Among many approaches that have been taken to develop smart delivery systems for drugs and other therapeutic molecules, the most successful ones during the past years have been those which build on a natural process or mimic naturally occuring carriers, such as albumin. Front-line researchers in the booming field of nanobiotechnology describe the most promising approaches for bioinspired drug delivery, encompassing small molecule delivery, delivery of therapeutic proteins and gene delivery. The carriers surveyed include polymeric, proteinaceous and lipid systems on the nanoscale, with a focus on their adaptability for different cargoes and target tissues. For Medicinal Chemists, Pharmaceutical Chemists, Biotechnologists, Materials Scientists, Pharmaceutical Industry
From the contents: * Backbone Degradable and Coiled-Coil Based Macromolecular Therapeutics * Dendritic polymers as targeting nanoscale drug delivery systems for cancer therapy * Composite Colloidal Nanosystems For Targeted Delivery and Sensing * Polymeric micelles for cancer-targeted drug delivery * Biomimetic Polymers for in vivo Drug Delivery * Drug Delivery from Protein-Based Nanoparticles * Polymeric gene carriers * pH-Sensitive Polymeric Nanoparticles as Carriers for Cancer Therapy and Imaging * Charge-Reversal Polymers for Biodelivery * Phenylboronic Acid-containing Glucoseresponsive Polymer Materials: Synthesis and Applications in Drug Delivery * Extracellular pH-Activated Nanocarriers for Enhanced Drug Delivery to Tumors * Stimulation-Sensitive Drug Delivery Systems
About the Author
Professor Zhongwei Gu received his B. Sci. and M. Sci in Polymer Science from Peking University, prior to serving as a senior visiting scholar in the Research Triangle Institute, RTP and the University of Utah, respectively from 1984 to 1986 and 1991 to 1993. He was appointed as a professor in 1994, and presently serves as the chief scientist of the National Basic Research Program of China (the 973 program), director of the National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials at Sichuan University, vice-chairman of the Chinese Society for Biomaterials (CSBM), executive member of the council of the Chinese Materials Research Society (C-MRS) and Chinese Society for Biomedical Engineering (CSBME) and is a Fellow of international Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE). His current research activities focus on the molecular design and controlled preparation of novel biomedical polymers, self-assembled biomaterials and nano-biomaterials, vectors for gene therapy, polymeric carriers and controlled drug delivery systems, biomaterials for molecular diagnosis, and biodegradable scaffolds for tissue engineering. Professor Zhongwei Gu has thrice being Chief Scientist of National Basic Research Program of China (National 973 Program) (1999-2004, 2005-2010, 2010-2015) and has being the PI of about 30 funding and research projects. Until now he has published more than 270 papers in Adv. Mater., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., ACS Nano, Adv. Funct. Mater., Biomaterials, J. Control. Rel. and so on. He also has ~25 patents, composes/translates ~12 books and chapters, and is the invited speaker in many international and domestic conferences.
