Implanting Bioengineered Vaccines and Magnetic Nanodiscs Show Promise

A team of immunologists and bioengineers at Harvard University may have found the key to curing certain types of cancer with an implant-based approach of polymer disks saturated with denritic cells and antigens that are specialized to attack tumor cells.

These techniques show the advances of biomedical engineering implemented into lab work and helping cure cancer.

These disks work like a vaccine. They entice the immune system in the body to attack invading cells. Once the 8.5-millimeter biodegradable disks are injected into the skin they activate an immune response to destroy tumor cells. In a study where these disks were implanted in mice with melanoma, the treatment “led to remission and longer lives in ‘a substantial portion of the population’” of mice with melanoma (Scientific American)


Other technology included in the article has to do with other discs, called “nano-scale magnets.” When induced into a magnetic field, the discs inside an organism oscillate and damage cancer cell membranes, causing those cancer cells to die.
Hopefully, the research that these Harvard University employees are working on will be an advancement to the cloudy world of curing cancer, which is still one of the leading causes of death in the United States (behind heart disease).

Konstantine and Nate

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Work Cited:
Harmon, Katherine. "Conquering cancer with implants? Bioengineered vaccines and magnetic nanodiscs show promise". Scientific American. 11/29/09 .
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/M/melanoma.html
http://www.harvard.edu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendritic_cell
http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/body_basics/immune.html
https://health.google.com/health/ref/Coronary+heart+disease




Konstantine