ProfHelena Kelly

Helena's research interests are primarily focused on hydrogel and nanoparticula technologies, in particular potential clinical applications for hydrogels as delivery vehicles or biomaterial carriers. She is particularly interested in developing integrated solutions for complex healthcare problems and collaborates with a multi-disciplinary team of people including clinicians, biomedical engineers and molecular biologists. She has evaluated the potential of hydrogel platforms for applications across a range of clinical indications including tissue regeneration for cardiac applications, as an ECM to enhance cell viability, and for intra-tumoral delivery in oncology applications. 

The potential of hydrogel platforms and nano systems in interventional oncology applications is her primary area focus. Interventional oncology (IO) focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and cancer-related problems using targeted minimally invasive procedures performed under image guidance. Treatment for cancer is traditionally based around the three pillars of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation with immunotherapies playing an increasingly important role in certain cancers. Standard drug regimens are primarily delivered to the patient via intravenous (IV) injection, with the concomitant off-target toxic side effects leading to significant patient morbidity due to lack of specificity of treatment.

Applying the principles of IO, Helena has developed a thermoresponsive hydrogel platform for the intra-tumoral delivery of chemotherapeutics. This ChemoGell technology is a patent-protected platform that is currently being evaluated for its commercialisation potential through the spin-out company OncoLize, of which Prof. Kelly is a co-founder and CSO. Intra-tumoral delivery of chemotherapeutics provides potential benefits to treatment including minimally invasive administration, localisation of chemical payload at tumor site and subsequent reduction in off-target side effects. The use of this approach in combination with specifically designed drug delivery platforms allows for optimisation of this approach through improved delivery and retention at the tumour site, and prolonged duration of release and activity of drug.

She is also developing technology platforms focused on addressing tumour hypoxia, Tumour hypoxia drives resistance to both radiation therapy and chemotherapy and there are currently no effective clinial approaches to address this. Treatment approaches which can address tumour hypoxia offer the potential to improve treatment outcomes by enabling more effective use of existing treatment modalities.