Drug delivery

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.

New research has found genetically engineered bacteria may be an effective Parkinson’s disease treatment. Scientists engineered a bacteria to synthesize a consistent source of medicine inside a patient’s gut, and animal tests have shown it is effective.

Diabetics typically have to receive insulin via daily injections, or sometimes even from implanted pumps. According to a new study, however, a simple inner-cheek patch could one day provide a far less painful and invasive alternative.

Yale researchers have developed a new oral medication for type 1 diabetes. In tests in mice, the drug quickly adjusted insulin levels, restored metabolic functions and reversed inflammation, opening up a potential way to prevent the disease.

Researchers have developed microbots made of stem cells that can be delivered through the nose into the brain. These “Cellbots,” which bypass the blood-brain barrier, could one day be used to treat brain cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.

Tiny 3D-printed robotic animals could one day delivering drugs directly to cancers, to help reduce side effects. These microrobots are steered by magnets, and only release their drug payload when they encounter the acidic environment around a tumor.