International Symposium on LifeChips 2006

Biomedical Nanotechnology for Personalized and Predictive Oncology
The integration of nanotechnology with biology and medicine is expected to produce major advances in molecular diagnostics, therapeutics, molecular biology, and bioengineering. Recent advances have led to the development of functional (electronic, optical, magnetic, or structural) nanoparticles that are covalently linked to biological molecules such as peptides, proteins, and nucleic acids. Due to their size-dependent properties and dimensional similarities to biomacromolecules, these biomolecular nanoconjugates are well suited as contrast agents for in-vivo optical and magnetic resonance imaging, as smart carriers for drug delivery, and as structural scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In particular, recent progress in bioconjugated nanostructures such as quantum dots and biodegradable nanoparticles has allowed targeted delivery of anticancer drugs to specific tumors, leading to dramatically improved efficacy and reduced toxicities in in-vivo animal models. Together with biocomputing and bioinformatics, this development has opened exciting possibilities towards personalized and predictive medicine, including molecular diagnosis, prognosis, and individualized therapy of major human diseases such as malignant tumors, vulnerable cardiovascular plaques, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Biography
Shuming Nie, PhD, Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Chair Professor, Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA - Shuming Nie received a B.S. in Chemistry in 1983 from Nankai University, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University in 1989, and completed postdoctoral appointments at both Georgia Institute of Technology and Stanford University (1990-1993). Nie was on the faculty at Indiana University from 1994 to 2002. He joined the faculty at Emory and Georgia Tech in 2002. His research interest is in the broad areas of biomolecular engineering and nanotechnology, with a focus on bioconjugated nanoparticles for cancer molecular imaging, molecular profiling, pharmacogenomics, and targeted therapy. During the last 10 years, Professor Nie has published ca. 100 scholarly papers, filed 20 patents/inventions, and has delivered more than 300 invited talks and keynote lectures. His research program is funded by more than $30 million federal grants from the National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Energy, and the US Department of Defense. He is the Principal Investigator of a Bioengineering Research Partnership (BRP) Grant from the National Cancer Institute, an Exploratory P20 Center Grant from the NIGMS/NIH Roadmap, and a Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNE) Award from the National Cancer Institute entitled “Emory-Georgia Tech Nanotechnology Center for Personalized and Predictive Oncology.” In recognition of his work, Professor Nie has received many awards and honors including the Cheung Kong Distinguished Professorship (The Ministry of Education of China, 2006), the Rank Prize in Opto-electronics (London, UK, 2005), the Georgia Distinguished Cancer Scholar Award (Georgia Cancer Coalition, 2002-2007), the Beckman Young Investigator Award, the National Collegiate Inventors Award, and the Distinguished Young Scholar Award.