Despite extraordinary advances in the development of new drugs and biotechnology, cancer continues to represent one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In many cases the problem lies not with the drugs but rather the difficulty in successfully delivering them to the site of a tumour. In healthy tissue there is a regular structure of blood vessels supplying oxygen and nutrients to cells, which divide and grow at a steady rate. In cancerous tumours, however, cell division and growth is unregulated, leading to a chaotic vessel structure and regions of tissue with little or no blood supply. Consequently, when drugs are ingested or injected into the blood stream not all parts of the tumour are treated and there is a high risk of recurrence. Compounding this, in many tumours there is a pressure gradient that resists uptake of drugs from the blood vessels so that only a very small fraction is actually delivered. The rest of the drug circulates and is eventually absorbed by healthy tissue, often leading to intolerable side effects. The goal of the research being carried out in the Oxford Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) is to develop new methods for delivering anti-cancer drugs that overcome these barriers. In particular physical stimuli such as ultrasound and magnetic fields are being used to localise the release and improve the distribution of drugs within tumours using micro and nanoscopic bubbles as delivery vehicles. In this talk, Eleanor Stride will present the new techniques that have been developed used to fabricate and characterise these bubbles; and how they are being applied for the treatment of cancer.
Eleanor Stride is the Statutory Professor of Biomaterials in the Departments of Engineering Science and the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences. She specialises in the fabrication of nano and microscale devices for targeted drug delivery.
She obtained her BEng and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from UCL where she subsequently appointed to a lectureship and a Royal Academy of Engineering and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Research Fellowship. In 2011 she was awarded an EPSRC Challenging Engineering grant and joined the Biomedical Ultrasonics, Biotherapy and Biopharmaceutical Laboratory (BUBBL) in the Oxford Institute of Biomedical Engineering, where she became a full Professor in 2014.
Her work has been recognized through the award of a Philip Leverhulme prize, The EPSRC & Journal of the Royal Society Interface Award, the 2009 Engineering Medal at the Parliamentary Science, Engineering & Technology for Britain awards, the 2013 Bruce Lindsay Award from the Acoustical Society of America and the 2015 IET AF Harvey prize. She was also made a fellow of the ERA foundation for her contributions to public engagement and promotion of Engineering, for example through the Born to Engineer series and documentaries for the BBC. In 2016 she was nominated as one of the top 50 most influential Women in Engineering and in 2017 was made a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.