Buckyballs Make Fantastic Voyage

August 2, 2001 | Source: Wired News

Fullerenes (a.k.a. Buckyballs — molecules containing 60 carbon atoms arranged in a sphere with a hollow center) are becoming an ideal platform for delivering drugs for diseases such as HIV, Lou Gehrig’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
C Sixty, which is developing products using fullerenes, also sees them being used for delivering bone-building drugs for osteoporosis and eventually for carrying cancer-killing drugs to tumor cells.

“Buckyballs will undoubtedly become an important part of the total pharmaceutical toolkit over the next few years,” said Robert A. Freitas, Jr., research scientist at Zyvex Corporation. “They will help save or improve the lives of millions of people around the world.”