Thursday, 28 March 2024

SZTE Nanomedicine Research Group
Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Ildikó Csóka

Ildikó Csóka

The main aim of this research group is to focus on the development of nanosized lipid-based and polymer colloidal carriers for delivering complex drugs (especially peptides) through alternative administration routes for ensuring the possibly highest patient acceptance and quality of life.

The importance of designing peptid containing colloid carriers for alternative delivery routes, has raised due to the following main aspects: (1) focus on “patient-centered care”, which raises up the question of the methodology for linking this to pharmaceutical development; (2) new and more complex drugs (e. g. peptides) available in the therapy, raising up the necessity for (3) developing new delivery systems (e.g. nanocarriers) and investigation of possible alternative administration routes.

Based on the above-mentioned trends, and the background experience of our research team, we aim to:

- define unmet clinical and patient needs, chronic diseases (CNS disorders, metabolic syndrome, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune, etc.) – needing complex drugs (biological therapy – peptides);

- investigate and evaluate the factors affecting patient adherence in chronic diseases determining the quality of life – model development to give feedback to the early phase;

- evaluate of peptides as drug candidates and pairing with carrier systems (cell-penetrating peptides, protein-drug conjugates: albumin, lysozyme, liraglutide, antimicrobial peptides, etc.);

- focus on basic aspects and formulation development of colloidal drug delivery systems (nanospheres, liposomes, niosomes, etc.) – and their administration possibilities to the human organization (oral, nasal, pulmonary, transdermal, etc.);

- use the “Quality by Design” approach in this early phase of research.