Researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University have developed a microfluidic chip that can recreate some of the features of radiation-induced lung injury. The lungs are very sensitive to radiation, and this can limit the application of radiotherapy to treat cancer. Accurately modeling radiation-induced lung injury could assist in developin (Read more...)
Tag: Oncology
miRNA Therapy Slows Cancer Growth
Scientists at Purdue University have developed a microRNA therapy designed to slow tumor growth. The technology takes advantage of the tendency of several cancer types to express an excess of surface receptors that bind folate (vitamin B9) and draw it into the cell interior. By attaching the microRNA strand to a folate molecule, the researchers […]
(Read more...)Refillable Device for Drug Delivery Past the Blood-Brain Barrier: Interview with Mike Maglin, CEO at CraniUS
CraniUS, a medtech company based in Baltimore, has developed the NeuroPASS drug delivery system. The technology is designed to deliver drugs to the brain, and it can bypass the blood-brain barrier. This layer of specialized endothelium significantly restricts which drug molecules can enter the brain, normally greatly limiting treatment options for (Read more...)
Refillable Device for Drug Delivery Past the Blood-Brain Barrier: Interview with Mike Maglin, CEO at CraniUS
CraniUS, a medtech company based in Baltimore, has developed the NeuroPASS drug delivery system. The technology is designed to deliver drugs to the brain, and it can bypass the blood-brain barrier. This layer of specialized endothelium significantly restricts which drug molecules can enter the brain, normally greatly limiting treatment options for (Read more...)
Microneedle Skin Patch Measures Cancer Biomarkers
Researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute have developed a technique that lets clinicians to characterize and monitor melanoma. The system involves using a microneedle patch that can draw deep interstitial fluid into itself through a series of penetrating hyaluronic acid needles. The needles can later be dissolved to release the biomarkers into a t (Read more...)
Enzyme Treatment Strips Mucins from Cancer Cells
Researchers at Stanford University have developed a new type of cancer therapy. The technology targets mucins, sugar-coated proteins that help cancer cells to metastasize and avoid the immune system. In particular, mucins enable cancer cells to survive free-floating as they travel through the blood during metastasis and can also trick immune cells (Read more...)
CRISPR-Equipped Bacteria Detect Tumors
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have created a bacterial sentinel system that can alert clinicians to the presence of tumors. The technology takes advantage of the specificity of the CRISPR system and the tendency of bacteria to uptake fragments of DNA from their environment. Termed “Cellular Assay for Targeted CRISPR-discrimi (Read more...)
mRNA Immunotherapy Targets Cancer
Researchers at the Mount Sinai Hospital have developed an mRNA-based treatment for cancer. The approach combines the delivery of mRNA therapy in lipid nanoparticles and also involves co-delivering dendritic cells that have also been primed through treatment with lipid-encased mRNA. The technology aims to overcome some of the immune evasive tricks t (Read more...)
Magnetic Tentacle Robots for Minimally Invasive Procedures
Researchers at the University of Leeds in the UK have developed a magnetic tentacle robot that is intended for use in minimally invasive medical procedures, such as the treatment of tumors in the lungs. The soft tentacles are made from silicone. They are unlikely to cause tissue damage, and contain a series of magnets that […]
Biomaterial Injection Combines T Cell and Cancer Vaccine Treatments
Researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute have developed an anti-cancer biomaterial treatment that combines adoptive T cell therapy and cancer vaccine technology to treat solid tumors. The researchers have called their technique SIVET, which is short for “synergistic in situ vaccination enhanced T cell”. The approach combines local delivery of cyto (Read more...)
Biodegradable Ultrasound Implant Helps Chemo Reach Brain
Researchers at the University of Connecticut have developed an ultrasound implant that can assist in opening the blood brain barrier to allow chemotherapy to enter and treat brain cancer. However, unlike cumbersome ultrasound systems, this technology can be implanted directly into the brain, and does not require a follow-up surgery to remove the de (Read more...)
Nanoparticles Get Lymphatic Vessels Pumping
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a nanotechnological solution for lymphedema, a failure of the lymphatic system that results in uncomfortable and irreversible fluid retention. Previous research efforts have focused on trying to grow new lymphatic vessels, but these researchers have taken a different approach, and in (Read more...)
Imagene Profiles Cancer Biomarkers in Real Time
Cancer therapies have proliferated over the past few decades, improving outcomes for many patients. But this variety requires accurate diagnostics and appropriate decision making to choose the optimal course of therapy. The current gold standard of identifying which cancer mutation is present is new generation sequencing (NGS), which provides a com (Read more...)
Alpha TAU Killing Tumors With Highly Targeted Alpha Radiation
Radiation is commonly employed in hospitals around the world to treat tumors, typically using gamma ray beams of high energy photons, with a relatively long range, that penetrate all the tissues on the way to and from the tumor. This leads to substantial damage to healthy tissues and too often results in poor outcomes. An […]
Raman-Based Urine Sensor Detects Cancer Metabolites
Researchers at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) creaetd a Raman-spectroscopy-based urine test that can detect metabolic compounds that are produced by pancreatic and prostate cancers, potentially allowing for rapid and convenient cancer screening. The technology consists of a paper strip onto which a urine sample can be added. The pa (Read more...)
Personalized CAR-T Cell Therapy
Researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have developed a new method to prepare chimeric antigen receptor-T cells (CAR-T cells) for leukemia patients that could result in more effective treatment. CAR-T cells start life as T cells that are isolated from cancer patients, are stimulated and primed to recognize an (Read more...)
Nanowire Assay Detects Brain Tumors from Urine
Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have developed a nanowire assay that can be used to capture and detect specific extracellular vesicles in a urine sample that indicate the presence of a brain tumor. These extracellular vesicles are naturally excreted in the urine but techniques to capture and analyze them have been complex, requiring diffe (Read more...)
Point-Of-Care Biosensor to Detect Oral Cancer
Researchers at the University of Florida have created a point-of-care biosensor that can rapidly detect a biomarker for oral cancer. The device uses test strips, such as those used in blood glucose tests, to spot cell proliferation regulating inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A), a protein biomarker that can reveal the presence of oral cance (Read more...)
Extra Hot Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy
Researchers at Oregon State University created a new type of hyperthermic magnetic nanoparticle that is intended to assist in destroying tumors through localized heating under an alternating magnetic field. Previous iterations of such technologies could heat up to about 44 degrees Celsius (111 F), which was only effective in easy-to-access tumors t (Read more...)
Making Tumors Tastier for the Immune System
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a nanotechnology platform that can make cancer cells more vulnerable to immune attack in the body. The researchers call their system the bispecific tumor-transforming nanoconjugate (BiTN) platform. The idea is to make solid tumors more appealing for the immune system by (Read more...)