research content
We are conducting research on drug delivery system (DDS) at the Nano level.
What is DDS (Drug Delivery System)?
When you are sick, you take medicine. The medicine will reach the executives and relieve the symptoms. In fact, it is said that the amount of medicine that reaches the affected area is about one millionth of the medicine taken. Drugs that do not go to the affected area are excreted as urine or act on healthy tissues, causing side effects. Being sleepy with painkillers is one of the side effects. The side effects of particularly toxic anticancer drugs have a significant negative impact on health. Therefore, research on drug delivery system (DDS), which is a technology for selectively delivering drugs to targeted sites in the living body, is being actively conducted worldwide. By building DDS technology, it can be expected to improve the therapeutic effect and reduce side effects. In other words, it greatly contributes to improving the Quality Of Life (QOL) of patients.
Reference: Sakurai's interview
Development of nanomedicine
In DDS technology, drugs are delivered by a nanomaterial as a carrier to improve their bioavailability, targeted sites, ability to reduce side effects, etc. Therefore, our mission is to synthesize the carrier of the drug.
At Sakurai Laboratory, we mainly focus on
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Drug delivery using a complex of the polysaccharide schizophyllan (SPG) and nucleic acid
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Drug delivery using artificial polymers
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Design and evaluation of new functional nanomedicines
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Evaluation of physical properties of biocompatible polymers
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Structural analysis of nanomedicine
Strengths of our laboratory
At Sakurai Laboratory, the combination of chemistry, physics, and biology helps us to understand material design (chemistry), material evaluation (physics) and material function (biology). This means Sakurai Laboratory conducts integrated research from organic synthesis to polymer synthesis, structural analysis, and experiments in living organisms.
