Team reports new method of chemo delivery

Potential applications

The researchers believe their technique could help improve cancer treatment and other therapies requiring drugs to be delivered at the right place and the right time—from post-surgery pain medications to protein-based drugs that require daily injections.

It requires an initial injection of the hydrogel, but the approach could be a much less traumatic, minimally invasive, and more effective method of drug delivery than current methods, Dr Mooney said.

The researchers also found their hydrogel can release cargo other than drugs, including proteins and condensed plasmid DNA. This lays the groundwork for using these hydrogels for tissue regeneration and gene therapy.

Dr Mooney said he and his colleagues plan to explore these potential applications, as well as the possibility of unleashing 2 different drugs independently from the same hydrogel.