Research Director: Kazunari AKIYOSHI
(Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University)
Research Term: Oct 2011 - Mar 2017
Special Extension Period: Apr 2017 - Mar 2018
Grant Number: JPMJER1101

The biologics including proteins, nucleic acids and extracellular vesicles (exosomes) have been attracted attention as innovative pharmaceutical products in advanced nanomedicine. In this project, new bio-nanotransporters (bio-inspired nanoparticles) have been developed for new drug delivery systems (DDS) especially for such biologics to apply cancer immuno-therapies, vaccines and tissue engineering. We proposed nanogel tectonics using self-assembled nanogels as building blocks to construct multi functional well-controlled gel biomaterials, e.g. artificial cellular matrix and tissue scaffold. Proteoliposomes were efficiently prepared by cell-free membrane protein synthesis with liposome chaperone (artificial cell method) for bio-analysis and DDS. New strategy for functionalization of exosomes has been developed by fusion with nanogel engineering and liposome engineering. Functions of T cell derived exosomes for cancer microenvironment were newly found and the exosomes can be applied to new cancer immunotherapy.