Image-Guided Drug Delivery in Cancer (R01)

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), issued by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), encourages innovative translational research in the development of quantitative in vivo imaging characterization of image-guided drug delivery (IGDD) in cancer, including characterizations of the target, delivery validation, and therapy response. This FOA will support research in development of integrated imaging-based platforms for multifunctional and multiplexed drug delivery systems in cancer. Validation studies in non-human primates or large animal models and first in human studies directed towards translation of IGDD technology into the clinic will be considered appropriate for this FOA.

Recent advances in applications of nanotechnologies to cancer have led to the development of nanocarriers that can deliver imaging contrast agents and therapeutics at the sub-cellular level (NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, http://nano.cancer.gov/). Furthermore, these nanoparticles may be functionalized to target certain tumors, and which could be activated upon absorption of external energies or in response to chemical reactions. Nanovectors have the capability to be multifunctional and multiplexed, thus making them particularly suitable for IGDD. The multifunctional property of nanovectors allows them to be functionalized to carry imaging and therapeutic agents; overcome biological barriers and incorporate biomarker based targeting and reporting moieties, whereas the multiplex property allows them to respond to a multiplicity of biological signals in real-time. Despite significant accomplishments in applications of nanotechnology to cancer, barriers remain for successful implementation of IGDD as a clinical solution.