Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2010

Mentor: Jinming Gao
Department: Pharmacology
Room number: ND2.214
Mail Code: 8807
Phone number: x5-6370
E-mail: jinming.gao@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: pH-activatible nanoprobes for tumor cell imaging

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): n/a

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): n/a

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects)

Brief Description of Project:

Evaluation of pH-responsive micelle nanoparticles for fluorescent imaging of cancer cells. The nanoprobes demonstrated ultra pH sensitivity within half a pH unit (6.5-7.0). Conjugation of biological molecules (e.g. cancer targeting peptides or antibodies) will be performed to evaluate the tumor targeting specificity. These nanoprobes provide an "off" state at normal physiological conditions (e.g. pH 7.4) but can be turned "on" in acidic tumor pH (6.0-6.8) or endosomes/lysosomes (5.0-6.0) to improve the imaging specificity for tumor detection.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

Brent Weinberg, MD/PhD student who graduated with a PhD in biomedical engineering in 2005.
Jason Liu, MD student, summer internship in 2009