Ms April St. Pierre

Biomimetic hybrid nanoparticles for improved uptake and delivery across the blood–brain barrier

I am working on developing nanoparticles that incorporate cell membrane fragments so that we can capitalize on the presence of natural membrane-bound ligands and receptors to improve nanoparticle delivery across the blood-brain barrier. By tuning the ligands and characteristics of the biomimetic nanoparticles, and investigating how this affects uptake and intracellular trafficking in the cells that make up the blood-brain barrier, I hope to increase blood-brain barrier crossing and improve our understanding of how nanoparticles can be designed to treat diseases such as Alzheimer's and glioblastoma.

Joined

2026

Supervisor

Dr Christos Tapeinos

Co-supervisors

Dr Shiqi Wang (University of Helsinki), Dr Ayse Latif

Funding

University of Manchester International Partnership Programme