Dr. Andre Nel’s laboratory in the Department of Nanomedicine focuses on nanomedicine, allergy and immunology. Recent investigations from the Nel lab have focused on the development of nanoparticle treatment platforms that can be used for drug delivery, siRNA delivery, and imaging.
Dr. Nel and colleagues have previously developed safer-by-design strategies to enhance the biocompatibility of fumed silica nanoparticles to be used in applications such as drug delivery or siRNA delivery (small molecules that knock down genes of interest). These silica nanoparticles can be used to encapsulate a high-dose drug or siRNA to allow for protected delivery to a site of interest while reducing systemic drug release. While these nanoparticles have been demonstrated to deliver chemotherapy drugs or siRNA to cancer sites, they could also be used to deliver treatments to sites of infection by viruses. The Nel lab is in the early stages of exploring the use of these proprietary nanoparticles as a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.
Link to Faculty website: https://ph.ucla.edu/faculty/nel
Case 2014-783: https://ucla.technologypublisher.com/techcase/MPOct2019Upload342