Invited: Engineering Vascular Targeting Nano-medicines

In the cardiovascular system blood flow plays a key role in maintaining physiological function. Under pathological conditions, cardiovascular disease sites may exhibit abnormal mechanical environment as well as abnormal blood flow. Based on the fact that in regions of artery stenosis the shear stress can be order of magnitude higher compare to its normal level, we developed shear-responsive nano-medicines that can deliver drugs selectively to these disease sites. Additionally, in order to apply engineering approaches to designing vascular targeting nano-medicines, we apply various in silico/in vitro microfluidic models, as well as real size arterial models that allow us to explore the effectiveness on targeting approaches under appropriate dynamic conditions. Altogether, our work illustrates the need for applying quantitative engineering approaches for the development for vascular targeting nano-medicines.