2011 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting highlights state-of-the-art materials research
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2011 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting highlights state-of-the-art materials research www.mrs.org/fall2011
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he 2011 Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting was held in Boston from November 28 to December 2. The Meeting Chairs, Cammy R. Abernathy (University of Florida), Paul V. Braun (University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign), Masashi Kawasaki (University of Tokyo), and Kathryn J. Wahl (Naval Research Laboratory), compiled a program of 47 technical symposia, broadly divided into the areas of energy and the environment, functional materials, nanomaterials, biomaterials, and materials exploration. Alongside the technical sessions, the Meeting offered award presentations, an equipment exhibition, tutorials, professional development functions, public outreach activities, and government seminars on how to obtain funding for research. A major thread running through the Meeting was how to use state-of-the-art materials science to develop so-called next-generation devices that can be seamlessly integrated into society, from electronics to medical diagnostics. For example, Kavli Lecturer Mark E. Davis of the California Institute of Technology uses materials science to improve the lives of cancer patients. In order to avoid the side effects of chemotherapy as it is currently applied, Davis said he wants to “move the therapy inside the cancer cell, and then release it” by using organic nanoparticles containing the cancer-killing drug. Davis has tried to pinpoint precisely the size of the nanoparticle that will most effectively deliver the drug over an extended period and then leave the body. Once a solid tumor reaches a size of about 1 mm in diameter, the tumor needs new blood vessels to continue growing. These new blood vessels typi-
cally grow quickly but inefficiently, leaving them “leaky” with holes. These holes can provide a way to get cancerkilling drugs inside the tumor. Eventually, Davis said, the body needs to rid itself of excess nanoparticles that are no longer delivering drugs to prevent undesirable buildup in the body. So the optimal nanoparticle is one that can pass through the leaks in the blood vessels for tumor treatment and through the pores of the kidneys for elimination. From his decades of study, Davis has determined that a 50-nm nanoparticle is optimal; it is the “right size to do the right thing, in the right place, at the right time,” he said. In another talk about using nanodevices for cancer applications, Michael J. Cima of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology proposed implanting diagnostic devices that can perform biopsies. As surgical procedures performed in operating rooms, biopsies can be invasive, especially if they need to be done multiple times during a patient’s illness. The Cima group proposes to implant a tiny device inside the tissue using the same needle used for the biopsy. The de-
vice can then do further analysis as and when needed by the physician, thereby eliminating the need for additional invasive biopsies. In a typical process, a biomarker is transported in
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