Novel Idea for Drug Delivery

by on June 1, 2009

I was reading New Scientist and wandered over an article about some neat pharmaceutics research.

Some researchers at Harvard have developed sperm-like nano-devices that swim, propelled by a propeller, in a corkscrew motion. They can be radio-controlled via magnets.

These nanopropellers are made of glass, each has a spherical head 200 to 300 nanometres across and a corkscrew-shaped tail 1 to 2 micrometres long – less than one-tenth the length of a human sperm.

The article talks about vaccine delivery, but I see potential for cancer drugs and other therapy that needs to be highly targeted.

It won’t be something I’ll see within my lifetime, but it is cool new technology.