Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a way to amplify certain types of cancer treatment by tethering nanoparticles to cancerous tumor cells. The team’s work was published in Nature Communications. The researchers found that tethered nanoparticles increase the forces exerted on the cells by phenomena such as blood flow, therefore making the cells […]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
New material illuminates when exposed to chemicals on the body
MIT engineers and biologists teamed up and designed a living-cell-injected hydrogel that can illuminate when exposed to certain chemicals. The MIT team made wearable sensors using the hydrogel with living cells that lit up after touching a surface with certain chemicals. The new material has the potential to detect chemicals in the environment and the […]
This ingestible sensor is powered by stomach acid
MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers have announced an ingestible device innovation: a small voltaic cell that can withstand the acidity of fluids in the stomach and still transmit information to a base station. The small device can stay in the gastrointestinal tract for long periods of time and can produce enough power to […]
Titan Pharmaceutical’s match-sized implant fights back against opioid addiction
The ongoing opioid crisis in the U.S. is harrowing – 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Companies are searching for innovative ways to deliver opioid maintenance treatment to patients that are hoping to get clean. Buprenorphine is a compound used for medication-assisted treatment, traditionally administered […]
Bob Langer on drug delivery
Robert Langer, a pioneer in drug delivery and the most cited engineer in history, has co-founded 30 companies and treated more than 20 million patients as a result of his innovations. In a conversation with Wired, he spoke about his career, which has spanned for 4 decades and began with his 1976 discovery of a method to delay […]
MIT, Brigham researchers deliver strands of RNA using ultrasound
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham & Women’s Hospital have developed a technique to deliver strands of RNA to colon cells using bursts of ultrasound waves. The team’s technique turned down the production of a protein involved in inflammatory bowel disease in mice. The paper, which was published in Gastroenterology, described a simple […]
New drug capsule delivers medicine for weeks after swallowing
Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spurred by a challenge from Bill Gates, developed a star-shaped drug capsule that can gradually release medication and stay in the stomach for to 2 weeks after being swallowed. The study, published yesterday in Science Translational Medicine, described the team’s work using the capsule to deliver an anti-parasitic drug, invermectin, which […]
Researchers look to create massive human cell ‘atlas’
Scientists launched a global initiative on Friday to map out and describe every cell in the human body in a vast atlas that could transform researchers’ understanding of human development and disease. The atlas, which could take more than a decade to complete, aims to chart the types and properties of all human cells across all […]
MIT, Singapore Univ. dev 3-D-printed structures that “remember” their shapes
By Sarah Faulkner Engineers from MIT and Singapore University of Technology and Design are using light to create 3D structures that remember their shape when triggered by external stimuli like temperature. These structures, also known as shape-memory polymers, could be useful as delivery vessels for drugs in the human body. Get the full story at […]
