FiercePharma’s Nick Paul Taylor writes about a new drug delivery gel developed by researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Our system is an oil-based system gel, which makes it compatible with most drugs,” says visiting scientist Ameya Kirtane. “This enables the formulation of drugs that were not available in semi-solid or liquid dosage forms and allows patients, especially children, to more easily take their medicine.”
MIT researchers have developed a new drug-delivering gel that could make it easier for children and adults to swallow their medicine, reports Gwen Egan for Boston.com. The gel could be made in a variety of different textures and can be stored without refrigeration.
Researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a gel that can be mixed into medicine to make it easier to swallow, reports CBS Boston. “The gel is made out of plant-based oils and doesn’t have to be refrigerated,” says CBS Boston. “The hope is that it can one day be used to help children and adults who have trouble swallowing pills.”
Forbes reporter Jack Kelly profiles Institute Prof. Robert Langer, spotlighting his career journey and his passion for helping others. “I traded job security and high pay for doing things I was passionate about,” Langer explains. “Out of over 20 job offers I received upon graduation from college, I chose the lowest paying one by far because I thought by doing so, I could potentially improve the health of patients. I dreamed about doing things that I thought would make the world a better place.”
Professor Gio Traverso speaks with Irma D'Aria of La Repubblica about his work on a capsule that can deliver drugs orally that typically need to be injected. “This technological innovation could apply to chronic conditions that require regular dosing of drugs, but also to medical situations that require more sporadic interventions,” said Traverso. “Mass administration of an otherwise injectable drug also becomes much easier if it can be administered orally.”
In an article for The Wall Street Journal about efforts to help repair or prevent cartilage damage before osteoarthritis sets in, Laura Landro spotlights how MIT researchers are developing “ways to get drugs into the cartilage tissue and keep them there. They are using microscopic particles called nanocarriers to deliver IGF-1, an insulin like growth factor, to the tight mesh that holds cartilage in joints.”
MIT researchers have developed a new type of stent based on kirigami, the Japanese art of folding and cutting paper, which is “designed to improve localized drug delivery for diseases that affect tubular organs such as the oesophagus and bowel,” writes Cynthia Keen for Physics World. “We view these approaches as having the capacity to transform the patient experience by reducing the need to take medications and thereby significantly improving drug adherence,” says Prof. Giovanni Traverso.
MIT researchers have developed a new stent based on kirigami, the Japanese art of cutting and folding paper. The stent “can provide localized drug delivery through needle-like projections that pop out when the stent is extended,” reports Conn Hastings for Medgadget.
A team from MIT has been named a co-winner of this year’s STAT Madness, a bracket-style competition for biomedical research. The team, led by visiting scientist Junwei Li and Prof. Gio Traverso, “developed a solution that, once inside the small intestine, undergoes a reaction and coats it with a temporary adhesive,” which could be used “to make drug delivery more efficient," reports Rebecca Sohn for STAT.
Prof. Giovanni Traverso has been highlighted by Wired as one of 32 innovators who are changing the world, writes Sanjana Varghese for Wired. Prof. Robert Langer notes that Traverso is “transforming how we interact with medications, for example through the development of pills that remain in the body for multiple weeks or months to address medication non-adherence, or the creation of small, swallowable devices enabling the delivery of biologics like insulin.”
Fast Company reporter Adele Peters spotlights Particles for Humanity, an MIT spinoff that is developing a new technology that makes it possible to deliver multiple doses of a vaccine in one shot. “The new technology works like traditional drug delivery,” writes Peters, “but with the addition of tiny time-release capsules filled with antigens, the part of the vaccine that stimulates the immune system so that it can later respond to a virus.”
MIT researchers have created a new synthetic lining that could be used to help treat digestive diseases, reports Pratibha Gopalakrishna for STAT. “We wanted to develop a liquid system that is easier to take compared to tablets or capsules, but had enhanced capabilities,” explains Prof. Giovanni Traverso.
New Scientist reporter Alice Klein writes that MIT researchers have developed a synthetic glue that could be used to line the small intestine and help treat several conditions, including diabetes and lactose intolerance. “The researchers found they could control the uptake of different nutrients,” writes Klein, “by adding various substances to the synthetic lining.”
STAT reporter Kate Sheridan spotlights MIT startup Lyra Therapeutics, which is developing a long-acting treatment for chronic rhinosinusitis.
Writing for the Financial Times about how technology is advancing the field of health care, John Browne spotlights Prof. Bob Langer’s work developing new methods of delivering drugs with improved precision. Browne explains that Langer is working on “a device smaller than a grain of rice that he can inject into a tumour to test the efficacy of dozens of chemotherapy agents in parallel.”