2015 Nanotechnology Town Hall

Nanotechnology Town Hall Meeting On Cancer Therapeutics

Nanotechnology has been heralded as having the potential to lead to the next industrial revolution. But, what is nanotechnology? What are the possible applications, and how might it impact our world? Learn more about this exciting new arena from some of the leaders in the field at the public Nanotechnology Town Hall Meeting.

Amy Paller, MD

Chair, Department of Dermatology
Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine

“Getting under your skin” takes on new meaning thanks to research that could transform gene therapy. A team from the fields of dermatology and nanotechnology is the first to demonstrate the use of commercial moisturizers to deliver gene therapy with great potential for life-saving and life-altering therapies for skin disorders, including diabetes, skin cancer, and inflammatory skin disease. The drug — consisting of novel spherical arrangements of nucleic acids — penetrates the skin’s layers and can selectively target disease-causing genes while sparing normal genes.”

Alexander Stegh, PhD

Department of Neurology
Northwestern University
Feinberg School of Medicine

“Nanotechnology continues to revolutionize personalized cancer medicine and provide new opportunities to combat highly malignant cancers, including those of the brain. This presentation will discuss the challenges of brain cancer drug development, and will highlight how nanotechnology/nanomedicine can overcome these barriers. Professor Stegh will discuss his most recent findings of how spherical nucleic acids can be used to reduce tumor progression in experimental animal models by delivering gene therapeutic nucleic acids directly into brain tumors.”