Experts in the field of materials science, pharmaceutical science, chemistry and applied physics are coming together for a symposium conducted by the Harvard School of Applied Sciences (SEAS) and chemical company, BASF to discuss the use of nanotechnology in the pharmaceutical industry.
Researchers at Harvard are investigating new methods of creating and delivering nanoparticles of drugs. Microfluidics and double emulsions (pictured here) hold promise in this field. Photo by Laura Adams, Weitz Lab.
The two-day symposium is being held at the American Academy of Arts and Science in Cambridge and has invited more than 200 leading experts and researchers to discuss the use of nanotechnology in modern medicine and its challenges.
Particularly, many research programmes are being conducted to alter the size of materials to the scale of nanometres so that the desirable chemical and physical properties can be achieved. Many recent drug formulations are hydrophobic meaning that they do not dissolve in water. This in turn means that they do not dissolve in the bloodstream either. This issue could be resolved if the particles of the drug are the size of a few billionth of a metre. The primary challenge lies in the development of nanoscale drug particles and the delivery of these particles to the required target area in the human body. Researchers at the Harvard-BASF symposium will present various approaches to resolve this issue. The BASF Advanced Research Initiative at the Harvard University is a partnership between the pharmaceutical industry and universities, which provides funding to the university faculty and researchers at SEAS.