Ceramic Nanoparticles for Advanced Biomedical Applications: From Bone to Brain

Abstract: Structural complexities of ceramics in solid or colloidal forms are the key to explaining their displays of broad ranges of interesting properties. However, these complexities are yet to be harnessed to the fullest extent and translated to the medical domain. The first part of this lecture will focus on our studies on calcium phosphate nanoparticles and the discovery of a number of new properties exhibited by them through a precise control of their physical and chemical properties. These properties include tunable drug delivery kinetics, memory effect with biological repercussions, oscillatory behavior, cellular uptake selectivity, intrinsic antibacterial activity, and others. This will be placed in the context of an ongoing effort to expand the application repertoire of calcium phosphate nanoparticles beyond their traditional use as components that impart osteoconductivity and high compressive strength to tissue engineering constructs. The second part of the lecture will center around our work on an aqueous, surfactant-free ferrofluid composed of composite magnetic nanoparticles modeled after the stratified structure of the Earth and on its use for transport across the blood-brain barrier and brain tumor targeting.

Biography: Vuk Uskoković is Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC). He is the director of Advanced Materials and Nanobiotechnology Laboratory whose goal is the development of nanotechnological innovations in the field of biomedicine. Bridging the gap between materials science and life science, the lab specializes in synthesis, characterization and biological testing of materials for the next generation of medical devices. The most influential work to have emerged from it pertains to the use of calcium phosphate nanoparticles for advanced drug and gene delivery applications. Other materials, including magnetic nanocomposites and carbon-based materials, are also engineered and their interface with the biological systems probed, all with the goal of creating clinically effective therapeutics and diagnostics. Socially responsible materials together with in vitro biological assays that substitute for animal testing present an important aspect of research done in the Uskoković Lab. This social responsibility also comes into play through seeing the lab as an incubator capable of creating high-skilled jobs for knowledge-based economy.