Cancer Killing Nanoparticles - New Technology

Arming nanoparticles for a seek-and-destroy mission. That’s the goal, outlined in the fall 2003 issue of Odyssey, of Russell J. Mumper, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences, and Michael Jay, professor of pharmaceutical sciences, in the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, and they are engineering these tiny spheres to target, infiltrate and release cancer-killing drugs into diseased cells.

Mumper, associate director of the UK Center for Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, and Jay, director of the UK Center for Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, formed NanoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2000 based on their patented technology. They gave two reasons when asked “Why nanoparticles?”: cells can easily take them in (the typical cell is around 8,000 nanometers) and they can circulate in the body for a relatively long time without being removed by macrophages and other cellular police.

Posted 1^st December 2003