Drug-Delivery Project Garners UMass Amherst $1.57 Million Grant From Department of Defense

May 31, 2007

Contact:

S. Thayumanavan 413/545-1313

AMHERST, Mass. – A team of University of Massachusetts Amherst scientists has been awarded a $1.57 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the design of a drug-delivery system that will control the release of medications in the body.

Led by chemist S. “Thai” Thayumanavan, the research team aims to design a system with feedback control that maintains an appropriate level of medication specific to each patient. Such a system could be especially useful on the battlefield and other trauma situations where pain-relieving medications are used.

“We’re designing a system that responds to the patient,” says Thayumanavan. “When the pain killer nears a toxic level in the body, a marker is released. The drug carrier will respond to this released marker by shutting down the release of the pain killer, thereby regulating the medication back to a therapeutic level.”

DARPA manages and directs selected research and development projects for the Department of Defense. The funding is for one-year with an additional option year. Scientists at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and Oregon Health and Science University are collaborating on the project.

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