nanomedicine

New research aims to improve the administration and availability of drug therapies to HIV patients through the use of nanotechnology

Scientists are trying to design nanoparticles that deliver a therapeutic cargo directly to a disease site. This specific targeting could help avoid the nasty side effects that patients feel when a drug goes to heathy areas in the body

Attached to strands of DNA, they change shape, size, and chemistry to access diseased tissue, like a key fitting into a lock

Development of nanomedicines will target specific cells without compromising immunity

When it comes to the future of medicine, small is indeed beautiful. Working at the nanoscale, tens of thousands of researchers are in a race to develop tiny nanoparticles, nanodevices and nanopatterned surfaces for medical applications. Their goals are both comprehensive and ambitious. They are hoping to create drugs that stop disease processes at the molecular level where they start, engineer drug delivery systems that are small enough to reach deep within the body and build scaffolding and textured surfaces that the body can use to regenerate lost or damaged tissue.

Designing nanomedicine to combat diseases is a hot area of scientific research, primarily for treating cancer, but very little is known in the context of atherosclerotic disease. Scientists have engineered a microchip coated with blood vessel cells to learn more about the conditions under which nanoparticles accumulate in the plaque-filled arteries of patients with atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of myocardial infarction and stroke.

For years scientists have been working to fundamentally understand how nanoparticles move throughout the human body. One big unanswered question is how the shape of nanoparticles affects their entry into cells. Now researchers have discovered that under typical culture conditions, mammalian cells prefer disc-shaped nanoparticles over those shaped like rods.

Nanobiotix was founded by a University at Buffalo postdoctoral researcher with technology licensed from the university.