Distinguished iNANO Lecture: Macro-Nano-Medicine: Monitoring and modulating drug targeting to tumors and metastases

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dr. Twan Lammers
Head of Department Nanomedicine and Theranostics
ExMI - Experimental Molecular Imaging, University Hospital Aachen
Helmholz Institute for Biomedical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University
Aachen, Germany

Macro-Nano-Medicine: Monitoring and modulating drug targeting to tumors and metastases

Nanomedicines are 1-100(0) nm-sized carrier materials designed to improve the biodistribution and the target site accumulation of systemically administered (chemo-) therapeutic drugs. By delivering drug molecules more efficiently to pathological sites, and by preventing them from accumulating in healthy tissues, nanomedicines are able to improve the balance between efficacy and toxicity.

Nanomedicines rely on the Enhanced Permeability and Retention (EPR) effect for efficient target site accumulation, which is notoriously known to be highly variable, both in animal models and in patients. To overcome this high heterogeneity in nanomedicine-based tumor targeting, to promote drug delivery across multiple biological barriers, and to improve the (pre-) clinical performance of tumor-targeted nanomedicines, we are working on systems and strategies to modulate, combine, avoid and image EPR.

In the present lecture, several strategies which are currently being evaluated in the clinic will be highlighted, including pharmacological and physical modulation of tumor blood vessels and the microenvironment, and theranostic concepts for patient pre-selection and personalized nanomedicine treatment.

References
[1] Lammers et al, Theranostic nanomedicine, Acc Chem Res 2011
[2] Lammers et al, Personalized nanomedicine, Clin Cancer Res 2012
[3] Lammers et al, Drug targeting to tumors, J Control Release 2012
[4] Kunjachan et al, Non-invasive imaging in nanomedicine, Chem Rev 2015
[5] Lammers et al, Cancer nanomedicine, Nat Rev Mater 2016

Biosketch
Twan Lammers obtained a DSc degree in Radiation Oncology from Heidelberg University in 2008 and a PhD degree in Pharmaceutics from Utrecht University in 2009. In the same year, he started the Nanomedicine and Theranostics group at the Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging at RWTH Aachen University Clinic. In 2014, he was promoted to full professor at the faculty of medicine at RWTH Aachen.

He has published over 150 research articles and reviews (>7000 citations, h-index 44), and has received several scholarships and awards, including a starting and proof-of-concept grant from the European Research Council, and the young investigator award of the Controlled Release Society.

He is associate editor for Europe for the Journal of Controlled Release, and serves on the editorial board member of multiple other journals. His primary research interests include drug targeting to tumors, image-guided drug delivery and tumor-targeted combination therapies.

Host: Associate Professor Ken Howard, iNANO