Speeding Up The Drug Cycle
January 05 2009 / by Jeff Hilford / In association with Future Blogger.net
Category: Technology Year: General Rating: 10 Hot
The University of Michigan announced recently that they had made artificial bone marrow that can continuously make red and white blood cells. According to Nicholas Kotov, the PI of the lab, it uses 3D scaffolding that mimics the tissues that support bone marrow in the body.
In addition to possibly providing an inexhaustible source of blood for transfusions, which in and of itself would be great, it has the potential to simplify the pharmaceutical drug-testing process. As the world of discovery speeds up, the process of safely testing and bringing to market drugs and treatments in less than the standard 7-10 years is a difficult obstacle to overcome and one which is in great demand.
Computers are already hastening the process of compound evaluation through techniques like high-throughput screening, while the use of computer modeling is also increasing rapidly. But this type of bio-simulation, while still external to the biological system as a whole, seems like it could be another valuable tool for compressing the cycle of drug and treatment delivery.
Comment Thread (1 Response)
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This could be a bridge to accelerating true adaptive pharmacology.
Posted by: JFC January 13, 2009
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