Biomedical Colloids for Imaging Contrast Agents and Drug Delivery Systems 

Yoonjee Park

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University

27 December, 2012(Thu), 11AM  /  #1101, W1-3 Bldg.

In this talk I would like to briefly review the key achievements of my research and my current interests. My experience at Purdue University and at Boston University has been mainly focused on developing various “biomedical colloids”, in other words, nano to micron-sized particles for biomedical applications, such as therapeutics and diagnostics. The colloid systems that I have developed include (i) lung surfactant vesicles which can be used for treating acute respiratory distress syndrome, (ii) tunable microbubbles for circulation and ultrasound triggering, and (iii) iron oxide nanoparticles as MRI/NMR contrast agents. For these colloidal systems, interaction between the particles and stability against aggregation, and how the stability can be enhanced will be discussed. Interfacial behavior of lipids at the air/water interface or interaction with proteins for the lung surfactant, and polymerizable lipids as the surface coating materials of the microbubbles will be also introduced. My current research activities are development of tunable oil-layered microbubbles, novel coating of the iron oxide nanoparticles for providing stability in harsh oil reservoir conditions, Janus nanoparticles/DNA/microbubble complex for gene delivery and imaging, and liposomal drug delivery systems for studying toxicity, efficacy, and the mechanism how it works with/on cancer cells.