2018_01_26_FAR_maria_blanco

The DRUG-MAG consortium - made up of researchers from the University of Navarra, the association of Navarra Industry and the Public University of Navarra - has obtained funding from the Government of Navarra through the call for Aid to Technology Centers and Organizations of research and Dissemination of Knowledge with the goal to advance in the development of nanoparticles that allow diagnosis and cancer therapy in the same device.

According to the manager of this project at the University of Navarra, department professor at Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology María Blanco Prieto, "The goal of project consists of designing and developing new nanometric platforms for the release of antineoplastic agents that combine therapy and diagnosis in a single particle. In other words: teragnostic nanoplatforms (teragnosis = therapy + diagnosis). In this sense, the consortium formed by AIN-UPNA-UNAV sample an ideal complementarity to develop nanomaterials that may represent new alternatives in the field of teragnosis."

In addition to this expert, Francisco Martín participates on behalf of AIN and Cristina Gómez, from the UPNA, who is attached to department of Physics and high school of Advanced Materials (InaMat), who explains that this project "seeks to develop new teragnostic platforms to simplify and overcome the limitations of those currently in use. We aim to improve imaging, achieve good local temperature control in the target tissue, adequate drug release and better penetration into the tissues". The first phase, according to the UPNA's manager , will allow the analysis of the viability of these new nanoplatformasteragnostics, and the information obtained will be of vital importance for designing the subsequent aspects of the necessary therapeutic dose.