BIOINSPIRED NANO-PARTICLES ENGINEERING

this interdisciplinary course will cover a wide range of topics, such as the synthesis of bio-inspired particles (i.e., nature-mimicking particles) and their characterization, the use of contrast agents and composites in particles, and the exploitation of their advantages as vehicles for delivering various medical substances, including small molecules, proteins, and rna molecules. the course will be taught in the form of problem-based learning (pbl), where the students will be exposed to different clinical needs in which these particles are used for therapy or specific pain relief. this course will equip the students with tools to characterize the engineering problem and ask them to develop their own solutions while working in teams. % learning outcomes# at the end of the course the studetns will be able to#%

1. understand the state-of-the-art in bioinspired nano-engineering technologies.%
2. critically read, analyze, and interpret the scientific literature in bioinspired nano-engineering.%
3. apply the knowledge of bioinspired nano-engineering to think critically about possible bnp solutions for unmet needs.%
4. clearly represent ideas in written reports and oral presentation.

TA: Ofri Vizenblit, ofri.viz@campus.technion.ac.il

During the semester there will be 4 Moodle quizzes on up-to-date applications of the biomimetic approach. Each quiz will be on a different article that fits the topic we will talk about during the following week. There will be 3 attempts, and the higher grade will be chosen. All articles are listed below: Quiz No. Article 1 C. M. J. Hu, L. Zhang, S. Aryal, C. Cheung, R. H. Fang, and L. Zhang, “Erythrocyte membrane-camouflaged polymeric nanoparticles as a biomimetic delivery platform,” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, vol. 108, no. 27, pp. 10980–10985, Jul. 2011, doi: 10.1073/PNAS.1106634108/SUPPL_FILE/PNAS.1106634108_SI.PDF. 2 R. H. Fang et al., “Cancer cell membrane-coated nanoparticles for anticancer vaccination and drug delivery,” Nano Lett, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 2181–2188, Apr. 2014, doi: 10.1021/NL500618U/SUPPL_FILE/NL500618U_SI_001.PDF. 3 A. Zinger et al., “Enhancing Inflammation Targeting Using Tunable Leukocyte-Based Biomimetic Nanoparticles,” ACS Nano, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 6326–6339, Apr. 2021, doi: 10.1021/ACSNANO.0C05792. 4 A. Zinger et al., “Humanized Biomimetic Nanovesicles for Neuron Targeting,” Advanced Science, vol. 8, no. 19, p. 2101437, Oct. 2021, doi: 10.1002/ADVS.202101437.

  Grading Policy 20% Moodle quizzes 60% Final research proposal, 5-7 pages + 3-minute presentation recording 20% peer review submission *Attendance in at least 85% of the lessons is mandatory to pass the course.

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Lectures