CPOS Seminar: "Drug Delivery and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM): Improving Therapeutic Efficacy through Carrier Design and Personalized TDM"

Speaker: Kon Son, Postdoctoral Researcher, Plaxco Group, Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies, University of California Santa Barbara

Improving therapeutic efficacy through innovative drug carrier design is essential for advancing precision medicine and overcoming limitations of conventional drug delivery. Traditional therapies often face challenges such as rapid metabolism, low bioavailability, and non-specific distribution, reducing therapeutic effects and increasing side effects. Drug carriers—such as liposomes, dendrimers, and polymeric micelles—enhance pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles by protecting drugs, enabling controlled release, and targeting diseased tissues via passive or active mechanisms using ligands. These carriers can self-assemble from lipid or peptide amphiphiles, where tuning the hydrophilic chain and hydrophobic region confers functional and morphological control. This strategy concentrates drugs at the action site while limiting healthy tissue exposure, improving efficacy and reducing toxicity.

Personalized therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) ensures patients receive safe, effective dosages based on their biological profiles. Genetic differences, organ function, and age influence how individuals absorb, metabolize, and eliminate drugs. TDM involves measuring drug concentrations and biomarkers in fluids—such as plasma or interstitial fluid—to adjust dosages in real time and maintain optimal levels. Electrochemical aptamer-based (EAB) sensors provide a generalizable, real-time, in vivo method for tracking specific molecules, using conformation-linked signaling that avoids chemical transformation of the target. Combined with smart carriers, TDM enables precise delivery and individualized dosing—a synergistic strategy that maximizes benefit and minimizes harm.