Putting Bio-Nanotechnology to Work: Professor Gang Bao Forging New Paths in Disease Detection and Drug Delivery
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University and Medical College of Georgia (MCG) a grant to partner on a Nanomedicine Development Center that will focus on DNA damage repair. With up to $10 million in funding, the center will be Georgia Tech’s and Emory’s third NIH-funded nanomedicine/nanotechnology center in less than two years. Leading the way in the nanomedicine research at Georgia Tech is Dr. Gang Bao, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Director of the new Nanomedicine Center for Nucleoprotein Machines, and newly named Institute Professor at Georgia Tech.
Nanomedicine Center for Nucleoprotein Machines
The new center will initially focus on understanding how the body repairs damage to DNA. As cells replicate, mistakes are created in the DNA that, if not repaired, cause defects that lead to illness and disease. Learning how protein complexes repair DNA damage could be the key to understanding structure-function relationships in the cell nucleus’ protein machines which synthesize, modify and repair DNA and RNA. This could someday be used to reverse genetic defects, cure disease or delay aging.
National Heart Lung Blood Institute (NHLBI) Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology (PEN)
In addition, a multi-disciplinary program, part of NHLBI’s Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology, is headed by Dr. Bao and includes 12 faculty investigators from both Georgia Tech and Emory and will be based at Emory. It is one of four national PEN awards. The initiative is in accord with the NIH Roadmap’s strategy to accelerate progress in medical research through innovative technology and interdisciplinary research.
The program’s work will focus primarily on detecting plaque and pinpointing its genetic causes with three types of nanostructured probes – molecular beacons, semiconductor quantum dots and magnetic nanoparticles.
NCI Molecular Beacon
Dr. Bao has also received a substantial federal grant to develop and commercialize a nano-scale sensor called a “molecular beacon” for detection and diagnosis of diseases including cancer.
The funding—a Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) Phase 2 grant from the National Cancer Institute—provides $1.65 million over two years to Vivonetics, a startup company founded by Gang Bao and others. “The funding will be used for two purposes— to further develop our key technology and to commercialize that technology,” said Bao. “We hope to be able to launch a product by May 2007.” Vivonetics also received two Georgia Research Alliance grants totaling $118,000 through VentureLab, a Georgia Tech unit that supports commercialization of research discoveries.