said. “Our partners in industry are crucial to ensuring that discoveries in the lab translate efficiently and effectively to bedside for improved patient outcomes.”
In addition to nanoparticles, carbon nanotube-based X-ray technology developed by UNC’s Otto Zhou is a significant part of the proposed research effort. Zhou is David Godschalk Distinguished Professor of Physics and Materials Science in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences, and a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“Otto Zhou and colleagues have made exceptional strides in carbon nanotube-based X-ray technology, which shows vast potential for detecting breast cancer earlier than we ever have before and will be evaluated in clinical trials right here at Carolina.,” DeSimone said. “We will also continue to investigate the potential for technology developed in the Zhou lab to revolutionize treatment for brain cancer patients.”