Dr Nick Fletcher
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Centre for Advanced Imaging
+61 7 334 60359
Researcher biography
Breast cancer is a disease with a substantial impact on society and is the most common form of cancer among women, with significant mortality rates. The early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer is key in providing positive patient outcomes. To this end, my research project is to develop polymer based devices which are able to both image tumors in vivo and deliver therapeutic payloads. This project encompasses the synthesis as well as in vitro and in vivo evaluation of multifunctional polymers incorporating:
- Peptide or oligonucleotide aptamers for cellular targeting;
- Fluorescent dyes, fluorine containing monomers for 19F MRI, and radioisotope chelating moieties for PET to enable multimodal imaging;
- Reversible linkage of oligonucleotides for targeted delivery of gene therapies.
| Featured projects | Duration |
|---|---|
| Nanomedicine for treating breast cancer: development of multi-therapeutic agents |
Book Chapter
Fletcher, Nicholas and Thurecht, Kristofer (2016). Molecular imaging utilizing Aptamer-targeted probes. In Rakesh N. Veedu (Ed.), Aptamers Tools for Nanotherapy and Molecular Imaging (pp. 287-318) Boca Raton, United States: CRC Press.
Journal Articles
Crawford, Theo, Fletcher, Nicholas, Veitch, Margaret, Gonzalez Cruz, Jazmina L., Pett, Nicola, Brereton, Ian, Wells, James W., Mobli, Mehdi and Tesiram, Yasvir (2019) Bacillus anthracis Protective Antigen Shows High Specificity for a UV Induced Mouse Model of Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Frontiers in Medicine, 6 . doi:10.3389/fmed.2019.00022
Lu, Mingxia, Chen, Fan, Cao, Cheng, Garvey, Christopher J., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Houston, Zachary H., Lu, Hongxu, Lord, Megan S., Thurecht, Kristofer J. and Stenzel, Martina H. (2019) Importance of polymer length in fructose-based polymeric micelles for an enhanced biological activity. Macromolecules, 52 2: 477-486. doi:10.1021/acs.macromol.8b02381
Ratnayake, G., Bain, A. L., Fletcher, N., Howard, C. B., Khanna, K. K. and Thurecht, K. J. (2018) RNA interference to enhance radiation therapy: targeting the DNA damage response. Cancer Letters, 439 14-23. doi:10.1016/j.canlet.2018.09.011
Chen, Liyu, Glass, Joshua J., De Rose, Robert, Sperling, Claudia, Kent, Stephen J., Houston, Zachary H., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Rolfe, Barbara E. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2018) Influence of Charge on Hemocompatibility and Immunoreactivity of Polymeric Nanoparticles. ACS Applied Bio Materials, 1 3: 756-767. doi:10.1021/acsabm.8b00220
Blackman, Lewis D., Varlas, Spyridon, Arno, Maria C., Houston, Zachary H., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Thurecht, Kristofer J., Hasan, Muhammad, Gibson, Matthew I. and O’Reilly, Rachel K. (2018) Confinement of therapeutic enzymes in selectively permeable polymer vesicles by Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly (PISA) reduces antibody binding and proteolytic susceptibility. ACS Central Science, 4 6: 718-723. doi:10.1021/acscentsci.8b00168
Robinson, Kye J., Huynh, Gabriel T., Kouskousis, Betty P., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Houston, Zachary H., Thurecht, Kristofer J. and Corrie, Simon R. (2018) Modified organosilica core-shell nanoparticles for stable pH sensing in biological solutions. ACS Sensors, 3 5: 967-975. doi:10.1021/acssensors.8b00034
Boase, Nathan R. B., Torres, Marcelo D. T., Fletcher, Nicholas L., de la Fuente-Nunez, Cesar and Fairfull-Smith, Kathryn E. (2018) Polynitroxide copolymers to reduce biofilm fouling on surfaces. Polymer Chemistry, 9 43: 5308-5318. doi:10.1039/c8py01101j
Fletcher, N. L., Houston, Z. H., Simpson, J. D., Veedu, R. N. and Thurecht, K. J. (2018) Designed multifunctional polymeric nanomedicines: long-term biodistribution and tumour accumulation of aptamer-targeted nanomaterials. Chemical Communications, 54 82: 11538-11541. doi:10.1039/c8cc05831h
Cifuentes-Rius, Anna, Ivask, Angela, Das, Shreya, Penya-Auladell, Nuria, Fabregas, Laura, Fletcher, Nicholas L., Houston, Zachary H., Thurecht, Kristofer J. and Voelcker, Nicolas H. (2017) Gold Nanocluster-Mediated Cellular Death under Electromagnetic Radiation. Acs Applied Materials & Interfaces, 9 47: 41159-41167. doi:10.1021/acsami.7b13100
Pearce, Amanda K., Simpson, Joshua D., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Houston, Zachary H., Fuchs, Adrian V., Russell, Pamela J., Whittaker, Andrew K. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2017) Localised delivery of doxorubicin to prostate cancer cells through a PSMA-targeted hyperbranched polymer theranostic. Biomaterials, 141 330-339. doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2017.07.004
Zhao, Yongmei, Houston, Zachary H., Simpson, Joshua D., Chen, Liyu, Fletcher, Nicholas L., Fuchs, Adrian V., Blakey, Idriss and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2017) Using peptide aptamer targeted polymers as a model nanomedicine for investigating drug distribution in cancer nanotheranostics. Molecular Pharmaceutics, 14 10: 3539-3549. doi:10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.7b00560
Dexter, A. F., Fletcher, N. L., Creasey, R. G., Filardo, F., Boehm, M. W. and Jack, K. S. (2017) Fabrication and characterization of hydrogels formed from designer coiled-coil fibril-forming peptides. RSC Advances, 7 44: 27260-27271. doi:10.1039/c7ra02811c
Fletcher, Nicholas, Ardana, Aditya and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2016) Preclinical imaging of siRNA delivery. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 69 10: 1073-1077. doi:10.1071/CH16079
Howard, Christopher B., Fletcher, Nicholas, Houston, Zachary H., Fuchs, Adrian V., Boase, Nathan R. B., Simpson, Joshua D., Raftery, Lyndon J., Ruder, Tim, Jones, Martina L., de Bakker, Christopher J., Mahler, Stephen M. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2016) Targeted Nanomaterials: Overcoming Instability of Antibody-Nanomaterial Conjugates: Next Generation Targeted Nanomedicines Using Bispecific Antibodies (Adv. Healthcare Mater. 16/2016). Advanced Healthcare Materials, 5 16: 1994-1994. doi:10.1002/adhm.201670084
Howard, Christopher B., Fletcher, Nicholas, Houston, Zachary H., Fuchs, Adrian V., Boase, Nathan R. B., Simpson, Joshua D., Raftery, Lyndon J., Ruder, Tim, Jones, Martina L., de Bakker, Christopher J., Mahler, Stephen M. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2016) Overcoming Instability of Antibody-Nanomaterial Conjugates: Next Generation Targeted Nanomedicines Using Bispecific Antibodies. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 5 16: 2055-2068. doi:10.1002/adhm.201600263
Pearce, Amanda K., Fuchs, Adrian V., Fletcher, Nicholas L. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2016) Targeting Nanomedicines to Prostate Cancer: Evaluation of Specificity of Ligands to Two Different Receptors In Vivo. Pharmaceutical Research, 33 10: 1-12. doi:10.1007/s11095-016-1945-x
Venkatachalam, Taracad K., Bernhardt, Paul V., Noble, Chris J., Fletcher, Nicholas, Pierens, Gregory K., Thurecht, Kris J. and Reutens, David C. (2016) Synthesis, characterization and biological activities of semicarbazones and their copper complexes. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 162 295-308. doi:10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2016.04.006
Fuchs, Adrian V., Tse, Brian W.C., Pearce, Amanda. K., Yeh, Mei-Chun, Fletcher, Nicholas L., Huang, Steve S., Heston, Warren D., Whittaker, Andrew K., Russell, Pamela J. and Thurecht, Kristofer J. (2015) Evaluation of polymeric nanomedicines targeted to PSMA: effect of ligand on targeting efficiency. Biomacromolecules, 16 10: 3235-3247. doi:10.1021/acs.biomac.5b00913
Fletcher, Nicholas L., Paquet, Nicolas, Dickinson, Ellyce L. and Dexter, Annette F. (2015) Bioproduction of highly charged designer peptide surfactants via a chemically cleavable coiled-coil heteroconcatemer. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 112 2: 242-251. doi:10.1002/bit.25446
Fletcher, Nicholas L., Lockett, Christina V. and Dexter, Annette F. (2011) A pH-responsive coiled-coil peptide hydrogel. Soft Matter, 7 21: 10210-10218. doi:10.1039/c1sm06261a
Conference Papers
Yeh, Mei-Chun, Tse, Brian W. C., Fletcher, Nicholas L., Huston, Zachary H., Stewart, Chelsea, Sokolowski, Kamil, Jeet, Varinder, Wissmueller, Sandra, Thurecht, Kristofer J., Campbell, Douglas H., Walsh, Bradley J., Nelson, Colleen C. and Russell, Pamela J. (2018). Targeted beta therapy of human prostate cancer in vivo with Lu-177 labelled MIL-38 antibody against glypican-1 (GPC-1). In: 19th Asia-Pacific Prostate Cancer Conference, Brisbane Australia, (34-35). Aug 22-25, 2018.
Thurecht, Kristofer, Zhou, Yongmei, Fletcher, Nicholas and Houston, Zachary (2018). Development of polymer theranostics to probe the behaviour of nanomaterials in biology. In: 255th National Meeting and Exposition of the American-Chemical-Society (ACS) - Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water, New Orleans, LA United States, (). 18-22 March 2018.
Anitha, A., Fletcher, Nicholas, Houston, Zachary, Thurecht, Kristofer and Grondahl, Lisbeth (2016). Evaluation of the in vivo fate of ultrapure alginate in mice model. In: 10th World Biomaterials Congress, Montréal, Canada, (). 17 May - 22 May 2016. doi:10.3389/conf.FBIOE.2016.01.02237
Thesis
Fletcher, Nicholas (2015). Bioproduction and self-assembly of designer peptides PhD Thesis, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland. doi:10.14264/uql.2015.436