Advances in genomics have resulted in the development of new protein-based drugs. This trend will increase in the next decade. Delivery technologies for these drugs must be designed to surmount biochemical and anatomical barriers to safely permit their passage to an intended site.

Targeted delivery of protein-based drugs is limited by a series of barriers, among which, three are of critical importance:

 1) Rational transport of protein-based drugs across cellular membrane

 2) Control of the inter- and intra-cellular routes taken by these drugs

 3)Understanding of the structural characteristics of the protein-based drugs and of their targets to increase both efficiency and specificity.

Advances to overcome these barriers will lead to develop new, safer and more effective drugs by reducing undesirable side effects.

To that end, the Nano4Drugs consortium integrates top-level teams across Europe to develop an innovative challenging frontier bio-technology device ideally suited for targeted delivery of protein-based drugs.

THE PROJECT

AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH

To overcome some of the barriers that impede protein-based drugs delivery, the Nano4Drugs Consortium is committed to develop, an innovative bio compatible traceable device consisting of long-termfluorescent diamond nanoparticles engineered to be coupled with protein fragment of biological interest.
As a proof of concept, these particles will be conjugated with a series of peptides, considered herein as protein-based drugs,  known for their activity against microtubules which are main critical intra-cellular components involved in major biological processes such as cell proliferation or neuronal axonal transport.
These biological investigations using this delivery device will progress in close relation with researches using a genome-based system of choices designed to develop protein-based drugs, in order to improve the quality and specificity of anti-microtubule peptides.