Position

Chair of Nanomedicine and Head, Centre for Drug Delivery Research

Areas of Expertise

Liposome Research, Carbon Nanomaterials, Quantum Dots, Cancer Delivery Systems, Gene Therapy, Pharmaceutical Nanomaterials, Colloid & Interface Science, Stem Cells, Viruses, Radionuclide Therapeutics, Nanoparticles, Electron Microscopy of Characterisation of Drug Delivery Systems.

Biography

Professor Kostarelos is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (FRSM) and a Fellow of the Institute of Nanotechnology (FIoN). He is a Senior Founding Member of the American Academy of Nanomedicine (Washington DC, USA) and the Treasurer and Board Member of the International Liposome Society (Vancouver, Canada). Professor Kostarelos is the Senior Editor of the journal Nanomedicine and sits on the Editorial Board of: The Journal of Liposome Research, The International Journal of Nanomedicine, and is an International Editor for Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine.

He obtained his Diploma in Chemical Engineering and PhD from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, studying the steric stabilization of liposomes using block copolymer molecules. He carried out his postdoctoral training in various medical institutions in the United States and has worked closely with Professors Th.F. Tadros (ICI plc, UK), P.F. Luckham (Imperial College London), D. Papahadjopoulos (UCSF, USA), G. Sgouros (Memorial Sloan-Kettering, NY, USA) and R.G. Crystal (Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY, USA).

Following his promotion to Assistant Professor of Genetic Medicine & Chemical Engineering in Medicine at Cornell University Weill Medical College, he relocated to the UK as the Deputy Director of Imperial College Genetic Therapies Centre. Professor Kostarelos joined the Centre for Drug Delivery Research and the Department of Pharmaceutics in 2003 as the Deputy Head of the Centre. He was promoted to the Personal Chair of Nanomedicine in 2007.

Research Interests

Professor Kostarelos is leading the Nanomedicine Laboratory within the Centre for Drug Delivery Research and the Department of Pharmaceutics. He is also a member of the interdisciplinary Centre for Cancer Medicines. His research portfolio consists of: development of novel viral and non-viral gene therapy vectors, delivery and genetic manipulation of embryonic and progenitor stem cells, advanced delivery systems for radio- and chemo-therapeutic agents against cancer, descriptive and predictive modelling of delivery systems’ pharmacological performance.

During his career he has focused on the engineering of delivery systems for drugs, vitamins, radionuclides and genes towards therapeutic applications, primarily using liposomes among other pharmaceutically-relevant colloids such as emulsions, microemulsions and polymeric micelles. He is actively collaborating with John’s Hopkins Medical School, USA; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, NY, USA; CNRS, Strasbourg, France; University of Trieste, Italy; University of Ioannina, Greece; CSIC, Barcelona, Spain; and various UK-bases institutions including: The Institute of Cancer Research, London, Imperial College London, Sheffield University Medical School, King’s College London, The Institute of Child Health.

K.Al-Jamal, W.Al-Jamal, S.Akerman, J.Podesta, A.Yilmazer, J.Turton, A.Bianco, N.Vargesson, C.Kanthou, A.Florence, G.Tozer, K.Kostarelos. Systemic antiangiogenic activity of cationic poly-L-lysine dendrimer delays tumor growth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, in press

K.Kostarelos, A.Bianco, M.Prato. Promises, facts and challenges for carbon nanotubes in imaging and therapeutics. Nature Nanotechnology, 2009, 4(10), 627-33.

W.Al-Jamal, K.Al-Jamal, P.Bomans, P.Frederik, K.Kostarelos. Functionalized-quantum-dot-liposome hybrids as multimodal nanoparticles for cancer. Small, 2008, 4(9), 1406-15.

K.Kostarelos. The long and short of carbon nanotube toxicity. Nature Biotechnology, 2008, 26(7), 774-776.

R.Singh, B.Tian, K.Kostarelos. Artificial envelopment of non-enveloped viruses: enhancing adenovirus tumor targeting in vivo. FASEB Journal, 2008, 22(9), 3389-402.

K.Kostarelos, A.Bianco, M.Prato. Big hype around nanotubes creates unrealistic hopes. Nature, 2008, 453, 280.

K.Kostarelos, L.Lacerda, G.Pastorin, W.Wu, S.Wieckowski, J.Luangsivilay, S.Godefroy, D.Pantarotto J.P.Briand, S.Muller, M.Prato, A.Bianco. Cellular uptake of functionalised carbon nanotubes is independent of functional group and cell type. Nature Nanotechnology, 2007, 2:108-113.

R.Singh, D.Pantarotto, L.Lacerda, G.Pastorin, C.Klumpp, M.Prato, A.Bianco, K.Kostarelos. Tissue biodistribution and blood clearance rates of intravenously administered carbon nanotube radiotracers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 2006, 103(9), 3357-3362.

View Extended List of publications:

Nanomedicine Lab