SUMMARY Approximately 1/5 of antibiotic resistant infections in humans can be traced back to food and animals. The incidence of these infections is perpetuated by the widespread prophylactic use of antibiotics on farms. As such, there is an urgent need for alternative methods of preventing bacterial infection in livestock. It… Read More
SUMMARY Clinically approved methods for the controlled release of oral therapies have demonstrated their efficacy in reducing required dosage, administration frequency, and side effects, thereby boosting patient compliance. Despite these successes, no solution is available for the controlled release of intravenously and subcutaneously administered therapies. The inventors synthesized copolymers composed… Read More
SUMMARY Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) is an important cytokine that activates cell death programs in response to acute inflammation. TNFα inhibitors are currently used to treat a multitude of autoimmune diseases, but problematically they also inhibit beneficial TNFα functions such as combating infections and cancer surveillance. Therefore, inhibitors that… Read More
SUMMARY Vaccine efficacy is limited due to the inability to deliver in-tact antigens to antigen presenting (APC) dendritic cells (DCs) while simultaneously activating the cells in a non-toxic fashion. Adjuvants have been used in an attempt to overcome the issues of vaccine efficacy, however they are poorly soluble which results… Read More
SUMMARY Electric stimulation of organs with implantable devices has demonstrated clinical utility for the treatment of a variety of diseases such as cardiac arrythmia. However, use of these technologies remains high risk, requiring either surgical implantation or permanent gene editing. The inventors synthesized silicon nanowires that are doped with gold… Read More