innovate arkansas

The Arkansas Nanomedicine Center was unveiled Monday by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

The center will group research from UAMS and statewide collaborators as part of the UAMS College of Medicine. Vladimir Zharov, director of the Phillips Classic Laser and Nanomedicine Laboratories and professor in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, in the College of Medicine, will be the center's director.

The research of Zharov and his team in clinically relevant nanomedicine has been featured in many of the world's top scientific publications.

Nanomedicine, an offshoot of nanotechnology, refers to specific medical research and applications at the molecular scale for curing disease or repairing damaged tissues. The ANC's goal is to maximize nanomedicine research and clinical efforts across UAMS and its collaborators with a translational emphasis to put cutting-edge nanoscience methods to work for patients.

"Over the past few years, more and more of our researchers and clinicians have been exploring applications for nanomedicine," Debra Fiser, dean of the UAMS College of Medicine, said in a news release. "In an institution as large as ours, an extraordinary amount of knowledge, experience and resources is spread across many laboratories and departments, not to mention our partnering institutions.

"The key is to bring people together, so that new discoveries can be translated into better medical care more efficiently and effectively."

The efforts to capitalize on nanomedicine work being done between UAMS and its partners began in 2010 with the College of Medicine's creation of a Nanomedicine Magnet Group. That group indentified the diverse nanomedicine efforts that faculty members were working toward. Group members learned what their colleagues in other programs were doing, what resources they needed, and what resources and expertise they had to share.

"The breadth of activity and the numbers of basic science, clinical and translational researchers involved in nanomedicine is truly impressive," Fiser said. "We recently counted at least 35 faculty members who are actively working on or are interested in nanomedicine projects. They represent at least 13 College of Medicine departments alone."

That work includes new discoveries in the use of nanoparticles for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, infections, cardiovascular diseases and drug addiction treatment, among many others.

"The creation of this center is a key commitment to keep UAMS on the front edge of applications of nanotechnology in medicine," Zharov said. "One of the goals of the ANC is to facilitate unique opportunities provided by the University of Arkansas System to bring revolutionary nanotechnology advances from bench to bedside."

ANC partnering institutions are: the Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute; the Institute of Nanoscience and Engineering at University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; the Nanotechnology Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and  the National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson.