PRECAST – Prediction of Cancer Treatment Effectiveness with Stimuli-responsive Nanomaterials

Project aim: The project aims at developing novel brain-cancer targeting nanomaterials as contrast agents for application in efficient magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

 

About the project: In case of successful cancer-targeting these novel nanoparticles would enable strong contrast enhancement, selectively at the tumor location. Upon testing different structures of nanomaterials, the methodology could also reveal the most effective composition of a nanomedicine for potent GBM cancer targeting and personalized therapy. Different types of nanomaterials based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) are to be developed for GBM imaging and selective drug-delivery in response to weakly acidic extracellular environment of GBM cancer tissues.

 

Biosense institute is involved in synthesis and development of the nanomaterials while part of the instrumental characterizations is to be conducted at the partnering institution, Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade. The initial testing of MRI capabilities of the nanomaterials is to be performed at the project-supporting BioNanoTechnology laboratory at the Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands while experiments on mice are to be conducted at the other project-supporting institution, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.