Glaucoma is the second-leading cause of blindness internationally, with a prevalence projected to reach nearly 60 million by 2020. Anti-glaucoma products took in approximately $5.8bn in revenue in 2009, with industry analysts projecting this figure to rise to $6.6bn by 2014. Precisely and accurately assessing the stage of the disease is crucial to determining which of the many classes of medications would be most effective for a given patient. Currently, staging is done largely by combining structural, functional, and clinical data of the patient. However, the addition of a genomic profile, a rich source of patient-specific data, would empower physicians to perform evidence-based risk assessment, thereby greatly improving glaucoma staging and patient outcomes.  (more...)

Short interfering RNA (siRNA), possessing the unique capability to specifically knock down the undesired expression of genes, holds great promise as therapeutics for human diseases.  However, its clinical applications are constrained by the lack of a delivery vehicle that is safe, stable, and efficient.  To date, various delivery systems have been proposed, including cationic liposomes, cell-penetrating peptides (CPP), and cationic polymers.  Cationic liposomes and lipids are used widely for in-vitro studies with high effectiveness; however, their toxicity and low efficiency restrain in-vivo application.  For the CPP-based approach, siRNA-CPP complexed particles exhibit significantly improved delivery efficiency, but remain generally unstable, particularly, against serum nucleases.  For the cationic-polymer-based approach, siRNA is assembled with cationic polymers mainly through the electrostatic interactions, which improves intracellular delivery efficiency.  However, similar to the CPP-based approach, such assembled systems are unstable, which may readily dissociate and release their siRNA payload before reaching the cytoplasm of the target cells.  Therefore, in spite of such intensive efforts, the design and synthesis of an effective delivery vehicle for siRNA remains challenging. (more...)

Present methods for forming lipid bilayer membranes fall into two categories: freestanding (faced by fluid on both sides) and solid-supported (faced by a solid surface on one side). Freestanding membranes-used commercially for drug discovery, membrane protein incorporation, and biophysical experimentation-are extremely susceptible to mechanical and acoustic disturbances. The solid-supported membranes are resilient against these disturbances, but the presence of the solid wall precludes measurements of surface phenomena such as transmembrane ionic transport. Encapsulating the membranes within a hydrogel provides mechanical support while still allowing the benefits of freestanding membranes; the hydrogel matrix allows both sides of the membrane to access a bulk-like aqueous environment, and it is highly porous allowing a low resistance path for analytes to diffuse through to the membrane. Since the encapsulating hydrogel is primarily composed of water, it ensures compatibility with the membrane and with membrane proteins incorporated into it as well as other biological material present in the surrounding environment. (more...)

Owing to its unique structure and ease with which their surface can be functionalized, mesoporous silica nanoparticles constitute a multi-functional platform that can be used for nucleic acid delivery and/or small molecule (e.g. anti-cancer drugs) delivery for therapeutic purposes. This unique functionality allows for MSNPs to be used for a number of applications that are not possible with conventional delivery vectors. (more...)

Use of inorganic microparticles and nanoparticles in biological systems may confer many benefits. One primary example is in the realm of fluorescent labeling as an analytical tool for modern biotechnology and analytical chemistry. Conventional labels that use organic dye molecules carry several limitations. Only a few different colors may be used simultaneously, they require a broad spectrum excitation source, their photostability is not very long, and it is impossible to label a material with a single type of probe for both electron microscopy and for fluorescence. Semiconductor nanocrystals (also known as quantum dots) provide a very real solution to the limitations of organic dye molecules. Varying the size of the nanocrystals allows a tuning of the emission wavelength without changing the absorption characteristics. Further, they emit a strong fluorescent signal that remains stable for a much longer period of time. However, these semiconductor nanocrystals are highly hydrophobic particles. As a result, to have any significant biological application, surface chemistry is necessary to make the particle biocompatible and soluble in aqueous environments. (more...)

Neuropathic pain is a type of chronic pain caused by the dysfunction of one or more nerves. This type of pain represents a challenge in medicine because of its frequency, severity, and limited number of effective treatment options. In the USA and European countries, the prevalence of neuropathic pain is between 1.5 and 7.7% of the population. Most patients respond poorly to standard pain therapies involving pain killers. One treatment that has been used to reduce neuropathic pain is antidepressants. Antidepressants are useful, however the mechanisms are unknown and they have unwanted side effects. Therefore, there is a need to uncover how antidepressants work in neuropathic pain, which would then open up new targets to design better analgesics. (more...)

Recombinant protein based drugs represent a very promising avenue of therapy for a number of medical applications and the market for protein therapeutics is currently projected to reach $141.5 billion by 2017. Despite their great commercial success, many of these drugs suffer from significant obstacles in the areas of delivery. To date, a number of protein delivery approaches have been pursued including electroporations, microinjections, protein transduction domain (PTD)-mediated platforms, and noncovalent methods. Though promising, these methods suffer from various limitations that make them clinically unfeasible. The ability to deliver protein products in an efficient and safe manner would be a significant achievement that could potentially open up an entirely new avenue of medical technologies for clinical use. (more...)

Current, mature semiconductor technologies allow for altering of electrical conducting properties through doping. While state of the art techniques allow for precise doping, manufacturing requires large, expensive capital equipment, and resultant semiconductors are quite rigid and sensitive to defects. Previous attempts at creating nanowires have proved difficult, as doping and controlling their conductive properties is quite difficult. Furthermore, replicating electrical behavior from device to device with current nanowire techniques is difficult and highly sensitive to material defects. (more...)