Zapping Nanotech Vaccines Directly Into Your Cells

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Aug 3, 2010, 9:32:26 PM8/3/10

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Zapping Nanotech Vaccines Directly Into Your Cells
Drugs and vaccines could one day make their way into your body at the speed of light. Scientists from Georgia Tech can now blast a hole in a cell, place a molecule inside and seal it back up a split second later using a laser pulse. The new technique could deliver drugs, vaccines and other molecules that otherwise wouldn't be able to get past a cell's defenses. "Cells are surrounded by membranes, which keep what's inside, inside, and what's outside, outside," said Mark Prausnitz, a scientist at Georgia Tech and co-author of the new Nature Nanotechnology paper. "There is very little that can pass through the membrane, but our goal is to put molecules into cells that have a hard time getting (there)." Laser beams are only the latest way to deliver an outlying molecule inside a cell. Specialized channels embedded in the cell membrane actively pump some molecules into and out of the cell. If a molecule looks the part, it can slip past the cell membrane. Viruses use a special needle-like appendage to inject their genetic material into a cell. Certain chemicals and electrical charges can also temporarily puncture cell membranes.