Delivery and Genomics of Large Molecules
A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2012) | Viewed by 9946
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Both the study and treatment of numerous diseases require the delivery of large molecules to cells/tissues in a specific/controlled fashion. For example, during gene therapy applications, large pieces of DNA encoding multiple therapeutic genes (ranging in size from small plasmids to mini-chormosomes) must be delivered to the nuclei of specific cells to treat inherited or acquired disorders. Numerous complications arise from attempting to deliver such large macromolelcules meaning that considerations such as packaging, including the ability to coat and if necessary uncoat in controlled fashion, as well as delivery through numerous cellular and tissue specific barriers must be taken into account in the design of such systems. For instance, in the gene therapy example one must not only take into account the design and regulation of the genes encoded in the therapeutic vector, but also examine how the DNA is going to be condensed and protected from degradation and how it will traverse across the plasma membrane, through the crowded cytoplasm and across the nuclear envelope before being transcribed in the nucleus in regulated fashion. These challenges and many more define the field of large molecule delivery and will be the mainstay of work in this area for many years.
Prof. Dr. David A Jans
Dr. Kylie Wagstaff
Guest Editors
Related Journal
- Genes - an Open Access journal of genetics and genomics.
Keywords
- gene delivery
- drug delivery
- gene therapy
- phenomics
- nuclear transport
- gene transfer
- intracellular transport
