IIN Frontiers in Nanotechnology Seminar Series – Omid Farokhzad

Dr. Omid Farokhzad

Associate Professor
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Harvard University
Hosted by the Ryan Fellows

Abstract

The two most commonly used nanoparticles for therapeutic applications are polymeric nanoparticles and liposomes; the latter representing the majority of the clinically validated products. Optimization of the physicochemical properties of polymeric nanoparticles may confer a desired biological identity with optimal in vivo characteristics, which in turn can accelerate their successful clinical translation. The 1st targeted polymeric nanoparticle for cancer chemotherapy (BIND-014) entered human testing in 2011 and was evaluated in Phase 2 clinical trials. Considering the broad undifferentiated anti-tumor activity across nearly all of the clinically tested nanotherapeutics to date, recent attention has focused on a deeper understanding of the tumor microenvironment including inter- and intra-tumoral heterogeneity, in order to develop the next generation of nanotherapeutics. Emphasis has been placed on better understanding of the nano-bio interface as well as approaches for selection of patients for nanoparticle therapeutics. Furthermore, taking advantage of biophysicochemical variations between normal- and tumor-tissue, a growing arsenal of stimuli-responsive polymeric nanoparticles are under investigation. The goal of this talk is to review our efforts in the design and optimization of polymeric nanoparticles, which formed the foundation for the clinical translation of two first-in-kind targeted nanotherapeutics, and to discuss the lessons learned in this process.

Biography

Omid Farokhzad is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a physician-scientist in the Department of Anesthesiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). Dr. Farokhzad established and directs the Center for Nanomedicine at BWH. He is a faculty member of the Brigham Research Institute Cancer Research Center. His research focuses on developing therapeutic nanoparticle technologies. Dr. Farokhzad has authored approximately 135 papers and holds more than 146 issued/pending US and International patents. He received his M.D. and M.A. from Boston University School of Medicine and his M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.