role in drug development
The active ingredients in aspirin came from tree bark. Morphine and penicillin both have natural sources, and many chemotherapy drugs used to treat cancer were made through fermentation. These small molecule drugs originated through natural products such as plants, microbes and marine organisms.
The idea that new synthetic materials can be used for gene delivery was the basis of a lecture given Oct. 16 by Mark E. Davis, the Yale Engineering Sesquicentennial Distinguished Lecturer and Tetelman Fellow.
In his lecture titled "Synthetic Gene Delivery Systems," Davis, the Warren and Katharine Schlinger Professor of Chemical Engineering and executive officer of the Department of Chemical Engineering at California Institute of Technology, discussed the need to look at current drug delivery systems for small molecules and find ways to streamline where the drug goes in the body.
"We take small molecule drugs orally, and they can go anywhere including into and out of molecules," said Davis. "This is fine if you have a systematic illness, but not for genetic diseases."
Davis said that as our understanding of the genome expands, the creation of nucleic-acid-based therapeutics is advancing at a rapid pace. Gene therapy can be used to try to correct diseases that have genetic origins.
These gene therapies translate knowledge acquired on the genetic bases of diseases into treatments for humans. Unlike small molecule drugs that can passively move into and throughout cells, macromolecular therapeutics must actively be transported. Nucleic-acid-based drugs are penetrated into the cell and move into the nucleus.
"These demands take drug delivery to new heights by now requiring not only control of the level and location of the drug within the body, but also intracellular trafficking to a specified nucleus," said Davis.
Davis said engineering could play a major role in devising drug delivery systems. "If you get right down to it, this is a transport problem that engineers can help solve," he said. "This system is a step in the right direction and we could possibly deliver DNA in very large doses without side effects to healthy tissue. With all the advances in software and data, we're at the tip of the iceberg for using this information effectively."
The Tetelman Fellowship at Yale was endowed in 1979 by Damon Wells of the Class of 1958 in memory of his friend and classmate Alan S. Tetelman, who died in an air crash over the San Diego airport in 1978. Tetelman, a metallurgist, was professor and chair of the Department of Materials at the University of California at Los Angeles.
-- By Karen Peart
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