{"id":62,"date":"2024-04-25T12:13:36","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T12:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/sawberries\/2024\/04\/25\/killian-lecture-speaker-paula-hammond-nanoparticles-0410\/"},"modified":"2024-04-25T12:13:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T12:13:36","slug":"killian-lecture-speaker-paula-hammond-nanoparticles-0410","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/sawberries\/2024\/04\/25\/killian-lecture-speaker-paula-hammond-nanoparticles-0410\/","title":{"rendered":"Tackling cancer at the nanoscale"},"content":{"rendered":"
When Paula Hammond first arrived on MIT\u2019s campus as a first-year student in the early 1980s, she wasn\u2019t sure if she belonged. In fact, as she told an MIT audience yesterday, she felt like \u201can imposter.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, that feeling didn\u2019t last long, as Hammond began to find support among her fellow students and MIT\u2019s faculty. \u201cCommunity was really important for me, to feel that I belonged, to feel that I had a place here, and I found people who were willing to embrace me and support me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Hammond, a world-renowned chemical engineer who has spent most of her academic career at MIT, made her remarks during the 2023-24 James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award lecture.<\/p>\n
Established in 1971 to honor MIT\u2019s 10th president, James Killian, the Killian Award recognizes extraordinary professional achievements by an MIT faculty member. Hammond was chosen for this year\u2019s award \u201cnot only for her tremendous professional achievements and contributions, but also for her genuine warmth and humanity, her thoughtfulness and effective leadership, and her empathy and ethics,\u201d according to the award citation.<\/p>\n
\u201cProfessor Hammond is a pioneer in nanotechnology research. With a program that extends from basic science to translational research in medicine and energy, she has introduced new approaches for the design and development of complex drug delivery systems for cancer treatment and noninvasive imaging,\u201d said Mary Fuller, chair of MIT\u2019s faculty and a professor of literature, who presented the award. \u201cAs her colleagues, we are delighted to celebrate her career today.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January, Hammond began serving as MIT\u2019s vice provost for faculty. Before that, she chaired the Department of Chemical Engineering for eight years, and she was named an Institute Professor in 2021.<\/p>\n
A versatile technique<\/strong><\/p>\n Hammond, who grew up in Detroit, credits her parents with instilling a love of science. Her father was one of very few Black PhDs in biochemistry at the time, while her mother earned a master\u2019s degree in nursing from Howard University and founded the nursing school at Wayne County Community College. \u201cThat provided a huge amount of opportunity for women in the area of Detroit, including women of color,\u201d Hammond noted.<\/p>\n After earning her bachelor\u2019s degree from MIT in 1984, Hammond worked as an engineer before returning to the Institute as a graduate student, earning her PhD in 1993. After a two-year postdoc at Harvard University, she returned to join the MIT faculty in 1995.<\/p>\n At the heart of Hammond\u2019s research is a technique she developed to create thin films that can essentially \u201cshrink-wrap\u201d nanoparticles. By tuning the chemical composition of these films, the particles can be customized to deliver drugs or nucleic acids and to target specific cells in the body, including cancer cells.<\/p>\n To make these films, Hammond begins by layering positively charged polymers onto a negatively charged surface. Then, more layers can be added, alternating positively and negatively charged polymers. Each of these layers may contain drugs or other useful molecules, such as DNA or RNA. Some of these films contain hundreds of layers, others just one, making them useful for a wide range of applications.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s nice about the layer-by-layer process is I can choose a group of degradable polymers that are nicely biocompatible, and I can alternate them with our drug materials. This means that I can build up thin film layers that contain different drugs at different points within the film,\u201d Hammond said. \u201cThen, when the film degrades, it can release those drugs in reverse order. This is enabling us to create complex, multidrug films, using a simple water-based technique.\u201d<\/p>\n Hammond described how these layer-by-layer films can be used to promote bone growth, in an application that could help people born with congenital bone defects or people who experience traumatic injuries.<\/p>\n For that use, her lab has created films with layers of two proteins. One of these, BMP-2, is a protein that interacts with adult stem cells and induces them to differentiate into bone cells, generating new bone. The second is a growth factor called VEGF, which stimulates the growth of new blood vessels that help bone to regenerate. These layers are applied to a very thin tissue scaffold that can be implanted at the injury site.<\/p>\n