Award
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering 1R15EB036962-01
Engineering Natural Killer Cell Derived Extracellular Vesicular Nanodrug for Tumor Targeted Bioimaging and Therapy
Recipient
University of Texas Tyler
Award Amount
$441,000.00
Ceiling
$441,000.00
Awarded
April 09, 2025
Identifier
1R15EB036962-01
The award funds a project to engineer extracellular vesicles derived from natural killer cells as nanodrugs for targeted tumor bioimaging and therapy, aiming to improve precision cancer treatment and monitoring.
Description
This proposal aims to engineer extracellular vesicles (EVs) with an active anticancer drug and exogenous tags for downstream in-vivo analysis of tumor therapy. Cells continuously release EVs which play a crucial role in intracellular communication with their target cells, for example, EVs released from tumors survey a metastatic site and create a particular microenvironment or niche to develop metastatic cancer, and EVs released from immune cells seek diseased cells. Therefore, delivering drugs with engineered EVs originating from natural killer cells that naturally seek cancer would help in precision cancer therapy and monitoring therapeutic response.