Polymer platform technology innovates drug delivery

Public release date: 16-Apr-2013
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Contact: Bryan Alary
bryan.alary@ualberta.ca
780-492-0436
University of Alberta

(Edmonton) A University of Alberta researcher is thinking small to find innovative ways to improve the delivery of drugs that can be more easily administered with fewer side-effects.

Afsaneh Lavasanifar, a professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, has developed and patented a polymer platform technology that can carry drugs to specific areas of the body at a nanoscopic scale. The polymeric nanostructures contain an outer shell and inner core that are capable of encapsulating drugs that the body normally has a hard time absorbing and processing.

"Making drugs water soluble is a major problem in drug development," Lavasanifar says. "When drugs are not water soluble, they cannot be absorbed efficiently by the body or administered efficiently, making them ineffective."

Lavasanifar developed the polymer over three years and published her initial findings in 2006. With support from TEC Edmonton, in 2010 she launched her own company, Meros Polymers, and currently serves as vice-president and chief science officer.

The company secured a U.S. patent for the polymer late last year, with patents pending in Europe and Japan, and was recently named a semifinalist in the fast-growth category of the TEC VenturePrize.

Targeted drug delivery

In addition to solving water insolubility, the polymer could be used to target delivery of drugs in specific areas of the body. Much of Lavasanifar's research has focused on the targeted delivery of chemotherapy drugs, some of which can be harmful to organs such as the heart or kidneys.

"We can change the normal distribution of the anti-cancer drug in the body and get the drug into the tumour and away from the site where it causes toxicity," she says.

A polymer within this platform that shows unique thermo-reactive propertiesit's liquid at room temperature but turns into a gel when warmed to body temperaturehas potential applications for eye-drop drugs, antibiotics or antipsychoticsreducing the need for repeat doses or costly administration by a health professional.

A third structure within this family also has potential as a delivery system for small interfering RNA technology, or siRNA, which allows scientists to heat and silence specific genes in a cell. The siRNA technology has not yet been used as a therapeutic agent because it breaks down in the body and has a hard time entering cells.

Lavasanifar is working with other researchers on using the polymer to deliver siRNA in lab models. "Our long-term plan is to see if we can get it into clinical trials and use it for siRNA delivery in humans," she says.

Meros is working with Alberta Innovates Technology Futures to evaluate the toxicity of the polymer, a step needed for regulatory approval. Lavasanifar is confident about the results, noting the "backbone" of the polymer has been used in absorbable sutures for many years.

Moving from lab bench to boardroom was a new experience for Lavasanifar, but she credits TEC Edmonton and her colleagues at Meros for providing invaluable expertise, especially early on. The university and pharmacy faculty have been tremendously supportive of her work, she adds.

"Without the U of A's support and funding from granting agencies, I would not be able to put my ideas into action."

###

Lavasanifar's research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Alberta Cancer Foundation.

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 16-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Bryan Alary
bryan.alary@ualberta.ca
780-492-0436
University of Alberta

(Edmonton) A University of Alberta researcher is thinking small to find innovative ways to improve the delivery of drugs that can be more easily administered with fewer side-effects.

Afsaneh Lavasanifar, a professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, has developed and patented a polymer platform technology that can carry drugs to specific areas of the body at a nanoscopic scale. The polymeric nanostructures contain an outer shell and inner core that are capable of encapsulating drugs that the body normally has a hard time absorbing and processing.

"Making drugs water soluble is a major problem in drug development," Lavasanifar says. "When drugs are not water soluble, they cannot be absorbed efficiently by the body or administered efficiently, making them ineffective."

Lavasanifar developed the polymer over three years and published her initial findings in 2006. With support from TEC Edmonton, in 2010 she launched her own company, Meros Polymers, and currently serves as vice-president and chief science officer.

The company secured a U.S. patent for the polymer late last year, with patents pending in Europe and Japan, and was recently named a semifinalist in the fast-growth category of the TEC VenturePrize.

Targeted drug delivery

In addition to solving water insolubility, the polymer could be used to target delivery of drugs in specific areas of the body. Much of Lavasanifar's research has focused on the targeted delivery of chemotherapy drugs, some of which can be harmful to organs such as the heart or kidneys.

"We can change the normal distribution of the anti-cancer drug in the body and get the drug into the tumour and away from the site where it causes toxicity," she says.

A polymer within this platform that shows unique thermo-reactive propertiesit's liquid at room temperature but turns into a gel when warmed to body temperaturehas potential applications for eye-drop drugs, antibiotics or antipsychoticsreducing the need for repeat doses or costly administration by a health professional.

A third structure within this family also has potential as a delivery system for small interfering RNA technology, or siRNA, which allows scientists to heat and silence specific genes in a cell. The siRNA technology has not yet been used as a therapeutic agent because it breaks down in the body and has a hard time entering cells.

Lavasanifar is working with other researchers on using the polymer to deliver siRNA in lab models. "Our long-term plan is to see if we can get it into clinical trials and use it for siRNA delivery in humans," she says.

Meros is working with Alberta Innovates Technology Futures to evaluate the toxicity of the polymer, a step needed for regulatory approval. Lavasanifar is confident about the results, noting the "backbone" of the polymer has been used in absorbable sutures for many years.

Moving from lab bench to boardroom was a new experience for Lavasanifar, but she credits TEC Edmonton and her colleagues at Meros for providing invaluable expertise, especially early on. The university and pharmacy faculty have been tremendously supportive of her work, she adds.

"Without the U of A's support and funding from granting agencies, I would not be able to put my ideas into action."

###

Lavasanifar's research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Alberta Cancer Foundation.

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uoa-ppt041613.php

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Better batteries from waste sulfur

Public release date: 14-Apr-2013
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Contact: Mari N. Jensen
mnjensen@email.arizona.edu
520-626-9635
University of Arizona

A new chemical process can transform waste sulfur into a lightweight plastic that may improve batteries for electric cars, reports a University of Arizona-led team. The new plastic has other potential uses, including optical uses.

The team has successfully used the new plastic to make lithium-sulfur batteries.

"We've developed a new, simple and useful chemical process to convert sulfur into a useful plastic," lead researcher Jeffrey Pyun said.

Next-generation lithium-sulfur, or Li-S, batteries will be better for electric and hybrid cars and for military uses because they are more efficient, lighter and cheaper than those currently used, said Pyun, a UA associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

The new plastic has great promise as something that can be produced easily and inexpensively on an industrial scale, he said.

The team's discovery could provide a new use for the sulfur left over when oil and natural gas are refined into cleaner-burning fuels.

Although there are some industrial uses for sulfur, the amount generated from refining fossil fuels far outstrips the current need for the element. Some oil refineries, such as those in Ft. McMurray in Alberta, are accumulating yellow mountains of waste sulfur.

"There's so much of it we don't know what to do with it," said Pyun. He calls the left-over sulfur "the garbage of transportation."

About one-half pound of sulfur is left over for every 19 gallons of gasoline produced from fossil fuels, calculated co-author Jared Griebel, a UA chemistry and biochemistry doctoral candidate.

The researchers have filed an international patent for their new chemical process and for the new polymeric electrode materials for Li-S batteries.

The international team's research article, "The Use of Elemental Sulfur as an Alternative Feedstock for Polymeric Materials," is scheduled for online publication in Nature Chemistry April 14. The National Research Foundation of Korea, the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the American Chemical Society and the University of Arizona funded the research.

Pyun and Griebel's co-authors are Woo Jin Chung, Adam G. Simmonds, Hyun Jun Ji, Philip T. Dirlam, Richard S. Glass and rpd Somogyi of the UA; Eui Tae Kim, Hyunsik Yoon, Jungjin Park, Yung-Eun Sung, and Kookheon Char of Seoul National University in Korea; Jeong Jae Wie, Ngoc A. Nguyen, Brett W. Guralnick and Michael E. Mackay of the University of Delaware in Newark; and Patrick Theato of the University of Hamburg in Germany.

Pyun wanted to apply his expertise as a chemist to energy-related research. He knew about the world's glut of elemental sulfur at fossil fuel refineries -- so he focused on how chemistry could use the cheap sulfur to satisfy the need for good Li-S batteries.

He and his colleagues tried something new: transforming liquid sulfur into a useful plastic that eventually could be produced easily on an industrial scale.

Sulfur poses technical challenges. It doesn't easily form the stable long chains of molecules, known as polymers, needed make a moldable plastic, and most materials don't dissolve in sulfur.

Pyun and his colleagues identified the chemicals most likely to polymerize sulfur and girded themselves for the long process of testing those chemicals one by one by one. More than 20 chemicals were on the list.

They got lucky.

"The first one worked and nothing else thereafter," Pyun said.

Even though the first experiment worked, the scientists needed to try the other chemicals on their list to see if others worked better and to understand more about working with liquid sulfur.

They've dubbed their process "inverse vulcanization" because it requires mostly sulfur with a small amount of an additive. Vulcanization is the chemical process that makes rubber more durable by adding a small amount of sulfur to rubber.

The new plastic performs better in batteries than elemental sulfur, Pyun said, because batteries with cathodes made of elemental sulfur can be used and recharged only a limited number of times before they fail.

The new plastic has electrochemical properties superior to those of the elemental sulfur now used in Li-S batteries, the researchers report. The team's batteries exhibited high specific capacity (823 mAh/g at 100 cycles) and enhanced capacity retention.

Several companies have expressed interest in the new plastic and the new battery, Pyun said.

The team's next step is comparing properties of the new plastic to existing plastics and exploring other practical applications such as photonics for the new plastic.

###

Researcher contact:
Jeffrey Pyun
520-626-1834
jpyun@email.arizona.edu

Related Web sites:
Jeffrey Pyun
http://www.cbc.arizona.edu/facultyprofile?fid_call=Pyun

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 14-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mari N. Jensen
mnjensen@email.arizona.edu
520-626-9635
University of Arizona

A new chemical process can transform waste sulfur into a lightweight plastic that may improve batteries for electric cars, reports a University of Arizona-led team. The new plastic has other potential uses, including optical uses.

The team has successfully used the new plastic to make lithium-sulfur batteries.

"We've developed a new, simple and useful chemical process to convert sulfur into a useful plastic," lead researcher Jeffrey Pyun said.

Next-generation lithium-sulfur, or Li-S, batteries will be better for electric and hybrid cars and for military uses because they are more efficient, lighter and cheaper than those currently used, said Pyun, a UA associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

The new plastic has great promise as something that can be produced easily and inexpensively on an industrial scale, he said.

The team's discovery could provide a new use for the sulfur left over when oil and natural gas are refined into cleaner-burning fuels.

Although there are some industrial uses for sulfur, the amount generated from refining fossil fuels far outstrips the current need for the element. Some oil refineries, such as those in Ft. McMurray in Alberta, are accumulating yellow mountains of waste sulfur.

"There's so much of it we don't know what to do with it," said Pyun. He calls the left-over sulfur "the garbage of transportation."

About one-half pound of sulfur is left over for every 19 gallons of gasoline produced from fossil fuels, calculated co-author Jared Griebel, a UA chemistry and biochemistry doctoral candidate.

The researchers have filed an international patent for their new chemical process and for the new polymeric electrode materials for Li-S batteries.

The international team's research article, "The Use of Elemental Sulfur as an Alternative Feedstock for Polymeric Materials," is scheduled for online publication in Nature Chemistry April 14. The National Research Foundation of Korea, the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the American Chemical Society and the University of Arizona funded the research.

Pyun and Griebel's co-authors are Woo Jin Chung, Adam G. Simmonds, Hyun Jun Ji, Philip T. Dirlam, Richard S. Glass and rpd Somogyi of the UA; Eui Tae Kim, Hyunsik Yoon, Jungjin Park, Yung-Eun Sung, and Kookheon Char of Seoul National University in Korea; Jeong Jae Wie, Ngoc A. Nguyen, Brett W. Guralnick and Michael E. Mackay of the University of Delaware in Newark; and Patrick Theato of the University of Hamburg in Germany.

Pyun wanted to apply his expertise as a chemist to energy-related research. He knew about the world's glut of elemental sulfur at fossil fuel refineries -- so he focused on how chemistry could use the cheap sulfur to satisfy the need for good Li-S batteries.

He and his colleagues tried something new: transforming liquid sulfur into a useful plastic that eventually could be produced easily on an industrial scale.

Sulfur poses technical challenges. It doesn't easily form the stable long chains of molecules, known as polymers, needed make a moldable plastic, and most materials don't dissolve in sulfur.

Pyun and his colleagues identified the chemicals most likely to polymerize sulfur and girded themselves for the long process of testing those chemicals one by one by one. More than 20 chemicals were on the list.

They got lucky.

"The first one worked and nothing else thereafter," Pyun said.

Even though the first experiment worked, the scientists needed to try the other chemicals on their list to see if others worked better and to understand more about working with liquid sulfur.

They've dubbed their process "inverse vulcanization" because it requires mostly sulfur with a small amount of an additive. Vulcanization is the chemical process that makes rubber more durable by adding a small amount of sulfur to rubber.

The new plastic performs better in batteries than elemental sulfur, Pyun said, because batteries with cathodes made of elemental sulfur can be used and recharged only a limited number of times before they fail.

The new plastic has electrochemical properties superior to those of the elemental sulfur now used in Li-S batteries, the researchers report. The team's batteries exhibited high specific capacity (823 mAh/g at 100 cycles) and enhanced capacity retention.

Several companies have expressed interest in the new plastic and the new battery, Pyun said.

The team's next step is comparing properties of the new plastic to existing plastics and exploring other practical applications such as photonics for the new plastic.

###

Researcher contact:
Jeffrey Pyun
520-626-1834
jpyun@email.arizona.edu

Related Web sites:
Jeffrey Pyun
http://www.cbc.arizona.edu/facultyprofile?fid_call=Pyun

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uoa-bbf041113.php

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Lion Air jet crashes into sea in Bali; 45 hurt

In this photo released by Indonesian Police, the wreckage of a crashed Lion Air plane sits on the water near the airport in Bali, Indonesia on Saturday, April 13, 2013. The plane carrying more than 100 passengers and crew overshot a runway on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Saturday and crashed into the sea, injuring nearly two dozen people, officials said. (AP Photo/Indonesian Police)

In this photo released by Indonesian Police, the wreckage of a crashed Lion Air plane sits on the water near the airport in Bali, Indonesia on Saturday, April 13, 2013. The plane carrying more than 100 passengers and crew overshot a runway on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Saturday and crashed into the sea, injuring nearly two dozen people, officials said. (AP Photo/Indonesian Police)

The wreckage a crashed Lion Air plane sits on the water near the airport in Bali, Indonesia on Saturday, April 13, 2013. The plane carrying more than 100 passengers and crew overshot a runway on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Saturday and crashed into the sea, injuring nearly two dozen people, officials said. (AP Photo)

In this photo released by Indonesian Police, a rescue worker stands at the doorway of a crashed Lion Air plane on the water near the airport in Bali, Indonesia on Saturday, April 13, 2013. The plane carrying more than 100 passengers and crew overshot a runway on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Saturday and crashed into the sea, injuring nearly two dozen people, officials said. (AP Photo/Indonesian Police)

Indonesian fishermen hold a part of the wreckage of a Lion Air plane in Bali, Indonesia on Saturday, April 13, 2013. The plane carrying more than 100 passengers and crew overshot a runway on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Saturday and crashed into the sea, injuring nearly two dozen people, officials said. (AP Photo)

The wreckage a crashed Lion Air plane sits on the water near the airport in Bali, Indonesia on Saturday, April 13, 2013. The plane carrying more than 100 passengers and crew overshot a runway on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Saturday and crashed into the sea, injuring nearly two dozen people, officials said. (AP Photo)

BALI, Indonesia (AP) ? All 108 passengers and crew survived after a new Lion Air jet crashed into the ocean and snapped into two while attempting to land Saturday on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, injuring up to 45 people.

The injured were taken to several different hospitals for treatment, but there appeared to be no serious injuries, said airport spokesman Alfasyah, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. There were three foreigners on board ? two Singaporeans and a French national ? all of whom suffered slight injuries.

TV footage showed police and rescuers using rubber boats to evacuate the 101 passengers and seven crew members. The Boeing 737 could be seen sitting in the shallow water with a large crack in its fuselage.

Officials initially said the plane overshot the runway before hitting the water, but a spokesman for Lion Air, a low-cost carrier, said at a news conference that the plane crashed about 50 meters (164 feet) ahead of the runway. The weather was cloudy with rain at the time of the incident.

"It apparently failed to reach the runway and fell into the sea," said the spokesman, Edward Sirait.

He said the Boeing 737-800 Next Generation plane was received by the airline last month and was declared airworthy. The plane originated in Bandung, the capital of West Java province, and had landed in two other cities on Saturday prior to the crash.

"We are not in a capacity to announce the cause of the crash," Sirait said, adding that the National Safety Transportation Committee was investigating.

Those on board recalled being terrified as the plane slammed into the water Saturday afternoon.

"The aircraft was in landing position when suddenly I saw it getting closer to the sea, and finally it hit the water," Dewi, a passenger who sustained head wounds in the crash and uses one name, told The Associated Press.

"All of the passengers were screaming in panic in fear they would drown. I left behind my belongings and went to an emergency door," she said. "I got out of the plane and swam before rescuers jumped in to help me."

Rapidly expanding Lion Air is Indonesia's top discount carrier, holding about a 50 percent market share in the country, a sprawling archipelago of 240 million people that's seeing a boom in both economic growth and air travel. The airline has been involved in six accidents since 2002, four of them involving Boeing 737s and one resulting in 25 deaths, according to the Aviation Safety Network's website.

Lion Air is currently banned from flying to Europe due to broader safety lapses in the Indonesian airline industry that have long plagued the country. Last year, a Sukhoi Superjet-100 slammed into a volcano during a demonstration flight, killing all 45 people on board.

Indonesia is one of Asia's most rapidly expanding airline markets, but is struggling to provide qualified pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers and updated airport technology to ensure safety.

Lion Air, which started flying in 2000, signed a $24 billion deal last month to buy 234 Airbus planes, the biggest order ever for the French aircraft maker. It also gave Boeing its largest-ever order when it finalized a deal for 230 planes last year. The planes will be delivered from 2014 to 2026.

___

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-13-Indonesia-Plane%20Crash/id-942ed62f5e0e496789b95547143c14be

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Power Rankings: April 13, 2013

All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2013 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2013 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/power-rankings/power-rankings-april-13-2013

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Study: Daydreaming while driving more dangerous than texting

BRUSSELS, April 8 (Reuters) - A French teenager who had hidden inside a garbage container was crushed to death inside a trash truck in Luxembourg on Saturday, police said. Garbage men only discovered the 17-year-old when he shouted out as they emptied the container into the back of the truck early on Saturday morning, but by then he was already in the grasp of the crushing mechanism. "He cried out, but it was already too late," a spokeswoman for Luxembourg police said on Monday. The young man, whose name was not released, died on the scene, in the city of Luxembourg. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/daydreaming-while-driving-more-dangerous-texting-claims-study-014558551.html

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MTV Explains Buckwild Cancellation, Plans to Honor Shain Gandee

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/mtv-explains-buckwild-cancellation-plans-to-honor-shain-gandee/

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Deadly bat fungus detected in Alabama cave crucial to rare species

By Laura Zuckerman

(Reuters) - A fungus tied to a disease devastating hibernating bats in the United States has been found in an Alabama cave system critical to the survival of endangered gray bats, government scientists said on Monday.

Detection of the fungus that causes the bat disease, white-nose syndrome, in the Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama "could be pretty catastrophic" for the up to 1.6 million protected gray bats that hibernate there, said Paul McKenzie, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species coordinator.

White-nose syndrome, named for the fungal residue on the muzzles of infected bats, has decimated bat populations since it was discovered in New York in 2006. It has spread to 22 states and five Canadian provinces east of the Rocky Mountains, killing more than 6 million bats.

U.S. wildlife officials have said that experts suspect the fungus may have been brought to the United States from Europe by a person inadvertently carrying its spores on shoes, clothing or other gear. Evidence of a similar fungus has been discovered in Europe.

The endangered gray bats are among seven species affected by a syndrome that targets those that hibernate in caves and abandoned mines.

Federal scientists said the disease has not yet been found to cause mass die-offs in gray bats. Yet the finding of infected gray bats at Fern Cave, the single most significant hibernating area in the world for the species, is "extremely alarming," McKenzie said.

Bats with white-nose syndrome fly outside during winter months when they should be hibernating and when there are no insects for food. They eventually starve to death.

The disease has caused populations of bats, estimated to save agricultural industries billions of dollars a year in pest-control costs, to decline by more than 80 percent in the U.S. northeast, a U.S. Geological Survey study shows.

The disease is mostly transmitted from bat to bat. Fungal spores behind the disease can also be transported long distances on the clothing and equipment of people who visit caves.

Efforts by federal land managers to prevent the westward spread of the disease by closing caves and unoccupied mines in Rocky Mountain states like Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have been opposed by many caving enthusiasts.

Cavers say it is senseless to close caves that have no hibernating bats.

"We are absolutely opposed to the blanket closure of caves. It's ridiculous," Montana caver Mike McEachern told Reuters last year.

The U.S. Forest Service last month reversed a largely blanket closure of caves and vacant mines in Colorado, Wyoming and elsewhere. Under a plan to go into effect in summer, caves and mines will be open with some restrictions to protect bats from infection. Sites with hibernation colonies will be seasonally closed and annually decontaminated.

Conservationists said the government has caved to recreationists at bats' expense.

"White-nose syndrome has arrived in the very core of gray bat habitat and it's like a bomb waiting to go off. Despite this bad news, federal agencies in the West are backtracking on precautionary cave measures," said Mollie Matteson, conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Richard Chang)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/deadly-bat-fungus-detected-alabama-cave-crucial-rare-235135713.html

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