Alexander Buell
Condensate-targeted DNA-origami-based drug delivery
Alexander Buell, professor, Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), has been awarded a Lundbeck Foundation LF Experiments research grant worth DKK 1,997,314.
Recent years have seen very intense research in Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of proteins, because it plays an important role in regulation of the function and division of living cells. Many proteins associated with severe diseases, notably cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. This project offers a new solution to delivering drugs precisely into the heart of the LLPS condensate droplets, known as DNA origami. DNA origami allows to create nanoscale delivery vehicles that can be loaded with any drug; and with the design of unique conditions inside the condensate droplets this will hopefully lead to a selective release of the drugs inside the droplets, yielding unprecedented precision in targeting.
