Nanoparticles and silicon chips could target cancerous tumors or individual organs

Researchers at MIT have developed a new nanotechnology that could someday be implanted in the human body to target tumors or specific organs with time-released drug dosages.

Layering charged nanoparticles with medications like chemotherapy drugs or insulin, scientists are hoping to directly deliver drugs for critical and chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes, according to Paula Hammond, a Bayer professor of chemical engineering at MIT. Once the layered device is in the body, it will be activated by a remote control or a silicon chip programmed to dispense specific dosages at specific intervals.

“I think this actually marks a new direction for medicine, which is the personalization of medical care,” said Hammond, who has been working on this project for the past four years. (Computerworld)

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill currently passing through the UK Parliament has already sparked much discussion, particularly aspects such as the creation of animal-human embryos for use in stem cell research, and the removal of the ‘need for a father’ from the welfare of the child considerations. (BioNews)

Dueling reports released yesterday — one by a consortium largely funded by the biotech industry and the other by a pair of environmental and consumer groups — came to those diametrically different conclusions. (Washington Post)

In 2005, New Jersey became the first state to require cultural-competence education for physicians to get licenses. California requires continuing medical education for doctors to include cultural and linguistic competency training.

The federal government is financing studies examining whether the training can help health care workers get diverse groups to comply better with doctors’ orders. (USA Today)

A Japanese company will soon start advising people what they should eat and how they should exercise based on custom-made analysis of their genes, in what the firm says is a world first service. (AFP)

Some scientists and politicians believe the 2002 law restricting the use of stem cells in German research is no longer in sync with modern medicine. Opponents to a change in the law fear abuse of human embryos. (Deutsche Welle)