Speakers:

  • Sylvain Moineau, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Bacteriophages, Laval University (Canada)
  • Ioanna Mela, Royal Society University Research Fellow and Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
  • Claus-Michael Lehr, Professor of Pharmacy and Head of the Department Drug Delivery across Biological Barriers Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research (Germany)

Moderator: Laura Piddock, Scientific Director, GARDP (Switzerland)

Presentation 1: Targeted approach: Phages as delivery system (Sylvain Moineau)

  • Viruses are the most abundant and diverse biological entities on the planet. Phages can target and kill bacteria with greater specificity than antibiotics. Sylvain discussed phage-based options and recent biotechnology advancements in phage engineering that can be leveraged to deliver antibacterials, including CRISPR-Cas systems.

Presentation 2: DNA nanostructures for antimicrobial drug delivery (Ioanna Mela)

  • DNA nanostructures can be easily made and functionalized with active molecules
  • We have shown that aptamer-functionalized nanostructures can specifically target bacteria
  • Targeted drug delivery can potentiate active molecules and give a new lease of life to existing antimicrobials

Presentation 3: Nanocarrriers and complex in-vitro models for drug delivery across biological barriers in infectious diseases (Claus-Michael Lehr)

  • Predicting & optimizing intra-bacterial delivery of anti-infectives across the gram-negative bacterial cell envelope
  • Targeted delivery of nanocarriers to skin hair follicles
  • Combatting infectious diseases of the lung – growing bacterial biofilms on human lung epithelial cells and biofilm-pentrating nanocarriers

This live webinar including an interactive Q&A session was broadcast on 24 January 2023.

If you have questions or comments, please let us know: revive@gardp.org.