Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have developed nanoparticles that can shuttle chemicals through the thick mucus membranes of pulmonary airways to deliver drugs. The team’s work was published in the journal Science Advances. Traditional therapies for cystic fibrosis, COPD and asthma include inhaled corticosteroids that adhere to the walls of air passages. Thick mucus tends to build […]
Research & Development
CRISPR uncovers drug compounds in bacterial genome
Researchers at the University of Illinois and the Agency for Science, Technology & Research in Singapore are using the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to uncover potentially useful drug compounds. The team has used CRISPR-Cas9 to turn on “silent” gene clusters in Streptomyces and express genes that naturally produce drug compounds to be used as antibiotics or […]
Canadian government, JDRF ink $30m partnership to support diabetes research
Canada’s Minister of Health, Jane Philpott, said today that the Canadian Institutes of Health Research inked a $30 million partnership with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to support clinical research for Type I diabetes. Both groups have agreed to invest $15 million to the deal. “The government of Canada recognizes the impact that Type I diabetes […]
Medtech stories we missed this week: April 7, 2017
New studies for umbilical cord allografts and tumor targeting were published this week while another company received European CE Marking. Here are some medtech stories we missed this week but thought were still worth mentioning. 1. AMNIOX touts new umbilical cord study AMNIOX Medical announced that it has published the results of 3 studies that demonstrate […]
Homing system targets drugs to specific neurons
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 […]
How artificial life spawned a billion-dollar industry
(Reuters) – Scientists are getting closer to building life from scratch and technology pioneers are taking notice, with record sums moving into a field that could deliver novel drugs, materials, chemicals and even perfumes. Despite ethical and safety concerns, investors are attracted by synthetic biology’s wide market potential and the plummeting cost of DNA synthesis, […]
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 […]
Medtech stories we missed this week: March 31, 2017
This week we saw a few FDA 510(k) clearances and one of the 1st uses of a next-generation surgical robot in Asia. Here are medtech stories we missed this week but thought were still worth mentioning: 1. Corindus touts first Asian use of next-generation robot Corindus Vascular Robotics announced in a March 31 press release that robot-assisted […]
