MIT researcher addresses biomedical engineering challenges
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Much of the work in MIT Institute Professor Robert
Langer's prolific lab sounds like something straight from the pages
of science fiction, but its products are already saving lives around
the world in a variety of ways.
One of Langer's specialties is growing the vital tissues of the human
body—including skin, blood vessels, bone and parts of organs such as
the liver and intestines—in a laboratory dish instead of in the body.
For example, based on Langer's work scientists can grow patches of
skin that can be used as grafts for burn victims.
Langer will speak about the great challenges facing biomedical
engineering in the next century, at the annual meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston,
on Friday afternoon, Feb. 15. The talk is part of a special session
announcing a National Academy of Engineering report put together by a
committee of 18 leading researchers in a variety of disciplines,
including Langer, and reviewed by more than 60 experts. The report,
titled "Grand Challenges for Engineering,
research that are seen as most likely to produce results that could
dramatically improve life on Earth.
The report will be unveiled at a press conference at 2 p.m. EST on
Friday, Feb. 15, at the AAAS meeting. In addition to Langer, two
other MIT scientists were members of the panel and will participate
in the press conference: Wesley L. Harris, the Charles Stark Draper
Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and a former NASA
associate administrator, and MIT President Emeritus Charles Vest, a
professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Among the grand challenges in the area of biomedical engineering,
Langer says, is finding new ways of delivering drugs and other large
molecules to targeted sites inside the human body.
As part of that research, Langer, who already has more than 600
patents granted or pending, has been working on the development of
novel ways to introduce DNA strands into human cells, a necessary
step in gene therapy to correct genetic abnormalities or
predispositions to disease.
Traditionally, such DNA insertions have been carried out using
viruses that have a natural ability to penetrate the cell and insert
segments of DNA into the nucleus. But these viruses can sometimes
have dangerous side effects, and have been responsible for deaths in
some early gene-therapy trials.
"We're working on polymers that could deliver DNA as efficiently as
viruses, that could put a DNA strand wherever you want, without the
safety problems of viruses," Langer says. In addition, they could be
cheaper and easier to manufacture.
So far, the problem has been that such "synthetic vectors" have been
far less efficient in carrying out the delivery. But in early tests
conducted by Jordan Green and Dan Anderson in Langer's lab, some
polymers have been as effective at delivering the DNA strands to
their target as the viruses, but with 100 times less toxicity.
Such new polymers, Langer says, might eventually lead to new
treatments for some kinds of cancer. And they may also enable the
delivery of small interfering RNA segments (siRNAs), whose discovery
led to a Nobel Prize in 2006. These may be used to combat a variety
of diseases.
Anderson, Langer and graduate student Michael Goldberg have also been
working on the design of chemicals similar to lipids in the body,
called lipidoids that could be used to deliver drugs including siRNA
to specific tissues in the body and release them in a controlled way.
Already more than 50 promising compounds have been found and are
undergoing tests. "That work is going quite well," Langer says.
Tissue engineering is another important area of ongoing research,
Langer says. One key project is growing replacements for damaged
tissues such as the neurons damaged by spinal cord injuries that lead
to paralysis. Using a neuronal scaffold, Langer and his collaborators
have succeeded in growing new tissue from neuronal stem cells, and
have succeeded in helping paralyzed mice to walk again.
###
The new report will be made public online, at the time of Friday's
press conference, at www.engineeringchal
Written by David Chandler, MIT News Office
Public release date: 15-Feb-2008
Contact: Elizabeth Thomson
thomson@mit.
617-258-5402
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
http://www.eurekale
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
____________________________________________
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
No comments:
Post a Comment