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Monday, April 25, 2011

Nanoparticle Highlight


Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) kills a lot of people. It’s found in hospitals, health clubs, schools, and nearly everywhere people gather. I’ve had people I know die or end up in intensive care for weeks because of this bug. Antibiotics don’t kill it. The only thing we have for surviving the bug is a hearty constitution. IBM Research, working with the Singapore based Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology discovered new antibiotic nanoparticles which attack this deadly infection Promising Cure.

Applications, both topical and by injection, of this biodegradable nanoparticle can be used to fight off Superbugs. E-coli bacteria will be a future target along with similar drug resistant bacteria. This new electronically charged treatment must be proven in clinical trials. I would hope it could be used in some real life trials where patients near death could receive it. I’m always puzzled why they can’t widen these clinical trials to include not only a test sample of patients studied in the trials, but also public trials with volunteers in desperate straits who are out of options. The answer is probably the ambulance chasing, class action suit trial lawyers.

2 comments:

raine said...

Give people who are out of options the right to choose, dammit. Give 'em papers to sign, make the choice legal, and treat them like freaking adults.

BernardL said...

I agree completely, Raine. One of the FDA's idiotic reasons for not doing it is they don't want to give people false hope. So... no hope is better?