Using Biomolecules to Overcome Biological Barriers for Drug Delivery

A fundamental challenge in drug delivery is the ability to deliver therapeutic amounts of drugs to the target site. During homeostasis and in diseases, the body’s biological barriers regulate drug transport and often prevent sufficient drug accumulation. Our lab is interested in using biomolecules to understand these barriers and leverage the insights for more effective drug delivery. We will discuss our efforts to screen peptide-presenting phage libraries as a combinatorial approach to identify peptides that facilitate transport through barriers such as mucus, the tumor extracellular matrix, and the blood-brain barrier. In a second advance, we will present how the intrinsic transport properties of biomolecules, such as albumin, can be harnessed to achieve therapeutic delivery in tumors. These studies reflect the potential of biomolecules to overcome difficult-to-penetrate barriers for drug delivery.