Dr. You-Yeon Won, Professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, has been highlighted in the 2018 Purdue University Center for Cancer Research Annual Report for major breakthroughs in nanomedicine research.

 

Purdue University Center for Cancer Research is one of seven National Cancer Institute basic research centers in the United States, designed to make significant contributions to emerging technologies such as cancer vaccines and chemotherapy. Dr. Won has been conducting research for 15 years with a focus around the cancer- treatment potential of nanoparticles like polymer micelles. Polymers and similar drug delivery systems that encapsulate nanoparticles show promise in maximizing drug availability in tumors, while minimizing the exposure of the drug to other tissues within the body. This type of treatment offers more pharmacokinetic control than traditional chemotherapy.

 

“We have been working on developing and studying medical nanomaterials for cancer therapy and imaging for some years now,” Won says. “Polymers are used as controlled release agents in all our projects. Our current research focuses on intratumoral injectable nanoparticles that have both polymer and inorganic components, and I’m confident that this technology holds significant potential for clinical application.”

 

Dr. Won has recently made major breakthroughs in head and neck cancer treatment, a cancer diagnosed to 60,000 people each year. He has formulated a radiation-controlled drug release that improves this type of cancer treatment by enclosing the drug in polymer-based protective capsules and injecting it into the tumor before radiotherapy is completed. Dr. Won has been awarded funding from the National Science Foundation through August 2021 to study pharmaceutical polymers.

 

Dr. Won was inducted in the Purdue University Innovators Hall of Fame in 2015. His work in “Development of Radiation- Controlled Chemotherapeutic Release Formulations for Intratumoral Chemo-Radio Combination Therapy for Locally Advanced Tumors” earned a $20,000 grant from the Purdue-managed Trask Innovation Fund in 2018.

 

Dr. Won is the co-founder of Lodos Theranostics and Spirrow Therapeutics, whose objectives are to develop radio luminescence therapy to enhance the destruction of deep tissue cancerous tumors and to commercialize biocompatible Polymer Lung Surfactants.

 

Learn more about Dr. You-Yeon Won at https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/people/ptProfile?resource_id=11263

 

Source: You-Yeon Won, yywon@ecn.purdue.edu, 765-494-4077

 

Writer: Jessica Johnson, john1690@purdue.edu