PEN Projects

Recent advent of nanotechnology provides unprecedented opportunities and possibilities for advancing the molecular analysis, early detection and preventive treatment of atherosclerotic plaques. We have established research Center, an NHLBI Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology (PEN) with investigators from Emory University School of Medicine and Georgia Institute of Technology devoted to developing nanotechnologies and applying them to the analysis and detection of plaque formation in atherogenesis. This PEN is built upon our established strengths in nanotechnology and cardiology, and incorporate expertise in basic vascular biology, biomolecular engineering, biomedical imaging, fluid mechanics, and cardiac surgery, making concerted efforts in nanotechnology development, basic cardiology research, and in vivo plaque detection. The research at this PEN has the following projects:

Project 1. Design, development and optimization of nanostructured probes for specific detection of mRNA in living cells to study molecular mechanisms of atherogenesis
Project 2. Development of bioconjugated quantum dot probes for protein localization and assembly of signaling complexes in vascular cells
Project 3. Development of quantum dot based probes for detection and evaluation of atherosclerotic disease
Project 4. Development of magnetic nanoparticle-based probes for plaque detection using MRI
Project 5. Design, synthesis, characterization and validation of nanoparticle-based therapy for atherosclerosis
Project 6. Activatable probes for sensitive detection of oxidative stress in living cells

The organization of these projects are shown in Chart 1.