TMC PULSE

T M C » P U L S E | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 32 The Best, the Worst and the Future of Nanotechnology Experts converge for the international NanoGagliato conference GAGLIATO, Italy — N estled on a mountainside in the southern tip of Italy's boot is Gagliato, a tiny Calabrian town that 470 people call home. Every July, experts from multiple sectors— nanoscientists, doctors, venture capitalists, educators and others— converge here for NanoGagliato, an unconventional five-day conference on nanotechnology and nanomedicine. Founded in 2008 by Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., president and CEO of Houston Methodist Research Institute, and his wife, Paola, NanoGagliato combines informal, format-free roundtable discussions, community and educational out- reach initiatives, and local cuisine and activities for a unique take on scientific engagement. "This [is] a little international community hotspot where we can share so much that comes from an incredible landscape of the sun, the sea, the local tourism, the hills, the history, the archaeology, the food and the science," Paola said. "It's a little Shangri-La we built in a very unlikely place." In a series of panel discussions held in a newly renovated two-story building and a beachside restaurant that offers a panoramic view of the Ionian Sea, speakers delved into enough to be measured in nanome- ters—was touted as one of the best developments in nanotechnology during NanoGagliato's "NanoBest" discussion. The key to translating research into viable health care solutions and therapeutics is the establishment of good manufacturing practices facil- ities, Ferrari said. A good example is Houston Methodist's cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) Core, a 2,810-square-foot facility on the 12th floor of the Houston Methodist Research Institute. The facility allows scientists to avoid the cost and delays associated with outsourcing the production and distribution of therapeutics and devices and, instead, take their research from bench to bedside for the best, the worst and the future of nanotechnology. "The atmosphere, the lack of structure and the lack of formal mannerisms make NanoGagliato the perfect environment to help people feel free to share passion- ately and scientifically outside their comfort zones in a completely unbi- ased way," said Adriele Prina-Mello, Ph.D., a returning NanoGagliato speaker and an assistant professor in translational nanomedicine at the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute School of Medicine in Dublin, Ireland. "The energy that is brought in … is contagious." NanoBest Nanofabrication—the design and manufacture of devices small first-in-human clinical trials in a single space. "In the near and total absence of facilities such as that in academia, this connects activity typically in university research institutes' settings to distribution, which is typically done in the private sector world," Ferrari said. "We've been preaching about the importance of that connector for years and years, and now we get to walk the walk and talk the talk." NanoWorst Cerulean Pharma, a company that developed nanoparticle technology to deliver chemotherapy drugs to cancer cells, was identified as a "NanoWorst" at NanoGagliato. In 2013, Cerulean's premier drug, known as CRLX101, underwent an open-label Phase 2 clinical trial in hopes of extending patients' survival rates. Due to a massive trial design error, patients on Cerulean's drug lived 6.3 months, while patients on other therapies lived 11.9 months. Three years later, the company failed to produce positive results in a Phase 2 trial for kidney cancer. Instead of improving survival rates, the combination of CRLX101 and a standard cancer drug, beva- cizumab, failed to keep the cancer from spreading. B y S h a n l e y P i e r c e Paola and Mauro Ferrari (center) kick off NanoGagliato 2018 with a festive celebration that included singing and dancing in Gagliato's town square.

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