About 180 people, including some of the world’s finest nanoscientists, were
in Omaha this week for the 4th International Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery
Symposium hosted by UNMC.
Scientists, students and others from around the world discussed research in
nanomedicine at the conference, which ran Sunday to Tuesday.
Nanomedicine is a combination of engineering, pharmaceutical and medical
sciences in ways some believe could revolutionize treatment of cancer,
HIV, neurodegenerative disorders and other diseases.
One aspect of nanomedicine — and the focus of the conference — is the use
of particles much smaller than cells to deliver drugs directly to affected
sites in the body.
One of the conference’s two keynote speakers, Henry Friedman, M.D.,
professor of pediatrics and co-director of the neuro-oncology program at
Duke University, said nanotechnology could lead to drastic improvements in
treating brain tumors.
Friedman, who had to speak by teleconference Monday because travel problems
kept him out of Omaha, said nanotechnology is leading to advances in
brain-tumor treatment that could produce better survival rates for those
with the disease.
UNMC’s Howard Gendelman, M.D., chairman of the department of pharmacology
and experimental neuroscience, said researchers have seen positive results
using nanoscience to improve disease outcomes in rodent models of human
disease such as cancer and HIV. Some clinical trials have been done and
are quite encouraging.
In tests on mice, nanoscience has helped improve anti-retroviral drug
delivery, Dr. Gendelman said during his lecture Monday afternoon.
Such developments make nanomedicine research exciting, Dr. Gendelman said,
and they are buoyed by leadership from UNMC’s Alexander “Sasha” Kabanov,
Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutical sciences and chairman of the symposium.
“A leader in the world of nanomedicine, Dr. Kabanov’s enthusiasm is
contagious. UNMC hosting the international symposium is proof of Dr.
Kabanov’s stature in the world of nanomedicine. He is bringing many others
along with him and one of those people is me,” Dr. Gendelman said.
UNMC hosting the conference for the second time — it’s first conference was
in 2003 — is indicative of the institution’s prominence in nanoscience, Dr.
Kabanov said.
“UNMC is a world-class center for nanoscience,” Dr. Kabanov said. “That’s
what this conference shows.”