Despite recent treatment advancements, cancer remains a life-threatening illness due to multi drug resistance (MDR) populations of cells within the tumour mass that are insensitive to chemotherapy and seriously limit disease management. MDR is one of the most important barriers for the success of cancer chemotherapy and there is growing interest in developing novel drug delivery systems using nanotechnology to overcome MDR. The development of engineered nanocarriers in the treatment of metastatic cancers is still an emerging area of research that has huge potential for improving patient prognosis. Multi-functional nanoparticles (NPs), joining targeting, diagnostic and therapeutic abilities, offer an optimal platform to achieve targeting with reduction in toxicity, better penetration in the tumour microenvironment and improvement in bioavailability of chemotherapeutics1,2. Malignant melanoma is notorious for its poor response to chemotherapy, which has been attributed to a subset of MDR tumour-initiating cells2. This coupled with its high propensity to metastasise makes melanoma an excellent model for the development of nanocarriers to target MDR in cancer. Nanocarriers provide a platform for multi-modal therapy as vectors for the delivery of a variety of anti-tumour drugs to tumours.

In this project we will develop a novel targeted nanoparticle-based treatment for metastatic melanoma in collaboration with skin surgeons and oncologists of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. We will engineer targeted multifunctional nanocarriers based on polymer coated SPIONs (superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles) that will provide controlled and simultaneous magnetically triggered release of multiple drugs. The engineered NPs will be designed to destroy melanoma cells by both chemo and thermo effects, allowing for high drug dose administration and massively reduced off-target effects by direct targeting tumour cells. This highly interdisciplinary project combines chemistry, biology and oncology giving a very unique opportunity for excellent students to work in a stimulating multidisciplinary environment and be trained in different disciplines. The project is suitable for biologists and biochemists who want to venture in nanotechnology or viceversa to chemists who want to venture deep into biology and oncology.

(i) Petros, R. A.; DeSimone, J. M. Nat Rev Drug Discov 2010, 9, 615.

(ii) Mahon, E. et al., Journal  of Controlled  Release 2012, 161, 164-174.

(iii) S. D. Girouard, G. F. Murphy, Lab Invest 2011, 91, 647.