The Karathanasis Laboratory for Nanomedical Engineering focuses on translational cancer nanomedicine. Specifically, our research program exploit the engineerable nature of nanoparticle technology to develop clinically relevant therapeutic and imaging agents for hard-to-treat cancers based on the integration of nanotechnology, oncology, imaging science and cancer biology. Using robust in vitro, in silico and in vivo analyses, we study the relation between the physical characteristics of nanoparticles (size, shape, etc.) and the nanoparticle’s navigation through different biological processes to extract design parameters that improve the in vivo performance of nanoparticles. In addition to the development of contemporary therapeutic paradigms, our lab develops nanoparticle imaging agents for MRI, CT and molecular imaging to enable non-invasive in vivo interrogation at super-high resolutions and highly accurate diagnosis of disease.