6th International Conference on
Drug Delivery and Formulations

Biography:

Dr. Thomas J. Webster’s (H index: 109; Google Scholar) degrees are in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh (B.S., 1995; USA) and in biomedical engineering from RPI (Ph.D., 2000; USA). He has served as a professor at Purdue (2000-2005), Brown (2005-2012), and Northeastern (2012-2021; serving as Chemical Engineering Department Chair from 2012 - 2019) Universities and has formed over a dozen companies who have numerous FDA approved medical products currently improving human health.  He has graduated over 200 Ph.D. students and has over 800 publications. Dr. Webster has numerous awards including: 2020, World Top 2% Scientist by Citations (PLOS); 2020, SCOPUS Highly Cited Research (Top 1% Materials Science and Mixed Fields); 2021, Clarivate Top 0.1% Most Influential Researchers (Pharmacology and Toxicology), and is a fellow of over 8 academic societies.

Abstract:

Introduction: Over the past 20 years, the use of nanotechnology in medicine has grown from the unknown to now significantly helping to prevent, diagnosis, and treat numerous diseases. This includes the use of nano biodegradable metals (like Mg) and self-assembled materials that carry metals and are biodegradable. Methods: Numerous biodegradable metal nanoparticles as well as nanotextures have been synthesized¹.  For example, Mg nanoparticles were pressed into model surfaces and soaked in NaOH to create a nanoscale surface roughness. Similarly, self-assembled materials containing biodegradable metals have been synthesized using standard organic chemistry methods (Figure 1)². All materials have been studied for their ability to attach to viruses (such as SARS-CoV-2) to keep the virus from replicating. Further, such materials have been used to fight infection, inhibit cancer cell growth, and improve tissue growth using standard in vivo and in vitro methods^{3, 4}. Results: For the self-assembled nanomaterials, one type of self-assembled nanomaterial composed of DNA base pairs has been the focus of our efforts to functionalize with specific peptides suitable for attaching to SARS-CoV-2 and all of its known variants. After binding to SARS-CoV-2, the self-assembled molecule inhibits SARS-CoV-2 binding to and entering mammalian cells keeping it from replicating. Moreover, these unique self-assembled nanomaterials have been functionalized with peptides to attach to and penetrate to kill gram-positive bacteria, gram-negative bacteria, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Further, these self-assembled nanomaterials were functionalized with peptides to attach to and kill cancer cells. Lastly, significant effort has been spent to functionalize these self-assembled nanomaterials with peptides to promote bone, cartilage, vascular, skin and other tissue growth. Conclusions: In vitro and in vivo studies will be presented as well as lessons learned trying to commercialize university-based research into real commercial products.