Charité Establishes NanoTherm® Therapy for the Treatment of Recurrent Brain Tumors

Universitätsmedizin Berlin has established a new treatment at the Clinic for Radiooncology, Campus Virchow, which offers selected patients a nanomedicine approach for the treatment of recurrent brain tumors. Dr. Andreas Jordan at Charité developed the magnetic nanoparticle-based cancer therapy and is now marketing it through MagForce Nanotechnologies AG, a Charité spin off company.

The principle of the therapy is the use of nanoparticles containing iron oxide, which are injected into brain tumor in a procedure similar to a biopsy. The treatment is carried out in a magnetic field applicator (NanoActivator™), a machine that produces an alternating magnetic field and is very safe for humans. Through this high frequency magnetic field, the nanoparticles begin to oscillate and heat is produced from directly within the tumor tissue. Depending on the temperature reached and length of treatment, the tumor cells are either directly destroyed or sensitized for the accompanying chemotherapy or radiation.  This novel therapy has the potential to improve the survival for patients with recurrent glioblastoma, an especially malignant type of brain tumor.

The clinical trial that lead to the therapy’s European approval has been written up in a recent paper. The median overall survival from diagnosis of the first tumor recurrence among the 59 patients with recurrent glioblastoma was 13.4 months (95% CI: 10.6–16.2 months). This is significantly better than historical comparisons, actually by about 8 months! Please check out the details here.

Researchers Pinpoint the Cause of MRI Vertigo

A team of researchers says it has discovered why so many people undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), especially in newer high-strength machines, get vertigo, or the dizzy sensation of free-falling, while inside or when coming out of the tunnel-like machine.

In a new study published in Current Biology online on Sept. 22, Dale C. Roberts, M.S., senior research systems engineer in the laboratory of David Zee, M.D., within the Department of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and his colleagues suggest that MRI's strong magnet pushes on fluid that circulates in the inner ear's balance center, leading to a feeling of unexpected or unsteady movement. The finding could also call into question results of so-called functional MRI studies designed to detect what the brain and mind are doing under various circumstances.

Check it out here.

Prediction of a New Equilibrium State for the Aggregation of Superparamagnetic Colloids Under High Fields

It is known that dispersions of superparamagnetic nanoparticles tend to arrange in chain-like structures under high external and uniaxial magnetic fields. According to previous experiments and computer simulations, these chain-like structures are expected to grow with time following a power law behavior.

New Langevin Dynamics simulations and thermodynamical arguments in a recent paper by Adnreu et al has show that, in some conditions, these dispersions of aggregates attain an equilibrium state after a transient period of chain formation. This novel state can be explained in the basis of a balance between energetic and entropic effects on the chain formation process. The properties of this equilibrium state can be described by the magnetic content of the superparamagnetic particles, their size and the initial concentration of particles. At the time of publication of these theoretical results, there was no clear experimental evidence for such an equilibrium state under high magnetic fields. However, a few months later, Barrett et al published new results on magnetic aggregation employing Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS), which supports the existence of this equilibrium state.

Researchers Invent New Drug Delivery Device to Treat Diabetes-Related Vision Loss

Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes mellitus that can eventually lead to blindness. 

At the University of British Columbia, researchers in the Faculty of Pharmacuetical Science and the Department of Mechanical Engineering have developed a novel device that will make drug treatment for diabetic retinopathy safer and more effective. The device, no larger than the head of a pin, consists of a sealed reservoir made of flexible polydimethylsiloxane that is implanted behind the eye. Part of the reservoir’s flexible membrane is magnetic; an electric field applied to the device causes the magnetic membrane to deform and release a controlled amount of drug out of a small hole. An advantage of this device is that it requires no batteries or electricity. Early lab tests using the drug doxetaxel have shown that the device can consistently deliver a suitable dosage without breaking or leaking after 35 days and maintain pharmacological activity of the docetaxel for over 2 months. 

Click HERE to read the full paper. 

11th German Ferrofluid Workshop

The Workshop is devoted to the most recent development in ferrofluid research. This covers all classical areas of ferrofluid research as physico-chemistry,  microstructure, numerical simulations, ferrohydrodynamics, heat and mass transfer, engineering and biomedical applications etc. Moreover, magnetorheological fluids and composites are traditionally among the topics of the workshop.

September 28-30, 2011, Benediktbeuern, Germany

http://www.mfd.mw.tu-dresden.de/ffworkshop/

Magnetic Nanoparticles: From Fabrication to Clinical Applications

Now available for pre-ordering from CRC Press or Amazon.

Offering the latest information in magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) research, this comprehensive volume reveals the in-depth knowledge behind this highly important and emerging area of nanotechnology. It covers the synthesis and characterization of MNPs, the biofunctionalization of MNPs, and the biomedical and clinical applications of this technology including using MNPs in diagnostic MRIs, gene delivery, and the treatment of cancers. Balancing clinical applications with the underlying theory and foundational science behind these new discoveries, this book stimulates those entering the field as well as practicing engineers toward new research and further groundbreaking developments.

The book will be release January 25, 2012

Magnetic Particle Imaging Workshop (IWMPI2012)

The workshop aims to cover the status and recent developments of both the instrumentation and the tracer material in performing magnetic particle imaging. Furthermore, the workshop aims at presenting first results from phantom and pre-clinical studies. There will also be an opportunity to present research findings and results to a highly interested audience of professionals and academic experts active in the field.

Submission of Abstracts: October 4, 2011

March 15-16, 2012, Lübeck, Germany

Electronic Manipulator with 5 Degrees of Freedom

Aeon Scientific manufactures micromanipulation systems capable of 5 degree-of-freedom wireless magnetic control of an unthethered agent within a spherical workspace of 10mm diameter. 

Aeon Scientific is interested in finding a distributor; for information, please contact Dominik Bell by email.