Thayumanavan Publishes Findings on Nanogel Drug Delivery System to Reverse Obesity and Lower Cholesterol

S. Thai Thayumanavan, a biomedical engineer, distinguished professor of chemistry and biomedical engineering, director of Center for Bioactive Delivery, has used a nanogel-based carrier designed in his lab to deliver a drug exclusively to the liver of obese mice, effectively reversing their diet-induced disease.

“The treated mice completely lost their gained weight, and we did not see any untoward side effects,” says Thayumanavan. “Considering 100 million Americans have obesity and related cardiometabolic disorders, we became pretty excited about this work.” Thayumanavan, the senior author, explains his team’s findings in a paper published Tuesday, Aug. 29, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences NEXUS.

Efforts to translate these findings to humans are being pursued by a start-up company Cyta Therapeutics, which was founded at the UMass Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS) based on the nanogel technologies from the Thayumanavan lab. In late July, Cyta Therapeutics won the Judges’ Choice Best Startup at the 16th annual Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation (MALSI) Day in Boston.