Researchers from Duke University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have developed a technique to target and deliver drugs to specific types of neurons in the brain. The team argues that this will enable scientists to more accurately study neurological disease while offering a more targeted treatment method. The current method of treatment for neurological […]
Research & Development
Medtronic, Washington U land $3m NIH grant for brain-function mapping dev
A collaborative 3D brain-mapping project between the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) has received a $3.6 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Together, researchers from both groups aim to create a software program that builds personalized 3D maps of the location of brain functions […]
Liposomal drug delivery system could improve solid tumor treatment
The oxygen-poor regions of solid tumors usually help make them resistant to chemotherapy and other forms of treatment. But researchers at Oregon State University have devised away to take advantage of those hypoxic areas and improve solid tumor treatment with a targeted, liposomal drug delivery system. The team used the cancer drug, vinblastine, which is […]
Study: Nanoparticles could improve efficacy of cancer immunotherapy
Researchers from the University of North Carolina have discovered that they can potentially improve cancer immunotherapy drugs by binding 2 compounds to a single nanoparticle. The team’s work was presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. “Our data shows that 2 compounds on a single nanoparticle will make […]
Researchers mimic bee venom strategy to help drugs get past blood-brain barrier
Researchers from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Barcelona, Spain said yesterday that they have shown in preclinical tests that a bee-venom peptide, apamin, can be used to ferry medications across the blood-brain barrier. Although the blood-brain barrier prevents most things from getting in and flooding the brain, certain peptides in animal venoms can travel […]
Researchers develop polymer capsules for targeted drug delivery
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have developed cancer-fighting polymer capsules that they suggest could be used for targeted drug delivery of chemotherapeutics. The team’s work was published in ACS Nano. The multi-layer capsules feature good imaging contrast, as well as efficient encapsulation of doxorubicin, according to the researchers. The vessels are triggered by […]
Study: Why even targeted lung cancer therapies eventually fail
Even when patients are treated with targeted cancer therapies, many lung cancer patients suffer a recurrence. Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory wanted to uncover how some cancers escape the power of targeted treatment. Their work was published in the journal eLife this week. The team of scientists, lead by Raffaella Sordella, found that a tiny subset […]
Researchers develop ‘nano cage’ to study cancer cell growth
Researchers at Kent State University and Kyoto University published work this week describing the genetic factors that help turn healthy cells into cancerous cells. The team’s work was published in Nature Nanotechnology. “Traditionally, DNA has a 2-strand shape — the double helix — and its purpose is to code the proteins that form life,” co-author Hanbin […]
This LED-based device predicts radiation skin damage
Researchers at UC Irvine’s Beckman Laser Institute are developing imaging to predict the skin damage that breast cancer patients will experience from radiation treatment, The Optical Society reported today. “We use visible and near-infrared light at very low power and project it onto the breast. We are trying to characterize the skin damage during radiation […]
3D model of female reproductive system could help test drugs for efficacy, safety
In January last year, the National Institutes of Health issued a new requirement for grant funding in basic science: Researchers must discuss how gender as a biological variable will impact their research. Teresa Woodruff, director of the Women’s Health Research Institute at Northwestern University, told Drug Delivery Business News that this helped support their effort to develop a model that […]
Growing human hearts: The answer is spinach leaves?
We could soon be using spinach to grow human hearts, thanks to new research from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Arkansas State University. One of the problems that researchers have faced is how to create a vascular system that can deliver blood deep into developing tissues. There hasn’t been much success […]