Prof. Ulrich S. Schubert
(Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena , Germany)
Pharmapolymers feature a great potential for the delivery of various active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). An optimum carrier material should be non-toxic, bind and protect its cargo from degradation, be invisible to the immune system and direct the API to its desired place of action, where it should release the cargo without reducing its effectiveness. As such, a modular approach for the design of polymeric carrier materials seems to be a straightforward way to decouple the various requirements from each other: One section is to bind the API (e.g. a hydrophobic drug or genetic material), a second part is to reduce toxicity and shield from recognition by the immune system (i.e. a so-called stealth polymer), and an attached “director” is to navigate the carrier to a specific target.