The fast and targeted delivery of drugs to the focus of a disease could soon be made easier. Helmuth Möhwald and his colleagues from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Golm, Potsdam, have developed a simple technique for the production of drug containers which can be channelled to a selected target in…
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) have created biodegradable, ultra tiny, nanosized particles that can easily slip through the body’s sticky and viscous mucus secretions to deliver a sustained-release medication cargo. The interdisciplinary team of researchers, led by Justin Hanes of the JHU Center for Nanomedicine, developed the nanoparticles so that they not only penetrate…
The American Health Assistance Foundation (AHAF), a nonprofit organization with a history of funding breakthrough research on age-related vision diseases, announced today that it has awarded 21 new grants totaling $2.1 million to scientists worldwide who are studying and macular degeneration. The two conditions are the leading causes of irreversible blindness in the world….
In a boost to localized disease treatment, research has yielded micro and nano-scale protein making machinery in capsule form, capable of manufacturing drugs inside the human body. The study was published in American Chemical Society’s (ACS) journal, Nano Letters. Proteins are the building blocks of drugs and integral to the human cell. Read more at…
Human-derived stem cells can spontaneously form the tissue that develops into the part of the eye that allows us to see, according to a study published by Cell Press in the 5th anniversary issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell. Transplantation of this 3D tissue in the future could help patients with visual impairments see…
According to the 2012 update of the “Vision Problems in the U.S.” report, a study released today by Prevent Blindness America and the National Eye Institute, the number of those ages 40 and older with vision impairment and blindness has increased 23 percent since the year 2000. In addition, a preliminary update to the 2007…
Conventional cancer treatments are accompanied by a host of side effects such as nausea and vomiting. The intensity of the side effects is many a time so acute that it poses a deterrent to further treatment. The reason behind the side effects is that existing cancer treatment methods do not address just the cancerous cells,…
Ainhoa Lejardi, an engineer at the UPV/EHU, has created a new polymer material which could improve the preparation of nanospheres for their use as a method of controlling the release of pharmaceuticals, research which is currently ongoing at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) (Spanish National Research Council) in Madrid. http://www.azonano.com/news.aspx?newsID=24876
Researchers believe that atomic-scale design of pharmaceuticals will be instrumental in producing more accurate and efficient drugs. Nanocarriers are engineered particles capable of holding tiny molecules inside their hollow interiors. Antibodies, which are bonded to the outer surface of these nanocarriers, function as markers to target specific cells or tissues or supply drugs to infected…
The first human genome sequencing was accomplished after 13 painstaking years of research at the cost of $3 billion. But recent advances in sequencing technology holds promise of rapid increase in speed of sequencing at the rate of 6 billion nucleotide bases every 6 h at a cost below $1000. http://www.azonano.com/news.aspx?newsID=24912