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Injections such as vaccinations are used worldwide everyday and considered safe for the vast majority of people
Although is it the most quickest and most effective way to deliver medicinal drugs
since they are not destroyed by the stomach acids and get directly into the blood stream
there are significant risks associated with injections
These risks include those of possible infections
which can occur when the syringe accidentally pushes bacteria from the surface of the skin
into the wound during the injection process
People who need to take regular injections such as diabetics become increasingly susceptible to this
Another risk is posed when syringes are reused in the absence of sterilization
which exposes individuals to bacterial infections as well as blood born pathogens or viruses
such as *** and Hepatitis B and C
According to the World Health Organization
numerous assessments have shown
that up to 40% of injections
worldwide are given with syringes and needles that are reused without sterilization
In addition to this adults and children get stabbed or pricked by syringes
that are unsafely disposed of
such as when they are thrown on the ground or into the bin without the syringe end being protected
My motivation for this research is two fold
Firstly, I personally had two invasive operations on my left knee so far as a result of a skiing accident
During the 21 days after my operation
I had to inject myself with medication
to stop my blood from clotting
this was not a problem for me
but it is for people who have phobia for needles or don't have the skills to administer one
For which they would require a nurse to administer the injection everyday wasting valuable time and money
More importantly is my second motivational reason For which they would require a nurse to administer the injection everyday wasting valuable time and money
More importantly is my second motivational reason
I see many people in the society as well in my in my own family suffering from ineffective treatments
As we get older we commonly develop multiple problems
That are treated using pharmaceutical drugs
The problem really is that these cause multiple side-effects
and that can be very crippling and cause depression for people within already weakened body
these include brain fog and reduce mental capacity
and motor co-ordination among other things
Most of this is due to administering much more than the necessary amounts of potentially poisonous medications
into the body since they are being distributed everywhere
in the body through the circulatory system
There is clearly a huge need for something that gives no more of a drug than is required by the area of the body
we want to treat
An estimated 12.7 million new cancer related cases
were reported in 2008
and about 40% of them were lung, breast, prostate and stomach related cancer
In Asia alone, about 4 million people die due to cancer
Even with current methods treatment of cancer is not guaranteed
and in some cases patients are left
with many side-effects for example in chemotherapy
while destroying cancer cells many healthy cells are also being destroyed
In addition to Nausea and Vomiting, patients undergoing chemotherapy may suffer from more serious side-effects such as
Infertility
Brain and Neurological Effects
Hair Loss
Anemia
And even damage to heart
liver
kidney
and your ear
and in some cases
patients will be more prone to viruses and bacteria
since the immune system gets weak
due to [the] depression of immune system during the process of chemotherapy
and in very rare cases,
patients undergoing chemotherapy may eventually die
due to a lot of healthy cells being destroyed during the process
Imagine there is a burglar who broke into someone's house
In order to catch that burglar, would you raid every single house?
or narrow down the search to a specific area and target that area where the suspect might be hiding
This saves a lot of time and resources
Using the same analogy targeted drug delivery works where the medicine is engineered to target
only to the area or part of the body which needs it, hereby saving time
resources and potentially eliminating all the side-effects [which] I spoke about before
I have been working on the initial concepts for about a year and a half
which can be applied in bio-medical field to detect cancer and treat cancer cells
I personally have people in my own family who has lost lives
due to cancer and cancer related cases and this research is something personal to me
so that no one in future should suffer from these type of diseases
In this research we want to create a patch
that look similar to a nicotine or hormonal patch
that you can apply on top of your skin
for example on your shoulder
we are going to call it the Nanject
The patch will be made out of silicon and
possibly out of another polymer
Small nano-projections which are basically microscopic needle-like tips
will be created on one side of the patch the side that touches the skin
These are invisible to the human eye
When the patch is applied these nanoprojections will enter the hair follicle
on the skin. Hair follicles themselves do not access the subcutaneous layer
which is where many vaccines are normally injected
Subcutaneous layer is essentially a fatty region
underneath the skin. The difference is that vaccine damage tiny
blood vessels called capillaries causing internal bleeding
whereas we won't be using this technique
From the subcutaneous layer medicines are absorbed into capillaries that are intact
Capillaries are very selective about what they actually let into the blood stream
to defend your body from invaders
which means patients will be shielded
from many of the risks associated
with traditional injections such as the in formation, bacterial infection
and other complications
This is the case even if the patch is accidently left
unsterilized
The remaining nanoprojections which don't hit the hair follicle on target
are so small that they cannot even pierce the skin
making them completely harmless
This also means that when improperly disposed of
the patch wont cause any accidental harm to adults or children who accidentally handle it
This will allow people without any special training to self administer injections
without any fear of pain and with very low risk of infection
Now we will talk about the driving force
which are the nanoparticles
The nanoparticles which we are going to prepare
will be coated with proteins or peptides
The reason we are coating with proteins [or] peptides is in order to make these nanoparticles bio-compatible
These nanoparticles after being coated with protein [or] peptides they will be coated with different type of antigens or antibodies
What this antigens or antibodies really do [is that] they detect and tag cancer cells once they are inside your blood stream
Another interesting thing about these nanoparticles
is that they are magnetic in nature. Now, using this property of magnetism
once the nanoparticles goes inside a human body
we can control the movement of the particle
using an external magnetic field such as an MRI
Let me give you a small example
We can use these type of nanoparticles in the treatment of malignant tumor
where particle are sent to a tumor effected area of the patients body
and the patient is kept inside an MRI. Due to the magnetic field the nanoparticles within the body heats up
and they vibrate, and due to the vibration the tumor cell gets destroyed
As mentioned by Zaki before
about the Nanject being safe
is due to the fact that the size of the nanoparticles is small enough
to go through or pass through a hair follicle
which means that any foreign bodies which are not small enough
will not pass through the hair follicle. This is one of the other reasons
you should use or we should potentially put our time in making
a Nanject
In York we are working on
magnetic materials
that materials we use
in electron beam
One particular interesting thing here is to
use magnetic nanoparticles
that could [be] used for drug delivery
and could also destroy cancer cells
for example, one of my project student, Atif, he did a fantastic work
and tried to commercialize
and make use of this magnetic nanoparticles
Again, we have all the facility here in York
In York we have the clean room and all the measurement facilities
to work on this project
Thank You
As you have seen, this research has the potential to pave the way for a revolution in medicine
Not only cancer treatment but also the way we administer everyday drugs and vaccines
Imagine not needing to go to the doctor to get injected vaccines
having hardly any side-effects from very strong drugs when we are old
and possibly helping us live longer and heather lives
Imagine also the deadly cancers could be treated far more effectively
without infecting any other part of the body
and without having to put your life on pause for the treatment to take place
Imagine all this being cheaper than any current form of treatment
since all we will be using are the minimum raw materials required
to target the problem area making people outside the developed countries
able to access the product as well
In addition to all this
we are not trying to patent this research
instead we are making the results and knowledge completely open to anyone in the world
This will allow any company to take the results and commercialize them into a product with or without our help
and hereby encouraging positive competition to get it out to the people as soon as possible
We encourage anyone who is interested in collaborating with us to contact us
We thank everyone who can contribute something to this research which will help the global community
at large
Let's make this happen!