Kostas Kostarelos

Overview

Kostas is Professor and Chair of Nanomedicine at the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences of the University of Manchester. He is leading the Nanomedicine Lab that is part of the Centre for Tissue Injury and Repair and the National Graphene Institute. Research at the Nanomedicine Lab has a long history in developing liposomes, colloidal nanoparticulates (polymeric microspheres, solid nanoparticles), natural (e.g. peptide) and synthetic macromolecules (e.g. dendrimers) and novel nanomaterials (e.g. nanocarbons) as vector systems for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. A variety of biologically active entities (peptides, proteins, plasmid DNA, siRNA, stem cells) and more conventional small molecules to achieve anti-angiogenic or cytotoxic activities have been developed along with imaging probes (radionuclides, NIR, opoacoustic) to design multi-functional (theranostic) modalities. The primary therapeutic targets for clinical translation of these technologies are cancer (solid and metastatic) and neurodegenerative disorders.

For more information on the Nanomedicine Lab please refer to our website  www.nanomedicinelab.com

Biography

Kostas read Chemistry at the University of Leeds and obtained his Diploma in Chemical Engineering and PhD from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, studying the steric stabilization of liposomes using block copolymer molecules. He carried out his postdoctoral training in various medical institutions in the United States and has worked closely with Professors Th.F. Tadros (ICI plc, UK), P.F. Luckham (Imperial College London), D. Papahadjopoulos (UCSF, USA), G. Sgouros (Memorial Sloan-Kettering, NY, USA) and R.G. Crystal (Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY, USA). Following his promotion to Assistant Professor of Genetic Medicine and Chemical Engineering in Medicine at Cornell University Weill Medical College, he relocated to the UK as the Deputy Director of Imperial College Genetic Therapies Centre in 2002. In 2003 Kostas joined the Centre for Drug Delivery Research and the Department of Pharmaceutics at the UCL School of Pharmacy as the Deputy Head of the Centre. He was promoted to the Personal Chair of Nanomedicine and Head of the Centre in 2007.
Kostas joined the University of Manchester in 2013 and is an Honorary Professor of University College London.