Innovate new technologies to address key barriers to improving brain cancer outcomes and to make an impact on patients

We aim to create a focused scientific ecosystem between technology/brain and technology/cancer. In doing so, the developed technologies may logically be applied to other important brain diseases and cancer types.

Research Strategy

We will focus on innovative research approaches to address the existing therapeutic challenges for gliomas. These barriers include:

We anticipate the development of a wide array of cutting edge technologies that include: (1) biomimetic nanoparticle (NP) delivery platforms to enable local and systemic drug delivery and imaging modalities, (2) polymer implants capable of sustained release of antibodies that block glioma cells’ growth and invasion, normalize vascularization, and send signals to cancer-killing immune cells, (3) HDL nanodiscs delivering personalized cancer vaccines, and (4) gene therapy delivery technologies using vectors engineered to encode genes that will kill cancer cells and stimulate immune response and immunological memory to prevent recurrence.

Moreover, we have investigators who are analyzing tumors to create patient-specific tumor antigens for personalized vaccine delivery, creating engineering techniques to analyze circulating tumor cells (CTCs) for liquid biopsy, and non-invasive histotripsy surgery to destroy glioma cells, and discovering new antibodies that can cross the brain barrier and small molecules for both systemic and local delivery.

Examples of Technologies

Novel devices for cancer detection

Investigator: S. Nagarath

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Nanoparticle systems to cross blood barriers

Investigators: M. Castro and J. Lahann

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Local controlled release of immune checkpoint mAbs and other drugs

Investigator: S. Schwendeman

 

GBM tumor mutation profiling and antigen identification

Investigator: A. Chinnaiyan

 

Publications

BIBC researchers contribute to the the research and education mission of U-M through their scholarly works.

2023
International Journal of Pharmaceutics
In vitro performance of composition-equivalent PLGA microspheres encapsulating exenatide acetate by solvent evaporation. International Journal of Pharmaceutics
Schwendeman S.P.