Apr 11, 2006 |
Nanopatches instead of syringes
|
(Nanowerk News) People who fear needles may one day have no need to fear the doctor, with the help of a funding injection for The University of Queensland's Professor Mark Kendall.
|
Professor Kendall today won a three year Queensland Government Smart State Senior Fellowship, gaining $300,000 to research how nanotechnology may replace syringes in administering therapeutics.
|
His work could eventually replace needles with tiny `nano patches` on the skin.
|
"There is an explosion of designer drugs requiring precise delivery to specific locations in the skin and we are producing new delivery methods that are practical and needle-free," Professor Kendall said.
|
"We are targeting immunologically sensitive cells to produce improved immune responses in the treatment of major diseases such as HIV, malaria and allergies.
|
"This has enormous potential, including for the delivery of cheap and more effective vaccinations in the developing world."
|
The grant boosts funding for Professor Kendall`s project by $540,000 over three years, as Queensland biotech firm Coridon intends to commit $240,000 in cash and kind as the industry co-sponsor.
|
Professor Kendall is a UQ graduate who recently returned from the University of Oxford, where he achieved excellent commercial success with a bioballistic gene gun. He was the Associate Director of the PowderJect Centre for Gene and Drug Delivery at Oxford.
|
He is jointly appointed to UQ`s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research and Faculty of Health Sciences.
|
AIBN Director Professor Peter Gray congratulated Professor Kendall on his new fellowship and welcomed him to the AIBN. He said the fit between Professor Kendall`s work and the aims of the AIBN made him a valuable addition.
|
"Mark has been recognised for his outstanding work in this area, most notably being awarded a Younger Engineer of Britain prize in 2004, with one of his technologies winning the Best Medical Innovation 2005 awarded by Popular Science Magazine," Professor Gray said.
|
"In his eight years of work in this field he has authored over 80 journal articles and conference papers, as well as being listed as an inventor on seven patents.
|
"His multi-disciplinary research spans biomedical engineering diagnostics dermatology and vaccinology and he has already established an important collaboration with Australian of the Year Professor Ian Frazer at UQ`s Centre of Immunology and Cancer Research, as well as substantial links to the University's Faculty of Health Sciences.
|
"We expect more collaborations to develop as Mark`s research programs expand."
|
UQ's Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor David Siddle said he was excited by Professor Kendall's Smart State Fellowship.
|
"Our efforts in nanotechnology are positioned at the interface between biology and nanotechnology and Professor Kendall's work fits precisely in this space," he said.
|
Professor Siddle also noted the importance of growing collaboration between the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and Professor Ian Frazer's Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research.
|
Professor Kendall has an Honours (Class I) degree in mechanical engineering and a PhD in hypervelocity aerodynamics, both from The University of Queensland.
|
The Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for State Development, Trade and Innovation, Anna Bligh, announced Professor Kendall`s three year fellowship today at BIO 2006 in Chicago, USA.
|