title: Rethinking translational nanomedicine: insights from the 'bottom-up' design of the Porphysome for guiding the clinical development of imageable nanomaterials.
abstract: Progress in therapeutics and biotechnologies leveraging new insights in our understanding of cancer biology and progression have had an underwhelming clinical significance thus far. A key challenge arising from the creation of nanomedicines consolidating multiple desirable functionalities into a 'all-in-one' platform is that the layering of functionalities into a single agent introduces novel complexities that significantly impede clinical translation. An alternative design approach seeks to exploit intrinsically multi-functional building block to assemble nanomedicines from the bottom-up, yielding agents with a multiplicity of radiologic, pharmacologic, and therapeutic properties derived from a single constituent. Herein are highlighted recent developments in the formulation, multi-modal imaging, and targeting of an exemplary 'one-for-all' nanomaterial-the Pyropheophorbide Porphysome-treated from a hitherto unexplored clinical design and development perspective.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Rosebrugh Building, 164 College Street, Room 407, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G9, Canada; Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and TECHNA Institute, University Health Network, Princess Margaret Cancer Research Tower, 101 College Street, Room 5-354, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Valic
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Rosebrugh Building, 164 College Street, Room 407, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G9, Canada; Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and TECHNA Institute, University Health Network, Princess Margaret Cancer Research Tower, 101 College Street, Room 5-354, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada. Electronic address: gang.zheng@uhnres.utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zheng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D050997:Nanomedicine; D049329:Nanostructures; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials