Sudipta Seal is determined to increase patient survivorship and enhance their quality of life.
As a UCF Pegasus Professor and chair of materials science and engineering department, Seal takes his research down to the nanoscale.
He focuses on cerium oxide nanoparticles known as nanoceria. These specialized nanoparticles are versatile and can be tailored for a variety of medical applications.
Since arriving at UCF in 1997, Seal has 92 UCF patents to his credit, with more than 450 journal papers. A pioneer in nanoceria research for the biomedical sector, his work focuses on the nanoscience of advanced materials processing and materials science and engineering.
Nanoceria and Biomedical Applications
As Seal continued his research, he realized nanoceria was being used for microelectronic processing, but not yet in the biomedical sector. “We at UCF are the first ones to show that this has wonderful properties,” Seal says. “We filed a patent and were the very first to show nano cerium cell survivability,” he says “Then of course, after that, the field has really blossomed. There is a wide range of applications in biomedical sciences — from cancer research to bone regeneration, tissue regeneration and radiation protection. All from this almost accidental discovery made at UCF.”
Since then, Seal and his research team have found that nanoceria are non-toxic and great carriers for delivering therapeutic agents and have regenerative oxidative properties.
Seal says that the nanoceria structure can be tweaked depending on the application.
“In layman’s terms, I would say I create openings in that crystal structure that I can tinker with,” he says. “This is where the functional materials come in. I can take one opening and use it to send something, maybe I can load a drug on it. I can take another opening and keep it open to destroy nasty radicals produced by cells that are not needed.”
Seal says that nanoceria’s versatility enables companies to put them in pills or injectables. “The sky’s the limit,” he says. “There’s also recent data that when combined with drugs, the nanoceria material actually protects the good cells, while the drug kills cancer cells even more potently.”
Seal’s cerium oxide research has led to four technologies that he co-developed with Kenneth Liechty, division chief of pediatric surgery and vice chair of surgery research at the University of Arizona. Liechty was previously at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus, which is where he and Seal had collaborated.
Seal and Liechty combined UCF’s nanoceria platform with the University of Colorado’s experience in microRNA (miRNA) to engineer a specialized miRNA that can assist with diabetic wound healing. Found in all human cells, miRNA plays important roles in many biological processes such as cell proliferation or development of specific cell functions and characteristics.
Wound Healing for Diabetic Patients
Seal and collaborators leveraged the cerium oxide molecules to deliver specialized miRNA to an enflamed wound site in patients with diabetes to correct the inflammatory response at the molecular level. Once there, the molecules shorten the time of diabetic wound closure and help avoid the complications associated with impaired diabetic wound healing as those with diabetes often experience slower wound healing.
The molecules specifically combat excess reactive oxygen species molecules, which may build up as a result of prolonged inflammation and ultimately delay proper wound closure and healing. With that kind of inflammatory response, the body can produce a build-up of excess reactive oxygen species molecules, which then leads to increased oxidative stress inside cells.
Nanosilk Fibers to Protect Skin and Treat Injuries
Nanosilk fibers created from silkworms or spiders is another unique healing invention developed by UCF and the University of Colorado.
The patented invention includes biocompatible and hypoallergenic compositions to heal, protect and strengthen skin. It also employs a combined nanoceria-miRNA specialized composition.
Silk comprises two proteins: fibroin and sericin. The silk core is fibroin, often used to make surgical sutures because it is non-toxic and biocompatible with human tissues. Fibroin solution converts to many forms, including films, sponges, gels and powders.
During their research, the inventors found that applying a layered system of silk fibroin fibers in solution and spun mat formats can effectively protect and strengthen skin, especially in weak areas that are injury-prone or stressed repetitively.
Also, they found that when integrated with cerium oxide molecules conjugated with the miRNA, the silk fibroin fiber solution and mat enhanced wound healing.
“We are now using biodegradable material to deliver therapeutics in disease sites,” Seal says. “Silk ceria composite is one of them — it’s green and sustainable technology.”
The solution of silk fibroin fibers may be applied as a spray, liquid, form or gel, and the fibroin mat can be applied as a mat, sheet, gel or fiber.
The invention can be used as a protective layer to improve the skin’s elasticity, thus preventing or reducing injury, even minor blisters and skin ulcers. It can also treat a variety of wounds, and it can be used to treat injuries to subcutaneous tissue.
Nanoceria and miRNA for Tissue Regeneration
UCF and the University of Colorado collaborated with the University of Pennsylvania to develop a nanoceria-miRNA conjugate that not only assists with wound healing, but with tissue regeneration and angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels).
“You need angiogenesis, and you need blood vessels to grow,” Seal says.
For instance, after a heart attack, the invention aids recovery by reducing the body’s inflammatory response and helping it to generate new tissue for blood vessels.
As with diabetic wounds, heart attacks can cause the body to produce excess reactive oxygen species, increase oxidative stress and inflammation.
Offering both treatment and prevention, the patented invention can significantly mitigate heart damage and prevent adverse ventricular remodeling during recovery.
Treating and Preventing Lung Injury
Seal says that his earlier work 10-15 years ago on lung injury and cancer therapy radiation helped to develop new technology with the University of Colorado to promote lung repair, reduce lung inflammation and help treat or prevent pulmonary diseases or conditions.
“When you treat the lungs with nanoceria, the good cells around the lungs are protected from the radiotherapy while the radiotherapy is killing the cancer cells,” Seal says. “The cerium oxide has this bifunctionality to protect the good cells from the radiation.”
He explained that the nanocerium oxide has multivalent states, meaning the invention’s nanoparticles can stay silent when they want to and stay active when needed.
“What we have seen in nanoscale depends on the microenvironment in the cell,” he says. “It can switch back and forth.”
The cerium oxide and miRNA compositions of the invention can be administered in different forms as a spray or a pump.
Seal says he plans to continue promoting the commercialization aspect of technology developed within his department.
“I’m really a proponent of people creating new IPs and taking them to the next level,” he says. “The world of nanomaterials is quite intriguing and the potential benefit of the nanomaterials, nanotechnology is immense.”
Researcher’s Credentials
Seal is a UCF Pegasus Professor, UCF trustee chair, and chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Seal joined the department and the Advanced Materials Processing Analysis Center, which is part of UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, in 1997. He has an appointment at UCF’s College of Medicine and is a member of UCF’s prosthetics Biionix faculty cluster initiative. He is a past director of UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center and Advanced Materials Processing Analysis Center. Seal received his doctorate in materials engineering with a minor in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California Berkeley.
Technology Available for License
To learn more about Seal’s work and potential licensing of these UCF technologies or for more information about sponsored research opportunities, contact Andrea White (andrea.white@ucf.edu) at (407) 823-0138.
