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Harvesting the Fruits of Inquiry How Materials Discoveries Improve Our Lives (2014) / Chapter Skim
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Nanoparticle Drug Delivery and Diagnostics in Health
Pages 6-9

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From page 6...
... This new knowledge promises to dramatically raise the success rates of clinical trials because it gives scientists crucial insights into how to design new variations of the lipids that are more efficient at carrying the NP to the diseased cells of interest (which depends on lipids with a special chemical struc ture being present at the surface of the NP) and at releasing the therapeutic nucleic acid cargo molecules upon cell entry (which depends on the lipid and nucleic acid arrangement inside the NP)
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From page 7...
... Small businesses such as Nanosphere, based in Illinois, are developing these new technologies for medical applications. Ongoing clinical trials aim to efficiently deliver therapeutic DNA or RNA molecules for treat ing a wide range of human diseases.
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From page 8...
... Reaching the holy grail of therapeutic efficacy through precise targeting will require continued sustained research efforts by multidisciplinary teams of researchers, including condensed matter and materials scientists. Lab-on-a-chip devices such as the integrated fluidic circuit (IFC)
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From page 9...
... Even more easily distributable diagnostic devices are being developed by a Harvard start-up, Diagnostics for All; these devices are printed directly on paper, making their cost very low and thus affordable throughout the world.14 The rapid ongoing development of this new technology is expected to lead to a suite of patterned paper devices able to assay for a range of organ functions, as evidenced by the recent introduction of such devices for cost-efficient liver function assays.15 This technology could truly level the field, bringing modern, state-of-the-art diagnostics to every doctor's office, even in the poorest countries. 9 Harvesting the Fruits of Inquiry
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Key Terms

  • clinical trials
  • nucleic acid
  • condensed matter
  • diseased cells
  • therapeutic dna

  • onion structure
  • human clinical
  • acid cargo
  • acid nanoparticle
  • gene delivery

  • deliver therapeutic
  • therapeutic loading
  • acid nanoparticles
  • peutic nucleic
  • therapeutic nucleic

  • ongoing clinical
  • materials research
  • acid molecules
  • therapeutic efficacy
  • acid complexes

  • nanoparticles intended
  • dna intercalation
  • printed directly
  • helically shaped
  • significantly increases

  • trials aim
  • mustard tails
  • organ functions
  • cargo molecules
  • ongoing development


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