Faculty Mentor Information
Daniel Fologea, Boise State University
Presentation Date
7-2025
Abstract
Liposomes are among the most widely used nanocarriers for drug delivery due to their exceptional biocompatibility and ability to passively accumulate at tumor sites, both of which contribute to enhanced therapeutic efficacy. However, despite these advantages, targeting specificity remains limited, often leading to off-target drug release and elevated systemic toxicity. Moreover, liposomes are generally engineered with a predefined target during production, substantially narrowing their post-production versatility. To address these limitations, surface modification of liposomes is employed to improve targeting specificity and versatility in a time and cost-effective manner. Here, we propose post-production functionalization of liposomes by employing Function-Spacer-Lipid (FSL) constructs and polyethylene glycol (PEG) spacers to activate the liposome surface and utilized biotin as a functional group to detect surface modification with fluorescent streptavidin. Our results demonstrated the successful bioconjugation of FSL and PEG constructs into the liposome bilayer membrane. This strategy serves as a foundation for future bioconjugation of liposomes with a large variety of Bioactive molecules, which could further improve specificity and reduce off-target effects.
Functionalization and Characterization of Liposomes for Targeted Drug Delivery
Liposomes are among the most widely used nanocarriers for drug delivery due to their exceptional biocompatibility and ability to passively accumulate at tumor sites, both of which contribute to enhanced therapeutic efficacy. However, despite these advantages, targeting specificity remains limited, often leading to off-target drug release and elevated systemic toxicity. Moreover, liposomes are generally engineered with a predefined target during production, substantially narrowing their post-production versatility. To address these limitations, surface modification of liposomes is employed to improve targeting specificity and versatility in a time and cost-effective manner. Here, we propose post-production functionalization of liposomes by employing Function-Spacer-Lipid (FSL) constructs and polyethylene glycol (PEG) spacers to activate the liposome surface and utilized biotin as a functional group to detect surface modification with fluorescent streptavidin. Our results demonstrated the successful bioconjugation of FSL and PEG constructs into the liposome bilayer membrane. This strategy serves as a foundation for future bioconjugation of liposomes with a large variety of Bioactive molecules, which could further improve specificity and reduce off-target effects.