Prodrugs and Drug Delivery
Research group
The Prodrug and Drug Delivery group develops chemistry-based methods, especially prodrugs, for improved drug delivery and targeting.
Our research is currently focusing on exploiting the body’s natural mechanisms for transporting nutrients, the LAT1 and GLUT1 proteins, for improved and targeted drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and cancer cells that express these transporters. The focus is on head and neck cancers as well as on brain tumors. We belong to a national research consortium having an aim to develop boron carriers for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT).
We use computational, in vitro and in vivo tools to build an understanding of cellular uptake mechanisms and quantities as well as preclinical pharmacokinetics of our compounds.
We use computational, in vitro and in vivo tools to build an understanding of cellular uptake mechanisms and quantities as well as preclinical pharmacokinetics of our compounds.
Keywords
BNCT
drug analysis
drug delivery
drug targeting
drug transporters
medicinal chemistry
pharmaceutical chemistry
pharmacokinetics
prodrug
Group members - UEF
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Juulia Järvinen Early Stage Researcher , Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Katayun Bahrami Early Stage Researcher , Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy -
Tarja Ihalainen Senior Laboratory Technician , Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy
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Jarkko Rautio Professor , Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy
Others
Other group members
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Jussi Kärkkäinen jussi.karkkainen@uef.fi
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Seydhamed Maljaei seydhamed.maljaei@uef.fi
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Petri Riihelä