Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T08:25:58.845Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Biomaterials: New Polymers and Novel Applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

Robert Langer
Get access

Extract

The following is an edited transcript of the plenary lecture presented by Robert Langer at the 1995 MRS Spring Meeting on April 17, 1995 in San Francisco.

Over the last 21 years I have been involved in examining and studying, and in some cases synthesizing new polymers and biomaterials, looking at how they might be able to solve two problems. One set of problems involves drug delivery; a second involves creating new tissues.

Controlled drug release is a relatively young field that has involved a fundamental change in the way drugs are delivered. Transdermal drug delivery, for example, uses five layers of polymers, yet the whole system is 0.2 mm thick. One such polymer contains nitroglycerine, which is slowly released for one day from a patch through the skin into the blood circulation. This process provided a novel way to treat angina for patients with chest pains. First introduced in 1982, such drug-delivery systems saw a usage rate of over 500 million last year.

Norplant systems, which are silicone capsules placed under the forearm, slowly release a birth-control drug for over 2,000 days, or five years, from what are actually six small implants about the size of match sticks. These two examples illustrate that drugs can be made to slowly diffuse through polymers over a long period of time.

Type
Technical Features
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 20 , Issue 8 , August 1995 , pp. 18 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Stannett, V.T., Koros, W.J., Paul, D.R., Lonsdale, H.K., and Baker, R.W., Adv. Poly. Sci. 32 (1979) p. 71.Google Scholar
2.Langer, R. and Folkman, J., “Polymers for the Sustained Release of Proteins and Other Macromolecules,” Nature 263 (1976) p. 797.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3.Brem, H., Piantadosi, S., Burger, P.C., Walker, M., Selker, R., Vick, N.A., Black, K., Sisti, M., Brem, S., Mohr, G., Muller, P., Morawetz, R., Schold, S.C., and the Polymer-Brain Tumor Treatment Group, “Intraoperative Controlled Delivery of Chemotherapy by Biodegradable Polymers: Safety and Effectiveness for Recurrent Gliomas Evaluated by a Prospective, Multi-Institutional Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial,” Lancet 345 (1995) p. 1,008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Constantino, H., Langer, R., and Klibanov, A., “Solid-Phase Aggregation of Proteins under Pharmaceuticaly Relevant Conditions,” J. Pharm. Sci. 83 (1994) p. 1,662.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Simons, M., Edelman, E.R., DeKeyser, J.L., Langer, R., and Rosenberg, R.D., “Antisense c-myb Ooligonucleotides Inhibit Aerterial Smooth Muscle Proliferation In Vivo,” Nature 359 (1992) p. 67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar