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Topic Name: Improve therapeutic options for various organs and different bioactive substances.
Category: Biodesign
Research persons: Raffi Bekeredjian
Location: 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Details
Gas filled microbubbles (about 2 - 4 µm) oscillate in an ultrasound field of their resonance frequency (about 1-1.5 MHz). At high ultrasound energies, microbubbles disintegrate, due to high amplitude oscillations. Such ultrasound targeted microbubble destruction allows organ specific delivery of bioactive substances after intravenous injection of microbubbles.
The Project
Ultrasound targeted microbubble destruction has been used as a diagnostic tool in sonography for several years. After intravenous injection, microbubbles can be imaged by ultrasound, and can then be destroyed in the tissue by high energy ultrasound. We have demonstrated that microbubbles can be loaded with a bioactive substance, such as gene-therapy vectors or proteins. Using ultrasound targeted microbubble destruction, these substances can be delivered to a target organ.
Aims
and Results
The aim of this project is to develop new microbubbles that are optimized for transport and delivery of plasmid-DNA, inhibitory RNA, therapeutic proteins and drugs. By optimizing this non-invasive, organ-specific delivery method, we will try to improve therapeutic options for various organs and different bioactive substances.
Contact
Dr. med. Raffi Bekeredjian
Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg
Innere Medizin III
Im Neuenheimer Feld 410
69120 Heidelberg
E-Mail:
raffi.bekeredjian@med.uni-heidelberg.de
Internet:
http://www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php?id=7803
Funding & organizing:
BioFuture competition of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
All the competition winners present themselves and their projects on this Internet platform.
BioFuture is one of the BMBF’s most successful funding initiatives in the field of biotechnology.
More than 1,400 researchers have participated in the competition since 1998.
So far 51 proposals have been selected in a selection procedure based on ambitious quality criteria.
The prize winners are supported in setting up their own research groups and in working
on topics they have chosen themselves.
The BMBF has made € 75 million available for such support until the year 2010.
The aim of the BioFuture competition is to recruit excellent junior researchers for science
and industry in the area of biotechnology. Numerous prize winners have meanwhile advanced
their careers in science and industry. Among them are fourteen German researchers who previously worked abroad, and six foreign researchers who have come to Germany to do research.
With the funding provided, 21 winning participants of the BioFuture competition have enhanced their qualifications and have been appointed professors at German and foreign universities. Eleven young researchers have established their own businesses.
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