Chandrashekhar V Kulkarni
University of Central Lancashire, UK
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nanomed Nanotechnol
Being amphiphilic in nature, lipid molecules self-assemble into various nanostructures in aqueous environment. The structural geometries vary from simple spherical to complex 3-dimensional architectures. The applicability of these lipid phases is enhanced by dispersing them into particulate form. These dispersions take the form of oil-in-water emulsions which require either or a combination of stabilizer and high energy. Interesting thing to note is that the original (before dispersion) self-assembly is retained inside the dispersed lipid particles. Recently, we have developed a hybrid system based on various carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and lipid molecules. Both of these components act as mutual stabilizers. Currently, both - CNTs and nanostructured lipid particles are being explored for their drug delivery applications independently. However, our hybrid system combines properties of both the constituents. Another hybrid system is based on immobilization of nanostructured lipid particles in hydrogel films. Fabrication, characterization and applications of these hybrid drug carrier systems will be presented.
Chandrashekhar V Kulkarni received his PhD in Chemical Biology from University of London with a Marie Curie Fellowship at Imperial College London (2005-2008). Earlier, he completed his BSc (1999) and MSc (2001) from Shivaji University Kolhapur, India and worked in NCL, Pune. He had a few postdoc stints at University of Graz-Austria, University of Bayreuth-Germany and University of Cambridge-UK. In March 2013, he started ‘Lipid Nanostructures Laboratory’. Some of his research interests include model biomembranes, nanostructured lipid particles as carrier systems, and novel nano-bio-applications of lipid nanostructures. He published several papers in these areas. He is currently the Editor of the Elsevier Book Series: Advances in Biomembranes and Lipid-Assemblies.
Email: CVKulkarni@uclan.ac.uk