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【社会人文】控释药物发明家获＂千禧技术奖＂
Wed Jun 11, 12:04 PM ET
HELSINKI (AFP) - An American professor who developed innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release on Wednesday won the 800,000-euro (1.2-million-dollar) Millennium Technology Prize.
Robert Langer, 59, is a chemical engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
He used controlled drug release for the first time in 1986, when he and neurosurgeon Henry Brem devised chemotherapy wafers used to treat brain cancer.
The wafer, the size of a small coin, releases the cancer drug slowly in the area from which a tumour has been removed, killing any remaining cancer cells on the spot and causing fewer side effects on other organs than traditional drugs.
This so-called intelligent drug release is also used to treat heart disease and other diseases.
Over 100 million people a year use advanced drug delivery systems, a number that is rising rapidly, according to the prize committee.
Langer has also made innovations in tissue engineering, including synthetic replacement for biological tissues such as artificial skin.
In the future, tissue engineering could revolutionise medical treatment that could affect millions of people, the jury said.
"Langer's innovations have saved human lives and improved the lives of millions of patients," Maria Makarow, chairwoman of the international selection committee said in a statement.
The Millennium Technology Prize was created in 2002 and is awarded every two years to celebrate "an outstanding innovation that directly promotes people's quality of life, is based on humane values and encourages sustainable economic development," according to its founding charter.
Funded by the Finnish state and several companies, it was first awarded in 2004 to Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, and in 2006 it was given to Shuji Nakamura, for his invention of LED light sources and the "blue laser."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080611/hl_afp/finlandusprizetechnology_080611160419;_ylt=AnwQpiSCzZbGQg.rpnE34pOJOrgF
screen.width-333)this.width=screen.width-333" width=180 height=270 title="Click to view full r17_110608180145_photo00_photo_default-341x512.jpg (180 X 270)" border=0 align=absmiddle> The Millennium Prize Laureate 2008
“For his invention and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration that have significantly improved human health.”
Professor Robert Langer
Institute Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, Massachusetts, USA
Born August 1948 in Albany, New York, USA
Pioneer of controlled drug release and tissue regeneration
The development of a new drug to prevent or cure a disease is always a challenge, but it is just half the battle; ensuring accurate dosage – the right amount in the right place at the right time – is as important, since even the best drug can be worthless if the timing and targeting are wrong.
The traditional approach is to swallow a pill, rub on a gel, drink a potion, have an injection, apply a drug-doped bandage or inhale curing particles, and then leave the medicine to find its internal target.
But there are modern, more intelligent drugs, better able to target the desired area, and with delivery mechanisms that enable controlled release with precision, even over many years. Dr. Robert Langer has discovered and developed many advanced drug delivery systems that have had a major impact on fighting cancer,heart disease, mental health illnesses and numerous other diseases.
Dr. Langer has been cited as "one of history's most prolific inventors in medicine". He has over 600 issued and pending patents, has published approximately 1000 articles and 13 books, and is known as the father of controlled drug delivery and tissue engineering. His patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 200 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies. He was also named by *** and Time magazine in 2001 as one of the 100 most important people in the United States.
“When I was a little, my parents bought me a Gilbert chemistry set and I found it fascinating,” says Dr. Langer, who recalls how he kept playing with the chemicals and making colors change. “I also got a microscope set and watched shrimp grow and things like that.” In high school his best subjects were science and mathematics so many people advised him to study engineering. And he did.
“I got my degree in chemical engineering in 1974 and almost all my colleagues went into the oil industry, because there were so many jobs there at that time. But I wasn‟t excited about that industry - I was interested in education.” So, Langer applied for various jobs in education, but with very little success. As he was also interested in medicine, he also applied for various jobs at hospitals and medical schools. Nobody hired him there either. Then somebody mentioned that there was a clinician in Boston named Judah Folkman who sometimes hired „unusual‟ people. “So I wrote him and he offered me a position. He was trying to figure out a way to stop blood vessels growing into tumors and my work was to isolate substances that might stop the blood vessels growing into cancerous tumors.”
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2010-09-30 17:11
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