(334c) Nanotherapeutic Development for Newborn Brain Disease

In the Nance lab at the University of Washington, we seek to develop and evaluate therapeutic delivery systems for newborns and children, who have unique physiologies compared to adults. We focus specifically on engineering therapeutics that mitigate or attenuate ongoing injury in the brain, with the goal to improve neurological function and quality of life across the lifespan. As part of this work, we have developed living brain tissue models that are tunable to different stimuli and that capture the regional complexity and variability in response to injury and treatment. In this talk, I will discuss our use of whole hemisphere brain slices to screen therapeutics, including nanotherapeutics. I will show key physico-chemical design considerations that increase nanoparticle uptake and transport within the brain for a range of nanoparticle systems. We will show our advances in vivo in developing effective neurotherapeutics that result in regional and cell specific action in the injured newborn brain for improved neuroprotection.