Pharmacy

A remarkable new breakthrough in the field of nanomedicine was reported by Prof Sylvain Martel, Director - Nanorobotics Laboratory, Polytechnique Montreal (Canada). By utilising a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system, his team effectively guided microcarriers loaded with a dose of anti-cancer drug through the bloodstream of a living rabbit, right up to a targeted area in the liver, where the drug was successfully administered. Further, Therapeutic Magnetic Microcarriers (TMMCs) were developed by Pierre Pouponneau, a PhD candidate under the joint direction of Prof Jean-Christophe Leroux and Prof Martel. These drug delivery agents that are made from biodegradable polymer and measure 50 um in diameter, encapsulate a dose of a therapeutic agent as well as magnetic nanoparticles.