Prediction of nanomedicine PK/PD is a major goal in the design, optimization, and selection of drug products. There are currently various approaches by which the mechanisms and extension of nanomedicines can be evaluated at different preclinical stages of the drug development pipeline. These include in silico, in vitro, in situ, ex vivo and in vivo methodologies.
Cell culture models offer the advantage of a highly defined tool in which different parameters and conditions can be assessed. In general, nanomedicines are less effective toward 3D models comparatively to cell culture monolayers, emphasizing the importance of the association of immune cells, extracellular matrix, and stromal components, to have a better predictive drug response. Still, replicate the 3D cell environment in order to have models that better reproduce the in vivo situation, including vascularization, is not straightforward.
In this talk, our recent advances on the establishment of multicompartmental models for nanomedicine screening will be detailed. Particular focus will be given to multicellular tumor spheroids of colorectal, breast and glioblastoma cancers, and their interconnection with surrounding tissues.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Dr. Bruno Sarmento is Principal Investigator, Group Leader and member of the Board of Directors at i3S – University of Porto. Bruno Sarmento is also invited Associated Professor at IUCS-CESPU. His research is focused on developing functionalized nanomedicines, namely nanoformulations for mucosal and target delivery. He has also specialized in mucosal tissue engineering models to validate functionalized nanomedicines and to perform in vitro/in vivo correlation. He published 480 papers in international journals (total citations in Scopus 21000; H-index 74).
He has extensive experience in mentoring PhD and Post-doc researchers, and attracted direct competitive funding worth more than 24 M€, at national and international levels. Bruno Sarmento has a strong involvement in EU projects, being WP coordinator in HORIZON-RIA 101057491-GENEGUT, 814558-2 RESTORE and ERA-Chair 951723-MOBILIsE, and coordinator of Litwin IBD Pioneers Program 937924.
Bruno Sarmento was the first Chair of the Nanomedicine and Nanoscale Delivery Focus Group of the Controlled Release Society (CRS) and is now Director-at-Large of CRS and member of CRS College of Fellows.