Immunomodulation studies made using nanoparticles and small molecules delivered in vitro and in vivo: examples using lipid nanoparticles as well as chitosan micelles in cancer models

The widespread use of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for vaccines during the pandemic has advanced them to become arguably the leading nanomedicine technology. LNPs offer a way to deliver a concentrated payload. If delivered systemically, the LNPs also protect the nucleic acids from nucleases. The rules around their preparation and mechanisms for delivery to cells and endosomal release are still in development. The seminar will describe LNP integration into a high throughput experiment to screen in vitro for immunogenic cell death interactions between microphages and target cancer cells. The development of bright, Raman-active, liposomal NP labels for flow cytometry and chitosan-based radioactive labeling experiments for in vivo non-invasive hepatocyte function assessment will also be presented.


Gilbert Walker (University of Toronto)