Microscopic STAR Particles Offer Potential Treatment for Skin Diseases Skin diseases affect half of the world’s population, but many treatments are not effective, require frequent injections, or cause significant side effects. But what if there was a treatment that eliminated injections, reduced side effects, and increased drug effectiveness? A skin therapy with these properties may be on the horizon from Professor Mark Prausnitz’s Drug Delivery Lab. In a study published in Nature Medicine, Prausnitz and his team reported on research using a skin cream infused with microscopic STAR particles. To the naked eye, these look like a powder, but closer inspection reveals tiny microneedle
projections sticking out from the particles like a microscopic star. A particle-containing cream could potentially facilitate better treatment of skin diseases including psoriasis, warts, and certain types of skin cancer. Following the successful study of his microneedle patches for vac-
Ultra-Low-Cost Hearing Aid Could Address Age-Related Hearing Loss Worldwide Using a device that could be built with a dollar’s worth of open-source parts and a 3D-printed case, researchers want to help the hundreds of millions of older people worldwide who can’t afford existing hearing aids to address their age-related hearing loss. The ultra-low-cost, proof-of-concept device known as LoCHAid is designed to be easily manufactured and repaired in locations where conventional hearing aids are priced beyond the reach of most citizens. The minimalist device is expected to meet most of the World Health Organization’s targets for hearing aids aimed at mild to moderate age-related hearing loss. The prototypes built so far look like wearable music players instead of a traditional behind-the-ear hearing aids. “The challenge we set for ourselves was to build a minimalist hearing aid, determine how good it would be, and ask how useful it would be to the millions of people who could use it,” says ChBE Assistant Professor Saad Bhamla. Details of the project are described in the journal PLOS ONE.
cination, Prausnitz and postdoctoral scholar Andrew Tadros have advanced the technology with the objective of treating skin conditions by simply rubbing STAR particles on the skin. “Microneedle patches are good at administering drugs or vaccines to a small area of skin, but many dermatological conditions are spread over larger areas,” Prausnitz says. “Rather than trying to make really big patches, which would be difficult to use, we ultimately arrived at STAR particles that can be rubbed on the skin – just like any skin lotion – and poke tiny holes in the skin to better deliver drugs.”
Process Boosts Lignin Bio-oil as a Next-Generation Fuel A new low-temperature, multi-phase process (reported in Nature Energy) for upgrading lignin bio-oil to hydrocarbons could help expand use of the lignin, which is now largely a waste product left over from the production of cellulose and bioethanol from trees and other woody plants. Using a dual catalyst system of superacid and platinum particles, Georgia Tech researchers have shown they can add hydrogen and remove oxygen from lignin bio-oil, making the oil more useful as a fuel and source of chemical feedstocks. The process, based on an unusual hydrogen cycle, can be done at low temperature and ambient pressure, improving the practicality of the upgrade and reducing the energy input needed. “From an environmental and sustainability standpoint, people want to use oil produced from biomass” - Professor Yulin Deng
“The worldwide lignin production from paper and bioethanol manufacturing is 50 million tons annually, and more than 95% of that is simply burned to generate heat,” Deng says. “My lab is looking for practical methods to upgrade low molecular weight lignin compounds to make them commercially viable.” CHBE.GATECH.EDU
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