Porter Group

The Porter group is focused on the design and development of novel drug delivery technologies. We aim to use drug delivery technologies: 1) to target drugs to the lymphatics (a site rich in immune cells and tissues and therefore a site of action for many immunotherapeutics) 2) to overcome limitations to drug absorption resulting from low drug solubility; 3) to better understand the mechanisms by which drugs are trafficked specifically to critical organelles within the cell; and finally 4) to design nanomaterials to better target drugs (including mRNA) to a range of disease sites including cancer.

The first three of these research areas are tied together by a common theme and that is the realization that poorly water soluble drugs share many characteristics with dietary lipids. Unlike most poorly water soluble drugs, lipids are very well absorbed and distributed around the body. This reflects millennia of evolution that have resulted in the development of highly sophisticated transport processes to absorb, distribute and utilize lipids. Much of our work is focused on better understanding these transport processes and harnessing them for drug absorption – in essence ‘piggybacking’ drug absorption and transport onto natural lipid transport pathways.