Jun.-Prof. Dr. Sangeun Lee

Nanomedicines get more and more attention recently as a drug-delivery tool for enhanced targeting and bioavailability of drugs, by protecting drugs from degradation and translocating the loaded drugs overcoming biobarriers.

We develop smart polymeric materials for nanomedicines that regulate drug release using overexpression of biomarkers at target sites. Disease sites have a specific environment compared to normal tissue. For example, temperature elevation, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) concentration, and depletion of local pH in inflammation. Similarly, carcinoma tissues also have acidic extracellular environments due to anaerobic glycolysis. Such a disease-specific environment can be utilized for triggering property changes of nanomedicines at the target, such as drug release, biomarker detection, and activation of an imaging agent.

Our group works with developing polymeric materials to design a novel nanomedicine for drug delivery and gene therapy. The group is particularly interested in stimuli-responsive materials responding to target specific environments, such as cancers, infections, and inflammations, for developing the system to deliver drugs in a controlled manner and diagnose.