Drug Development and Disease Diagnostics

This research area deals with the development and optimization of drugs, their optimal delivery and maintenance at their sites of action as well as with the molecular diagnostics of human diseases.

The study of physicochemical properties of drugs and interactions with their targets, the development of drug formulations, new materials and strategies for design and controlled delivery of drugs to enhance therapeutic activity, targeted radiotherapeutic agents and molecular imaging agents, are examples of areas under investigation.  Activities also include the study of drug transport mechanisms across biological barriers as well as the study of their absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination, which are important determinants of their biologic activity. The development of new nanomaterials, synthetic biology approaches for disease diagnostic applications, biological therapeutics including viral vector-mediated gene therapy, and the delivery of precision medicine are emerging topics of interest.

Investigators