MIT Targeting Tumors Using Gold Nanorods

The researchers at MIT are at it again. This time, they're using gold nanorods to target malignant tumors. It's great to see so much research in nanotechnology. The team includes an MIT graduate student named Geoffrey von Maltzahn (who won the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, in part for his work with the nanorods). von Maltzahn developed the tumor-homing particles with Sangeeta Bhatia, MD, PhD, professor in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, a member of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Doctor Sangeeta Bhatia and I actually have a few things in common: we both studied mechanical engineering at MIT (I did my undergrad while she got her master's), we were both in Boston in the late nineties, and we both went to medical school (but different medical schools). Now, she holds 12 issued or pending patents and has worked in industry at Pfizer, Genetics Institute, ICI Pharmaceuticals, and Organogenesis.

Congrats to MIT student Geoffrey von Maltzahn!

Congrats to MIT student Geoffrey von Maltzahn! He's a 28-year-old Ph.D. candidate in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and he did his undergrad at MIT (Course 10). He received the prestigious $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for his research in the area of cancer therapy and nanomedicine: a new class of cancer therapeutics and a new paradigm for enhancing drug delivery to tumors. Nanotechnology is such an exciting area right now, especially in the area of oncology and drug delivery. I envy those who are devoting their lives to biologic research and applying innovations in technology to improve healthcare.

MIT and Harvard using PDAs to monitor TB in Peru

The folks over at MIT and Harvard are at it again. They are using a PDA to monitor TB treatment in patients living in Peru. The Harvard/MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) program is really about the technology. As I read about these types of projects, I wish I could be a college or medical student again. The opportunities are endless for students these days. Technology allows them to do so much more than ever before.

CDC chief Gerberding spoke at MIT today

I sure miss Kresge Auditorium at MIT. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spoke at MIT today. Gerberding's talk, sponsored by MIT's Center for Biomedical Innovation (CBI), was titled "Health System Transformation: Getting Our Money's Worth of 'Healthness.'" I wish I could have been there. It was open to the public, so I would have gone.