Better Condoms Through Nanotechnology.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has proven of late to be a spur to developing nanotechnology-based solutions to some of the world’s problems, like a system for sterilizing medical equipmenteven in places where there is no electricity.

The foundation's latest Grand Challenge Exploration grants are aimed at improving the humble condom. The Gates Foundation granted $100 000 to the University of Manchester to develop a condom in November of last year, reportedly using graphene, that would lead to thinner yet stronger condoms.

With the University of Manchester becoming a “hub” for graphene research, it makes sense that any efforts to use graphene for the improvement of condoms would take place there. But the Gates Foundation apparently didn’t want to limit the prospects of improving prophylactics to just graphene. Last week, it was announced that the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) have been awarded a $100 000 Grand Challenge grant to develop a better condom using nanotechnology.

"We are honored to be a recipient of a GCE grant project in order to examine this important public health issue," says Karen Buch MD, a third year radiology resident at BMC and Ducksoo Kim MD, professor of radiology at BUSM in a Boston Magazine article. "We look forward to using nanotechnology to create a condom that is both effective and does not diminish sensation, which could help convince more people to use condoms and potentially reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted infections."

The nanotechnology that the Boston doctors intend to use for their improved condoms will be superhydrophillic nanoparticles that coat the condom and trap water to make them more resilient and easier to use.

"We believe that by altering the mechanical forces experienced by the condom, we may ultimately be able to make a thinner condom which reduces friction, thereby reducing discomfort associated with friction increases pleasure, thereby increasing condom use and decreases rates of unwanted pregnancy and infection transmission," Kim says in a press release.

So it appears the race is now on. Will hydrophilic nanoparticles or graphene be the nanomaterial of the future for condoms? Maybe both.

The Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center have been awarded a $100 000 Grand Challenge grant to develop a better condom.

Source (fuente): http://news.discovery.com/tech/nanotechnology/better-condoms-through-nanotechnology-140113.htm

$1.6 million grant will use nanotechnology to fight prostate cancer.

By Curtis Chan

January 16, 2014

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Nanotechnology for diagnosing and treating prostate cancer will be the focus of a five-year, $1.58 million grant by the National Institutes of Health to Penn State and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Jian Yang, associate professor of biomedical engineering, and Jer-Tsong Hsieh, the Dr. John McConnell Distinguished Chair in Prostate Cancer Research at Texas, will be co-principal investigators.

As part of the effort, Penn State will receive about $651,000.

The research seeks to develop an alternative to chemotherapy, which Yang said causes significant side effects and is also ineffective on many patients who have developed drug resistance to conventional chemotherapy.

The team will aim to create a method to identify a prostate cancer specific drug, a genotoxin to avoid drug resistance. The researchers seek to develop a biodegradable and biocompatible nanoparticle capable of targeting and imaging the prostate cancers.

Yang said he hopes the team’s experimental therapy study will lead to a more personalized medical approach to treating prostate cancer.

CONTACTS: 

Curtis Chan

cxc273@engr.psu.edu

A'ndrea Elyse Messer

aem1@psu.edu

Work Phone: 

814-865-9481