NEWS & ANALYSIS

AN AUDIENCE WITH… Robert S. Langer

increased interaction between formulation Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and scientists and discovery scientists; also, having Biomedical Engineering , Massachusetts Institute of the pharma company interact early on with a Technology, 45 Carleton Street, Room E25-342, Cambridge, specialized delivery or formulation company Massachusetts, USA is another approach. Robert Langer obtained his Bachelor’s Degree from Cornell University in 1970 and his Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute Is this lack of interaction a reluctance to of Technology in 1974, both in Chemical Engineering. He holds integrate or is it a different issue? more than 500 issued or pending patents worldwide, many of I’m not sure that there is a single answer. which have been licensed or sublicensed to pharmaceutical, It may be due to reliance on long-standing Copyright 2004, John Nikolai chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies. In 1989, approaches, or to cultural differences Langer was elected to the Institute of of the National Academy of Sciences, between formulation scientists and drug and in 1992 was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering and to the National discovery scientists. Academy of Sciences — he is the youngest person in history ever elected to all three United States National Academies. In 2002, he received the Charles Stark Draper Prize, considered What needs to happen to forge these the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for engineers, from the National Academy of Engineering. interactions? Senior management could encourage With a background in engineering, why did you How did you overcome this scepticism to these interactions and recognize that decide to move into the world of drug delivery? establish your lab and achieve such success? researchers often suffer from ‘not invented After my doctorate, I was not sure what I When we first developed approaches for here’ syndrome. wanted to do. Most of my fellow graduates controlled release our findings went against took jobs in oil or chemical companies, but I conventional wisdom. So my students and I How long will it take for nanotechnology to dreamed about using my background to worked hard to determine the mechanism of make it into the clinic? improve health. Fortunately, I obtained a release and eventually we succeeded. Then, That’s really hard to say. It depends on how postdoctoral position with Judah Folkman, within a few years other research groups well nanotechnology can solve unmet needs which resulted in the isolation of the first began to reproduce our work to study a compared with other approaches. There are inhibitor, which turned out to variety of informational macromolecules, also challenges still to be overcome in safety be a macromolecule. However, at the time I and this began to dispel the doubts. and quality control, clinical trials, regulation, started this research there was no way to study manufacturing and development of macromolecules in vivo to see whether an Is there still reluctance to fully integrate nanotechnology-based treatments. inhibitor could work. We felt we needed a disciplines at MIT and other universities? non-inflammatory system to slowly release I think things are greatly improving. Is there any proof that nanotechnology can these substances and, because none existed, There are a variety of cross-disciplinary solve unmet medical needs? I decided to invent one. departments or divisions at MIT and It’s probably too early to say, but there is elsewhere. For example, the number of new certainly the possibility that it could aid What challenges did you encounter when you Bioengineering departments has more than fields such as drug delivery, imaging started working in a different discipline? doubled in the past decade. (perhaps new contrast agents), biosensors I was working on a biological problem in a and nucleic-acid delivery. surgery lab and the only relevant class I’d Do pharma companies appreciate new delivery ever taken was 10th-grade biology. For two options or focus too much on small molecules? Which novel method of delivery would years I made little scientific progress, and I think they are certainly aware of new you bet on becoming a successful marketed when I finally did develop approaches for delivery options. I also think orally available product and when? controlled release of macromolecules my small molecules are the ideal option if it’s I believe they all will at some point; the ideas were greeted with a great deal of possible to achieve that. However, even these problem is predicting when. In our scepticism and ridicule. Even once the molecules have major formulation issues such laboratory, we have many bright students work was published as solubility, appropriate crystal form, and postdocs who want to solve interesting in Science,grant reviewers said it was stability and so on. problems in all of these areas. I’ve been impossible for engineers to do such work impressed enough with the ingenuity and and turned down my applications. It also How could pharma companies better perseverance of these people to believe that looked like I would not get my Assistant integrate delivery into the pipeline? many of the novel delivery methods being Professorship renewed at MIT because It’s really up to them, and some, to a certain studied today will make an impact in the several senior faculty members did not think extent, do integrate delivery. To further future, just as those studied 20–30 years ago my work was important. improve integration, one might have are doing today.

546 | JULY 2004 | VOLUME 3 www.nature.com/reviews/drugdisc