Biomedicine

NanoBio Photonics in Health

The Roper group studies near- and far-field features of electromagnetic (EM) coupling between surface waves, like plasmons, and low-frequency modes, like molecular vibrations or phonons, on nanoscale structures. This work allows better diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases. Of particular interest are diseases like cancer, heart disease, or influenza that have a genetic component. As examples, Roper uses EM coupling in nanoarchitectures to develop more effective diagnostics and sensors for live virus or macromolecules such as protein or DNA. Roper’s lab has also developed methods for improved drug delivery vehicles including viral and plasmid DNA vectors, therapeutics for photodynamic therapy, and improved understanding of direct thermal ablation of cancer and microbial infection.

New ‘bottom-up’ fabrication methods developed in the Roper lab can economically create bio/nanomaterials that have exhibited a variety of extraordinary effects, such as significant Raman enhancement for disease diagnostics, lower immune response to antigen delivery, and improved optothermal responses for cell ablation and point-of-care DNA analysis. New theoretical models developed in Roper’s lab predict microscopic, thermal, and spectral features of these nanomaterials. Modeling guides development of new nanostructures that provide greater than 10-fold improvements in areas such as (i) sensing of pandemic virus to preserve public health; (ii) opto-thermal transport in medical micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS); (iii) optoplasmonic DNA analysis; and (iv) personalized medicine.

Nanomaterials for Pharmacogenomics

Prof. Roper was recently awarded a United States Patent for ‘Simultaneous amplification and detection of ribonucleic acid by an optical method using surface plasmon resonance’: U.S. Patent number 7,998,672, filed on May 30, 2007. This patent provides a new method to detect and identify gene sequences involved in genetic diseases like cancer and heart disease, as well as infectious diseases like bacteria. The method is based on plasmon interactions in composite systems and metamaterials. Important physical properties of metamaterials come from their structure, as well as their atomic composition. Metamaterials are well known for their use in new cloaking devices where they hide from electromagnetism (e.g. light) at particular frequencies.

Nanomaterials for Thermal Ablation and Drug Delivery

Prof. Roper’s group has developed comprensive models of thermoplasmonics in single-phase, multi-phase, and composite systems. These models, based on energy exchange between incoming electromagnetic radiation, coupled plasmons, phonons, and environmental energy sinks, are able to predict and describe dynamic and steady state energy profiles in a variety of prototype nano/bio plasmonic systems. Using these models, photon/plasmon-active nanomaterials for thermal ablation of bacterial and diseased mammalian cells (e.g. cancer) and EM-reponsive drug delivery are under development.

Viral-vectored Vaccines and Gene Therapy

The recent patent followed more than a decade of work involving development of methods for disease prevention and treatment using conventional and novel antigens as well as viral- and plasmid-vectored gene therapies. Part of this work was at Merck & Co, where Dr. Roper led groups that updated existing vaccines against pneumococcal pneumonia and Haemophilus influenzae type B. He also led projects to develop exploratory new viral and DNA-plasmid vectored gene delivery vehicles. Applications of these vehicles included candidates to prevent influenza, HIV, and drug-resistant bacterial infection. Prof. Roper was co-inventor of a patent at Merck for work to develop a vaccine against drug-resistant Staphyloccus aureus.

Pharmaceutical Development

Roper has authored seven Technical Pharmaceutical Reports, five Clinical cGMP Process Documents, and several cGMP lab procedures that describe in detail the development of 1 biologically extracted clinical candidate, one viral and one DNA-vectored clinical candidate, and three bacterial vaccine products. Prof. Roper has consulted with major manufacturers in pharmaceutical R&D, drug development, device design, fabrication of specialized polymer adsorbents and membranes, process equipment design, and manufacturing process development. Recently, Prof. Roper and students in his lab joined with Frontier Scientific, Inc. to develop clinical preparations of an anti-cancer photodynamic compound. This compound is currently in Phase II clinical trials.