Prof Frank Caruso joins team of leading HIV researchers

December 2017

Prof Frank Caruso has been awarded a $16 million NHMRC Program Grant as part of a collaboration with a team of leading HIV researchers. The collaborative project is entitled Addressing the Major Challenges in HIV Vaccine and Cure Research. The team will be led by Doherty Institute-based University of Melbourne Prof Stephen Kent.

NHMRC Program Grants aim to support teams of the highest quality researchers to pursue broad-based multidisciplinary and collaborative research addressing complex problems. They provide substantial, long-term, flexible funding to integrated groups of researchers with well-established track records of high impact health and medical research.

NIMS-supervised students win Endeavour Expo award

November 2017

Jingqu Chen and Yizhe Cheng won the Best Project in Biomedical Engineering Award at the 2017 Endeavour Engineering & IT Exhibition held at The University of Melbourne for their project entitled Nano-Engineering Metal-Phenolic Particles for Pulmonary Drug Delivery.

NIMS postgrad scores publication award

October 2017

Congratulations to NIMS postgraduate student Danzi Song who is recipient of a Most Significant CBNS Publication of 2017 Award from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science & Technology (CBNS) for her paper entitled “Templated Polymer Replica Nanoparticles to Facilitate Assessment of Material-Dependent Pharmacokinetics and Biodistribution” published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. The award was presented to her during the CBNS Annual Research Workshop that was held in the Sunshine Coast (25–27 October 2017).

The study demonstrates a new approach for investigating material-dependent biological behaviours of polymer particles, irrespective of the properties of the underlying core, and provides insights for the selection of polymer particles for future biological applications.

Frank Caruso awarded NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellowship

October 2017

Congratulations to Prof Frank Caruso who has been awarded a prestigious NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellowship. The Research Fellowships Scheme aims to support Australia’s very best health and medical research talent to further develop as leaders in their field and contribute to the Australian research community. This Fellowship will establish a high quality research program into the development and evaluation of particle technologies in biomedical research. A central goal is to develop effective and efficient drug carrier systems as facilitated by collaboration with leading life scientists and clinicians.

NIMS postgrad scores travel scholarship

October 2017

NIMS postgraduate Danzi Song has been awarded a 2017 CBNS Student Travel Award from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science & Technology (CBNS). These awards go towards travel costs for research activities.

Advanced Science News spotlights NIMS research on particle targeting in complex biological media

September 2017

A NIMS article published in Wiley peer-reviewed journal Advanced Healthcare Materials was highlighted in Advanced Science News. The review article discusses parameters that influence the biological performance of particulate drug carriers, with an emphasis on the effect of the protein corona, and highlights strategies for improving the targeting ability of particles.

NIMS research featured in The Conversation

September 2017

The online magazine The Conversation has just published an article by researchers: How diseases can be targeted using nanotechnology – and why it’s difficult. The article discusses opportunities and challenges of using particles for targeting diseases. The popular science article discusses developments in the field that were recently reviewed by NIMS researchers in the Wiley journal Advanced Healthcare Materials. This includes new insights on the importance of the nanoparticle corona and the development of new investigative techniques that can complement cell and animal studies. These areas form important topics of what our researchers are investigating as part of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology.

Frank Caruso receives ACS Langmuir Lectureship Award

August 2017

Prof Frank Caruso received the 2017 ACS Langmuir Lectureship Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the interdisciplinary field of colloid, interfacial and surface chemistry. As a recipient of this award, he delivered his distinguished Langmuir lecture on “Engineering particles for bio-nano science and beyond” at the 254th American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition.

EC Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship grant awarded to NIMS postdoc

March 2017

NIMS postdoc Dr Mattias Björnmalm was awarded a highly competitive Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action grant by the European Commission. This will enable him to undertake research in Prof Molly Stevens’ labs and her world-class interdisciplinary biomaterials team at Imperial College London, UK, to investigate how nanoparticles interact with cells and tissues using state-of-the-art spectroscopic techniques. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions are geared to equipping researchers with the necessary skills and international experience for a successful career. The 30 chosen researchers in this round represent the 100,000 fellows who have been supported by the scheme over the past 20 years.

NIMS research spotlighted on ACS journal’s Special Issue cover

January 2017

NIMS research was highlighted as one of four snapshots of methods and protocols articles as part of a Special Issue of the highly ranked ACS journal, Chemistry of Materials. The article outlines three methods used in the NIMS labs for the templated assembly of nanoengineered particles. First described is layer-by-layer assembly to generate core-shell particles and hollow capsules. Second detailed is the use of mesoporous silica templating to engineer porous polymer replica particles. Third reported is how phenolic compounds and metal ions can be used to fabricate thin films via metal–phenolic network formation on particle templates. In line with the issue’s theme, stepwise guides for each method are provided with considerations for how to alter these protocols to achieve desired particle properties.