Using nano-materials for drug discovery

February 17, 2005 | Source: KurzweilAI

Purdue University researchers have demonstrated a prototype for a new class of miniature devices to study synthetic cell membranes in an effort to speed the discovery of new drugs for a variety of diseases.

The researchers created a chip about one centimeter square that holds thousands of tiny vessels sitting on top of a material that contains numerous pores. This “nanoporous” material makes it possible to carry out reactions inside the vessels.

The goal is to produce “laboratories-on-a-chip” less than a half-inch square that might contain up to a million test chambers, or “reactors,” each capable of screening an individual drug.

The researchers are developing synthetic cell membranes to mimic the real thing and then plan to use those membranes to create chips containing up to 1 million test chambers. Each chamber would be covered with a membrane containing the proteins, and the chambers could then be used to search for drugs that deactivate the pumps.

Such an advanced technology could be used to quickly screen millions of untested drug compounds that exist in large pharmaceutical “libraries.”

Purdue University news release