The da Rocha Group welcomes visiting faculty to work on nanotherapeutics
The Wayne State University College of Engineering's da Rocha Group, led by Sandro da Rocha, associate professor of chemical engineering and materials science, welcomed visiting professors Wagner Luiz Priamo and K.S.V. Krishna Rao at the beginning of the year. "It is a great pleasure to add these two scientists to our group. The area of nanomedicine is by nature multidisciplinary, and they will add valuable expertise to further our work in the design, preparation and test of novel nanocarrier systems," says da Rocha.
Priamo is a professor in the Department of Food Engineering at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology in Brazil. Rao is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at Yogi Vemana University in India. Both scholars received prestigious grants from their respective countries to spend one year conducting research at Wayne State's College of Engineering. Rao received the Raman Fellowship for Postdoctoral Research for Indian Scholars in the United States of America, awarded by the University Grants Commission in New Delhi. Priamo is funded through the Brazilian government's Science Without Borders program. "I chose to research at Wayne State because it is a major research institution and, for my project, it has some of the best resources in the world," explains Priamo.
The group's primary research focus is on systems of noninvasive delivery of nanotherapeutics. Their work will eventually help treat medically important problems such as lung cancer and microbial biofilms found in MRSA and cystic fibrosis patients. It is through nanotechnology that the possibility of delivering drugs to specific cells using nanocarriers has become a reality. The benefit of this type of advancement is that the overall drug consumption and side effects may be lowered significantly in a patient by depositing the active agent into the target region in no higher dose than needed, at controlled rates and to specific organelles within the cell. This type of targeted delivery has the added benefit of reducing overall treatment impact on the patient.
Priamo's primary research focus is on investigating the transport properties of dendrimers in treatment of bacterial biofilms. Rao's research project is titled "Synthesis, Characterization and Application of Polymers and their Conjugates for Drug Delivery Applications," which is essential in the preparation of polymer drugs for lung cancer treatment. "I have been working for the last 10 years on developing different types of polymer-based hydrogels, membranes and noncomposites for a wide range of applications including drug delivery. However, I have limited exposure in biomedical studies. Professor da Rocha is a leading scientist in noninvasive delivery of nanotherapeutics for cancer treatment, and I look forward to getting the benefit of his experience," says Rao.
"It is a great experience for our students to have these scientists serve as mentors during their stay. It is this type of interaction that provides the type of global education essential in today's environment," explains da Rocha.
Both researchers will return to their home countries after their research year is finished, but the possibility for future collaboration and partnership with Wayne State will be significantly advanced by their time here in Detroit.
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Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 380 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.