1st Supervisor: Dr Rafael T. M. de Rosales, King’s College London
2nd Supervisor: Dr Antonios Pouliopoulos, King’s College London
Clinical Supervisor: Prof Sally Barrington, TBC
Aims of the Project:
- We will develop novel radiolabelled nanoparticles with alpha- and gamma/positron emmiters.
- In combination with focused ultrasound (FUS) we aim to achieve highly effective detection and treatment of brain and other solid tumours.
Lay Summary:
Therapy of cancer by targeted delivery of radioactive elements is gaining attention, with remarkable results in the treatment of prostate cancer with Lu-177 or Ac-225, for example. However current treatments based on this approach have a limited capacity to deliver sufficient amounts of radioactivity into the tumour. In this project we will develop drug delivery systems designed to encapsulate and deliver large amounts of therapeutic radioactivity into tumours, avoiding delivery into healthy tissues and consequently its undesirable side-effects. This will be achieved using nanoparticles in combination with focused ultrasound approaches that allow selective extravasation of particles in the treated area. We hope that by doing so, we will achieve very effective treatments of difficult to treat cancers such as glioblastoma (GBM) and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG).