Drug delivery

Although various groups are working on nanoparticles that could be used for directed drug delivery via the bloodstream, most of those particles are made to "go with the flow." Now, however, researchers have created ones that can travel upstream.

Stanford scientists have developed a new hydrogel with a Velcro-like molecular structure, letting it last longer at body temperature. The hope is that it could be injected into a patient to deliver drugs over weeks or months as it slowly dissolves.

When taken orally or intravenously, medications typically travel throughout the body, producing unwanted side effects. MIT scientists are working on an alternative, that delivers both light and a light-activated drug directly to the target area.

Killing cancer cells isn’t too hard – the tricky part is doing so without harming healthy cells. Now researchers have developed nanoparticles that selectively release drugs inside tumors, while keeping them safely locked away when in healthy cells.

The influenza virus has proven a very tricky foe to fight. Now, researchers at EPFL have developed synthetic molecules that can kill the flu virus by mimicking human cells, and putting the squeeze on the virus when it attaches itself to the decoy.

EPFL scientists have demonstrated a new method to make immunotherapy more effective and directed against cancer. The team designed microparticles containing drugs that are only released when T cells physically squeeze them, on contact with cancer.

One of the problems with gradual-release medications lies in the fact that the pills often pass through the body before all of the medication has been released. An experimental new technology addresses that problem, by copying an intestinal parasite.

Chemotherapy remains one of our best treatments against cancer but, frustratingly, cancer cells can develop resistance to these drugs. Now, researchers have found that calcium can weaken their defense mechanism, making drugs effective once more.

Scientists at Purdue University have developed a back-flipping microbot that can tumble its way through the colon to release its payload when desired, all while being controlled externally by a magnetic field.

However useful a drug may be, it’s a problem if it has adverse effects on healthy cells. Now researchers have shown a way to keep drugs on target, by wrapping them in a transport that can only be unlocked by a certain RNA sequence unique to cancer.

One day microscopic robots could be crawling through your body, clearing out disease or delivering drugs. And now we’re one step closer to that future, as scientists from Cornell University have created tiny robots powered by pulses of laser light.

Derived from living organisms, biologic drugs show a lot of promise. They're often difficult to inject through the skin, though, which is where a new hypodermic needle is designed to come in.