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Meeting ID: 962 4934 7313
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Despite unprecedented progress in the field of nanomedicine in recent decades as evident by an astonishing volume of publications and hundreds of ongoing clinical trials, the number of clinically approved nanoparticles (NPs) has yet to experience such rapid growth. A well-recognized problem with first-generation NPs, both in the clinic and in development, is their limited chemical scope—stemming from the required interdependencies between the system’s components (eg cargo, carrier, solvent/surfactant system) and the associated redevelopment efforts upon swapping out a compartment (eg drug(s)).

We propose a convergent nanomedicine platform where all interdependencies are decoupled, enabling individual components to be systematically optimized with minimal impact on other constituents—akin to a convergent synthesis. This macromolecular prodrug technology is based on simple norbornene-based macromonomer (MM) building blocks, each bearing a payload with rationally and precisely programmed release kinetics; MM or mixtures thereof then undergo ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP), resulting in the corresponding bottlebrush polymers. Translational aspects of this platform, including (i) scalability, (ii) delivery capability, (iii) therapeutic efficacy, and (iv) convergence, are hereby examined in the context of novel applications spanning the realm of iterative synthesis, molecular imaging, drug delivery, and theranostic reporter.