Nanoparticles for Biomedical Imaging and Image-Guided Surgery

Date: 10/05/2012
Time: 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Location: 340 Curry Student Center
Speaker: Hak Soo Choi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine, Center for Molecular Imaging, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Nanoparticles hold promise as biomedical imaging, diagnostic, and theragnostic agents. However, the key to their success hinges on a detailed understanding of their behavior after administration to the body. Biodistribution, target binding, and clearance are a complex function of their physicochemical properties in serum, which include hydrodynamic diameter, solubility, stability, shape and flexibility, surface charge, composition, and formulation. Moreover, many materials used to construct nanoparticles have real or potential toxicity, or may interfere with other medical tests. In this talk, we discuss the design considerations that mediate nanoparticle behavior in the body and the fundamental principles that govern clinical translation. By analyzing nanomaterials that have already received regulatory approval, most of which are actually therapeutic agents, we attempt to predict which types of nanoparticles hold potential as diagnostic agents for biomedical imaging and imageguided surgery.