Explore more about: Drug Delivery Systems

Frequent insulin injections are an unpleasant reality for many patients with type 1 diabetes. However, new technology could create a different reality for these patients.

Dendritic cells are key orchestrators of the immune response, but most vaccination strategies don’t effectively target them. NIBIB-funded researchers have developed biodegradable nanoparticles that are designed to deliver mRNA cargo to dendritic cells in the spleen. Combined with another type of immunotherapy, their vaccine had robust antitumor effects in multiple mouse models.

For most of our tissues and cells, a lack of oxygen, or hypoxia, is bad news. However, cancer cells can thrive in these conditions, rendering tumors less susceptible to anti-cancer treatments including radiation. Now, new research may offer a way to break through cancer’s hypoxia-induced defenses.

Researchers from Rice University have created drug-filled microparticles that can be engineered to degrade and release their therapeutic cargo days or weeks after administration. By combining multiple microparticles with different degradation times into a single injection, the researchers could develop a drug formulation that delivers many doses over time.

NIBIB-funded researchers are developing a new method to treat pancreatic cancer. In their study, they combined an injectable radioactive gel with systemic chemotherapy in multiple mouse models of the disease. The treatment resulted in tumor regression in all evaluated models, an unprecedented result for this genetically diverse and aggressive type of cancer.

NIBIB-funded researchers are developing a robotic pill that, after swallowing, can deliver biologic drugs into the stomach, which could provide an alternative method for self-injection for a wide range of therapies.

Fluorescent “dots” – that is, tiny particles that can emit light – have a multitude of promising biomedical applications, yet making such dots is usually a long and tedious process that uses harsh chemicals. Now, NIBIB-funded researchers are developing a fluorescent dot that is not only easier to make, but uses environmentally friendly materials.

Researchers have developed a capsule that can carry large protein drugs, such as monoclonal antibodies, and inject them directly into the lining of the stomach.

Bioengineers have developed biocompatible self-assembling “piezoelectric wafers,” which can be made rapidly and inexpensively to enable broad use of implantable muscle-powered electromechanical therapies.