UT nano pioneer and middle school student
team up for cancer project
HOUSTON – (July 16, 2009) – Nanomedicine pioneer Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston gets requests from scientists looking for help with research projects from time to time but few of them are only 13 years old.
Kishore Balasubramanian’s UT mentors on the I-SWEEEP project from left to right were Ennio Tasciotti, Ph.D., Nitin Warier, Balasubramanian, Karoly Meszlenyi, Aaron Mack and Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D.
“As I recall, the e-mail was from his father,” Ferrari said. “They were looking for help with a science project on a targeted drug delivery system. I’ve received similar requests from high school students. But, I don’t remember too many middle school students.”
Ferrari told Kishore Balasubramanian that he would be happy to arrange for his staff to help the seventh grader at Harmony Science Academy Northwest with his entry in the 2009 International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering & Environment Project Olympiad (I-SWEEEP). “We feel that helping students is part of our lab’s mission,” Ferrari said.
Like Ferrari, Kishore is interested in reducing side effects associated with intravenous cancer drugs, which can include hair loss, nausea and fatigue. These drugs can injure healthy organs and tissue.
Ferrari’s proposed solution to this problem is to package these drugs in miniaturized carriers engineered to search out, recognize and release their payload at the site of the tumor. These nanocarriers are about one hundredth the size of a strand of hair and their contents are measured in billionths of a meter (nanometer). Work on the project is underway in his lab.
I-SWEEEP science fair winner Kishore Balasubramanian shares a laugh with UT Nobel Laureate Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., during a recent visit to the university’s Institute of Molecular Medicine.
Kishore’s idea was to build a drug delivery system in which magnets direct iron oxide crystals to certain organs. With the help of Ennio Tasciotti, Ph.D., Karoly Meszlenyi and others in Ferrari’s lab, Kishore used a mechanical pump and clear plastic tubes to make a model of the heart and the circulatory system. He used a watery solution and iron oxide crystals to represent blood and cancer agents, respectively.
“The magnet would cause the crystals to accumulate and become dark,” Meszlenyi said. “You could actually see where the section of the tube was getting dark. The idea would be to attach the drug to the crystals so you could get them to the right location. He had the idea. He was the creator of it.”
Kishore’s spark was inspired by two family friends who were diagnosed with brain cancer and experienced side effects during treatment.
“The cool stuff is that he came up with the idea to target an organ and simulate the blood circulatory system.” Meszlenyi said. “It is rewarding for us to excite a new generation of scientists. We have a shortage of computer engineers and scientists. We like to inspire the scientific mind and spirit in a young person. We provided guidance and support.”
Kishore’s hard work paid off. He received a Gold Medal in the Junior Engineering Category of I-SWEEEP 2009.
Kishore Balasubramanian’s award-winning I-SWEEEP project was titled “Increasing the Efficiency of Targeted Drug Delivery System in Treating Cancer using FerroFluids and Magnetic Fields.”
“When I notified my mentors at UT that I won they were as excited and happy as I was,” Kishore said. “In between their busy schedules, they sent me their congratulations and best wishes and they even set up a day when I could meet Dr. Mauro Ferrari and his whole team at the Institute of Molecular Medicine.”
Ferrari is director of the nanomedicine division at the UT Health Science Center at Houston, professor of Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and president of the Alliance for NanoHealth, Houston.
Ferrari’s team shares laboratories in the Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building with Nobel Laureate Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., who stopped by to congratulate the science fair winner. Murad is a professor and director emeritus at the university’s Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM).
Kishore said, “I was so lucky to be around all those experts and best of all I was able to shake hands with and take pictures with Dr. Murad. Working with the whole team at the IMM at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston was one of the most exciting, fun-filled experiences in my life.”
Two other researchers in Ferrari’s laboratory – Nitin Warier and Aaron Mack – also assisted with the project.
Kishore's father, Sivaprakasam Balasubramanian, said, “Dr. Mauro Ferrari, Dr. Ennio Tasciotti and the entire team came forward to mentor Kishore in executing the project. This was encouraging for parents like us who want to contribute the best they can to help the aspiring young scientists in their families.”