Biopharmaceutics
- Nanoparticle drug delivery
- 2D and 3D cell cultures
- Development of label free detection technology for biopharmaceutical sciences
Nanoparticle drug delivery technology includes the NPs at the size of about 200 nm to 20 nm. Those NPs can be composed from polymers, lipidis and extracellular vesicles. The focus of the research is for understanding the packing and unpacking mechanisms of drug and gene-NP; - their interactions with cell surfaces, cell NP up-takes mechanisms and release mechanisms of the NPs load inside the cell.
The 2D and 3D cell research includes the stem-, primary and secondary cells. The focus is to develop the different type of human cell based models for NPs research, drug discovery and development, and chemical toxicity testing. Those cell systems are cultured in human and animal free biomimetic hydrogel environments utilizing e.g. 3D printing. The therapy areas are wounds and burns care, prostate-, head- and neck - cancer. And in addition of the therapy areas, the liver is also one of the main tissues due to its very important role in human body.
Label free detection technology includes the development of the label free methods and model systems for biopharmaceutical sciences. The main technologies are surface plasmon resonance, quartz crystal microbalance, picosecond Raman, nanoparticle tracking analyzer.
Marjo Yliperttula, Ph.D., Professor
Marjo Yliperttula received her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1993 (University of Helsinki, Finland). She served as Group Manager of Physical Chemistry, PK Simulations, and Early ADME at Orion Pharma. She has also served as Professor and Head of Division of Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Pharmacy. Professor Yliperttula recently joined CDR at the University of Helsinki, where she heads studies and teaching of Biopharmaceutics. Professor Yliperttula has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and numerous patents. She is particularly active in product R&D and collaboration with industrial partners. In 2010, Dr. Yliperttula sold the innovation “Nanofibrillar cellulose as cell culture matrix” to UPM (Finland). This technology has enabled development of the commercially available GrowDex® cell culture matrix. Professor Yliperttula’s main research fields include nanoparticles and drug delivery, 2D and 3D cell culture, and label-free detection technologies.
