Tamara Dacoba

Postdoc
Email: tdacoba [at] mit . edu
she/her/hers


Surface functionalization of nanoparticles for the treatment of sickle cell disease

Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder with a high prevalence in developing countries. The development of a technology that allows an effective and direct in vivo gene delivery to hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) could make the treatment more accessible to the patients in need. My research focuses on the evaluation of different strategies for the surface functionalization of nanoparticles with targeting ligands and polymer layers as a way to improve the ability of nanoparticles to efficiently target HSCs, while reducing the unwanted interaction with other cell types.