Week 1

My clinical mentor during this Immersion Term is Dr. Michelle Bradbury from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Her group directly collaborates with my PI, Dr. Uli Wiesner, back in Ithaca. On the Ithaca campus, my research group designs and synthesizes silica nanoparticles, termed C'dots, for the purpose of cancer theranostics. These sub-10 nm ultrasmall particles are non-cytotoxic, can be efficiently cleared from circulation via renal filtration, and avoid hepatic filtration. Through our collaboration with Dr. Bradbury's lab, we have shown that our particles can be radiolabeled with Zr89 to improve PET scan images by providing better targeting capabilities and higher contrast. These particles are currently undergoing Phase II clinical trials, with Dr. Michelle Bradbury as the lead clinician. The trial is meant to determine if these radiolabeled particles can be used for PET imaging in human subjects with brain cancer. Throughout this program, I hope to experience the clinical aspect of how our particles are utilized. With this knowledge, I hope to bring back ideas on how our particles can be improved for optimization of clinical translatability.

This week, I have been working alongside the postdocs and research scientists in Dr. Bradbury's lab. We have been performing mouse brain resections to analyze particle uptake in brain tumors. We have dissected mice to study the biodistribution of our particles, as well. Also, mouse hind legs were removed to isolate primary bone marrow macrophages for the study of particle-macrophage interactions. In addition to the mouse studies, we have been observing the viability and proliferation of various cancer cell lines when exposed to different concentrations of particles over time. Finally, we radiolabeled two types of particles, one meant to target NSCLC and one meant to treat NSCLC with a small molecule inhibitor. These were injected into mice and PET scans were taken.

Outside of lab, I have explored and seen much. I have been to Time Square and watched the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. I am Puerto Rican, so that was a thrill to see . I also saw the NY Philharmonic Orchestra play in Central Park, and they played one of my favorite compositions, Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov.

I am looking forward to the weeks to come!