Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello!

I have been doing research on liposomes and their use in efficient drug delivery systems to target breast cancer cells. I am not sure how to proceed with my project.

What would be the best way to test this idea?

Hi,

I cannot find a reference that Science Buddies has ever dealt with this type of question before. I suspect the best way to handle this question is through your finding a mentor interested in this field. Science Buddies advice on finding a mentor is here:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tors.shtml

I looked for papers that described measuring drug delivery by liposomes, and found quite a few. Some of the more relevant are linked below, but all I found would require access to very expensive equipment and skills that would probably be only available to you through a mentor. I have listed them in my estimated order from most to least practical for you(assuming Science Fair rules would effectively prohibit you from using vertebrates in your experiments):

Here is a paper describing an approach to testing liposome drug delivery using a nonliving system, which sounds more practical for your situation:

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cac ... D2RO0EXJBA

Here is an article measuring liposome drug release rates en vitro by NMR:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0007391


Here is a paper describing the use of pig ear skin from slaughtered pigs to test efficiency of drug delivery from liposomes:

http://www.nature.com/jid/journal/v126/ ... 0323a.html

Here is a paper describing assay of drug delivery to bacteria using liposomes:

http://aac.asm.org/cgi/content/full/44/9/2458


Here is a paper describing experiments to test delivery of drugs in liposomes to eye tissue:

http://www.iovs.org/cgi/reprint/22/2/220.pdf

Here is a paper on the use of sedimentation to evaluate liposome drug delivery:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_o ... archtype=a

This is a review article of possible interest:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2755546/

Ou are interested in a very exciting field. I wish I could offer you more accessible advice on how to pursue this interest, and perhaps another expert here who has better knowledge of your field of interest can.
I hope this helps a little. Best wishes for great success on your project!

Barrett L Tomlinson