Drug delivery

Researchers have developed an implantable pump that can deliver chemotherapy drugs directly into the brain to fight hard-to-treat cancer. In a phase 1b trial, patients were able to undergo the therapy while going about their day-to-day activities.

Probiotic bacteria can’t help improve gut health if they don’t survive to the intestines. Scientists have now kitted out good bugs with protective armor and backpacks loaded with molecules that can help them treat inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).

Drugs given to the whole body can be too much of a shotgun approach, damaging cells that aren’t meant to be targeted. A new study has found that cloaking drugs inside red blood cells could help guide powerful but toxic antibiotics to target bacteria.

Technology that delivers insulin orally rather than regular injections would be a game-changing advance in medical science, and a team of MIT scientists has made a breakthrough in this space in the form of a drug capsule with a robotic, tunneling head.

Scientists have recently had success in curing mice of a serious type of pneumonia, using what are described as "microrobots." The bots were actually live algae cells, which carried life-saving medication throughout the rodents' lungs.

Most vaccines need to be refrigerated, so it's difficult and expensive to get them to remote areas where they’re often needed most. A new method for encapsulating vaccines in hydrogels lets them be transported and stored at much higher temperatures.

The immune system’s foreign body response is key for keeping us healthy – but it’s not so useful when that foreign body is a medical implant. A new device prevents scar tissue forming around implants by gently inflating and deflating every 12 hours.

Researchers at MIT have developed microparticles that can release doses of drugs at specific times over days, weeks or months. The platform could be useful for creating what the team calls “self-boosting vaccines.”

Scientists at Brown University have developed a new material that can release drugs only when pathogenic bacteria are around. When used as a bandage, the hydrogel could deliver medication on-demand when infection begins to take hold.

The blood-brain barrier keeps your brain safe from toxins, but frustratingly it also keeps important drugs out. MIT researchers have now demonstrated an accurate new model of how this barrier works, which should enable new brain cancer treatments.

Children and adults can have difficulty swallowing pills, but scientists have devised a gel-based alternative that can be loaded with essential medicines and dispensed like yogurt for easy swallowing.

After surgery to remove tumors, some cancer cells can be left behind where they can grow back or spread to a new part of the body. Researchers have now developed a hydrogel that can be applied post-surgery to prevent or slow tumor regrowth.