Journal of Controlled Release 138 (2009) 187

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Journal of Controlled Release

j ourna l homepage: www.e lsev ie r.com/ locate / jconre l

Editorial

Sixth International Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery Symposium (NanoDDS'08)

The current volume of the Journal of Controlled Release includesfour publications from participants of the Sixth InternationalNanomedicine and Drug Delivery Symposium (NanoDDS'08) thatwas held in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University ofToronto (Toronto, Canada) from Oct 18th–19th 2008. I co-Chaired thisexciting event with Dr. Alexander V. Kabanov (University of NebraskaMedical Center) and Dr. Kazunori Kataoka (University of Tokyo), thetwo outstanding scientists that spearheaded the organization of thefirst NanoDDS in 2003. Indeed the 6th symposium, NanoDDS'08, was asuccessful event and included 193 participants from 14 countries with19 invited presentations by world renowned experts and 108 posterpresentations.

The overall objective of NanoDDS'08 was to highlight newgroundbreaking discoveries and developments in the field ofnanomedicine while bringing together scientists with expertise indrug delivery, bioimaging and tissue engineering. Special emphasiswas placed on the development of nanotechnologies for cancertherapy, cancer detection, staging and characterization. The sympo-sium began with a keynote presentation given by Dr. Ruth Duncan(Cardiff University, UK) whose pioneering research has successfullyresulted in the clinical development of six anti-cancer polymer-drugconjugates and the transfer of the first two polymer-based gammacamera imaging agents into the clinic. Invited presentations were thengiven in the following six sessions (1) Preclinical Development andTranslation of Nanomedicines (3 sessions); (2) Role of Nanomedicineand Drug Delivery in Tissue Engineering; (3) New Directions inNanomedicine and Drug Delivery and (4) Integration of Nanotechnol-ogy and Bioimaging. An additional session included short oralpresentations by trainees selected for “best poster” awards.

The four papers included in this issue capture several of the centraltopics covered at NanoDDS'08. Papers by A. Hatefi and T.K. Bronich'sgroups describe new and promising directions in nanomedicine. A.Hatefi and colleagues introduce a new,multifunctional and geneticallyengineered polymer for targeted gene transfer to cancer cells. T.K.Bronich and colleagues put forth polymeric micelles with cross-linkedcores as a delivery system for doxorubicin with a high drug loadingcapacity and triggered release under acidic conditions. In addition, thepaper by M.S. Shoichet and colleagues furthers the potential role ofdrug delivery in tissue engineering with the design of an injectablesystem capable of providing sustained release of drug combinations.This system is to be considered in the future as a strategy for spinalcord injury repair. Finally, A.S. Mikhail and C. Allen discuss thetransport of block copolymer micelles at the whole body, tissue andcellular levels. Emphasis is placed on the new information that hasemerged on the transport of nanosystems using image-basedmethods. Overall, these papers provide a good cross-section of thekey topics covered at NanoDDS'08.

0168-3659/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.jconrel.2009.06.021

The annual NanoDDS meetings provide a unique opportunity forinteraction anddiscussionbetween academic and industrial scientists aswell as trainees working in the general area of nanomedicine.NanoDDS'08 focused not only on the application of nanotechnologiesin drug delivery but also on tissue engineering and imaging; bringingtogether scientists focused in neighboring but distinct fields. It wasanticipated that the interdisciplinary interactions that resulted wouldfoster new fruitful collaborations and result in leap-step advances andgroundbreaking discoveries in nanomedicine. The seventh symposium(NanoDDS'09) is to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana on October 5th–6th,2009 and will highlight many of the critical issues that are fundamentalto the translation of nanomedicines to clinical applications.

Acknowledgements

Funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NationalInstitute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) (NIH/NIBIB: 1R13EB009303-01), National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC)and the Terry Fox Foundation as well as the Leslie Dan Faculty ofPharmacy (University of Toronto) is greatly appreciated. In additionwe are grateful to the following sponsors: Celator PharmaceuticalsCorp., Eli Lilly and Company, GlaxoSmithKline Inc., Labopharm Inc.,Merck & Co. Inc., Northern Lipids Inc., Ortho Biotech (Division ofJanssen-Ortho Inc.), Polymer Source and QLT Inc.

Christine Allen, Ph.D.Associate Professor

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy144 College St.

University of TorontoToronto, Ontario

Canada, M5S 3M2

x-apptDepartment of Chemistry,

Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry,Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering,

University of Toronto

Faculty,STTARR Innovation Center

Toronto Medical Discovery Tower101 College St., 7-301

Toronto, OntarioCanada, M5G 1L7

Tel.: +1 416-946-8594; fax: +1 416-978-8511.E-mail address: cj.allen@utoronto.ca.