Targeted Nanosystems for Therapeutic Applications

Marc A. Ilies is Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Temple University School of Pharmacy in Philadelphia, PA. His research interests lie in the broadly defined area of bio-organic & medicinal chemistry/chemical biology at membrane interfaces, where he combines heterocyclic chemistry and drug design, materials sciences and pharmaceutical sciences to generate novel therapeutic entities with a high therapeutic index. Ilies is particularly interested in pyridinium derivatives, their synthesis, physicochemical and biological properties, with a focus on their use in drug and gene delivery systems and towards the generation of novel biomarkers and theranostic systems. Towards supra-molecular chemistry, materials sciences, and nanotechnology his group is active towards synthesis, self-assembling, physicochemical and biological properties of assemblies of amphiphilic molecules of different molecular weights and packing parameters (surfactants, gemini surfactants, lipophilic oligomeric surfactants, lipids, dendrons, polymers) and in their interfacial engineering for controlling the above-mentioned properties, drug and gene loading and delivery, enzymatic degradation and toxicity. Other interests include tumor biochemistry and impact of hypoxia in tumor development and invasiveness. Ilies authored more than 65 publications, which have been cited over 2500 times, with an H index of 27. He teaches graduate-level courses in Biochemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, and Advanced Drug and Gene Delivery Systems, and he is a member of the editorial board of four peer-reviewed journals on these topics. Ilies chaired several sessions dedicated to different aspects related with the use of self-assembled systems in drug and nucleic acid delivery systems within the ACS Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry. Besides ACS, he is an active member of AAPS, AACP, ASGCT and Rho Chi Honor Society. Kazuo Sakurai is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan. Dr. Sakurai has spent 16 years at the central research center of Kanebo Ltd., and was involved in the fundamental research and business development of conductive polymers for batteries, optical polyester resins, and drug delivering systems. He spent three years (1990-1993) in the United States working with Prof. MacKnight in University of Massachusetts Amherst on characterization of polymer blends via X-ray and neutron scattering. This work constituted the base of PhD thesis, received from Osaka University in 1996. After returning to Japan, Dr. Sakurai was the leader of a research group focused on development of optical-lens polyesters and their product has been used in most of the cell-phones. He worked in the group of Professor Shinkai in JST Project at Kurume from 1999-2001 and has been a Professor since 2001. Professor Sakurai obtained several research funds from CREST/JST (twice), NeXTEP/JST, and National Institute of Biomedical Innovation (NIBIO), which are well-known as the most competitive funding agencies in Japan. He received numerous awards, including Japanese Society of Polymer Science: Technology Award (1994), Best Inventor Award in Japan (1998), Mitsubishi-chemical Polymer Society Award (2008), Daiwa Adrian Prize for Scientific Collaboration from UK Royal Chemical Society (2015), Japanese Society of Polymer Science: Science Award (2018), and Drug Delivery Nagai Award (2018). His major research interests are polysaccharides, polysaccharide/polynucleotide complexes, gene delivery, and small-angle X-ray scattering from soft materials, especially from bio-related materials.