IPSC 2008

Reader in Cancer Pharmacology, Centre for Cancer Medicines

Tel:  +44 (0)20 7753 5998
Fax: +44 (0)20 7753 5964
Email: andreas.schatzlein@pharmacy.ac.uk

Areas of expertise

Cancer Pharmacology, Anti-cancer Nanomedicines (Gene therapy, Drug Delivery), transport & targeting in tumours), Translational cancer research, Good (Clinical) Laboratory Practise (GCLP), PK/PD analysis

Biography

Dr Andreas Schatzlein has a degree in Veterinary medicine (BVMS/Tierarzt) from the University of Munich. For his PhD project he joined the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University Hospital of the Technical University of Munich where he worked with Professor G Cevc on the development of a novel type of transdermal carrier, Transfersomes, for transdermal drug and protein delivery. The project demonstrated that this technology could be used to deliver various drugs and even proteins such as insulin through the skin into the systemic circulation and elucidated the pathways in the skin along which this transport occurred.

Dr Schatzlein then joined the biotechnology start-up IDEA when it was founded to commercialise its proprietary technology (IDEA has since raised over $25M and currently has more than 40 employees). Until his departure in 1996, Dr Schatzlein was involved in the development of various transdermal formulations, some of which have recently completed successful Phase II/III clinical trials.

He then returned to academia, joining the CRUK Department of Medical Oncology in Glasgow as Principal Investigator to establish an oncology focused drug delivery research program. In 2005 he became Leader of the CRUK Experimental Therapy and Gene Medicines Group with a research program focusing on the pharmacology of anti-cancer nanomedicines. He also established and was Director of the CRUK Beatson Laboratories Analytical Services Unit responsible for the analysis of PK/PD endpoints for a number of industrial and CRUK led early clinical oncology trials.

Research Interests

Dr Schatzlein's research is focused on the cellular and systemic pharmacology of anti-cancer nanomedicines. Specifically his interests are in the development of novel targeted anti-cancer medicines based on the understanding of the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms and tumour specific barriers.

Recent firsts from this work include:

1. The first description of a novel p53-derived apoptotic peptide which de-represses p73 to cause tumour regression in vivo and the therapeutic application of the system using systemically active synthetic vectors to express p53, a minimal p53-peptide, and iASPP shRNA (Bell et al. Journal of Clinical Investigation, March 2007).

2. Description of a novel proprietary micellar cluster delivery system which solubilises hydrophobic drugs and increases bioavailability across barriers such as the blood-brain-barrier by one order of magnitude (Qu et al. 2006 Biomacromoleules 7(12):3452).

3. Demonstration of successful experimental therapy with long term cures based on a transcriptionally targeted synthetic TNFa gene medicines (Dufes et al, 2005, Cancer Res, 65: 8079);

4. Discovery of the intrinsic anti-cancer activity of cationic polyamines such as dendrimers (Schätzlein, A.G., I.F. Uchegbu, et al Patent Application, GB0422877.1)

5. Demonstration of physicochemical retargeting of dendrimer based gene delivery systems in vivo (Schatzlein et al. 2005 J Controlled Rel 101:247)

6. Development of cancer targeted delivery of doxorubicin with vesicles and  phage derived peptide-drug nanoconjugates (Dufes et al 2004 Pharm Res 21:101; Schatzlein et al. 2001 J Controlled Rel. 74: 357).

More details about our research at http://www.nanomedicines.org

Selected Publications

Bell, H. S., C. Dufes, et al. (2007). "A p53-derived apoptotic peptide derepresses p73 to cause tumor regression in vivo." J Clin Invest. online

Cheng , W. P., A. I. Gray, et al. (2006). "Polyelectrolyte Nanoparticles with High Drug Loading Enhance the Oral Uptake of Hydrophobic Compounds." Biomacromolecules 7 (5): 1509-1520.

Qu, X., V. V. Khutoryanskiy, et al. (2006). "Carbohydrate-based micelle clusters which enhance hydrophobic drug bioavailability by up to 1 order of magnitude." Biomacromolecules 7(12): 3452-9.

Schatzlein, A. G. (2006). "Delivering cancer stem cell therapies - a role for nanomedicines?" Eur J Cancer 42(9): 1309-15.

Dufes, C., W. N. Keith, et al. (2005). "Synthetic anti-cancer gene medicine exploits intrinsic anti-tumour activity of cationic vector to cure established tumours." Cancer Research 65(18): 8079-84.

Kan, P. L., A. I. Gray, et al. (2005). "Tumour gene expression from C12 spermine amphiphile gene delivery systems." Journal of Drug Targeting 13(6): 345-57.