Volume 52, Number 16 Wednesday, February 13, 2008 TechTalk S ERVING THE MIT CO mm UNI T Y A ‘micropharmacy’ inside Implantable film can deliver drugs Anne Trafton sandwiches the drug molecules and holds News Office them in place. (Part of the reason the researchers chose to work with Prussian Blue is that the FDA has already found it A new thin-film coating developed at safe for use in humans.) MIT can deliver controlled drug doses When an electrical potential is applied to specific targets in the body following to the film, the Prussian Blue loses its implantation, essentially serving as a negative charge, which causes the film “micropharmacy.” to disintegrate, releasing the drugs. The The film could eventually be used to amount of drug delivered and the timing deliver drugs for cancer, epilepsy, diabetes of the dose can be precisely controlled by and other diseases. It is among the first turning the voltage on and off. drug-delivery coatings that can be remote- The electrical signal can be remotely ly activated by applying a small electric administered (for example, by a physician) field. using radio signals or other techniques “You can mete out what is needed, that have already been developed for other exactly when it’s needed, in a system- biomedical devices. atic fashion,” said Paula Hammond, the The films can carry discrete packets PHOTO / DONNA COVENEY Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering of drugs that can be released separately, From left, Broad Institute postdoctoral associate Kris Wood, Bayer Professor of Chemical and senior author of a paper on the work which could be especially beneficial for Engineering Paula Hammond and chemical engineering graduate student Dan Schmidt appearing in the Feb. 11 issue of the Pro- chemotherapy. The research team is now show the thin film they have developed. The film releases drugs and other chemical agents ceedings of the National Academy of Sci- working on loading the films with different upon application of a small electrical field. ences. cancer drugs. The film, which is typically about 150 Eventually, devices could be designed engineering and one of the lead authors of tion. They can coat a surface of any size or nanometers (billionths of a meter) thick, that can automatically deliver drugs after the paper. shape, which offers more design flexibility can be implanted in specific parts of the sensing that they’re needed. For example, Other lead authors are recent MIT PhD than other drug-delivery devices that have body. they could release chemotherapy agents if recipients Kris Wood, now a postdoctoral to be microfabricated. The films are made from alternat- a tumor starts to return, or deliver insulin associate at the Broad Institute of MIT “The drawback to microfabricated ing layers of two materials: a negatively if a diabetic patient has high blood sugar. and Harvard, and Nicole Zacharia, now a devices is that it’s hard to coat the drug charged pigment and a positively charged “You could eventually have a signaling postdoctoral associate at the University of over a large surface area or over an area drug molecule, or a neutral drug wrapped system with biosensors coupled with the Toronto. in a positively charged molecule. drug delivery component,” said Daniel Because the films are built layer by See DRUGS The pigment, called Prussian Blue, Schmidt, a graduate student in chemical layer, it is easy to control their composi- Page 7 Anne Trafton News Office It’s not unusual for MIT professors Tour de force and their students to socialize outside the laboratory. But here’s a word of warning to would-be members of Jeff Tester’s lab: You might want to think about getting in shape. Every spring, Tester leads a group of people, mostly his students and members of his lab, on a 65-mile bike trip along the Connecticut River from Lancaster, N.H., through Vermont and then into the Great North Woods of New Hampshire, near Canada. Some riders tack on an extra trip to the Cana- dian border at Fourth Lake that brings the round-trip total to about 100 miles. Tester and his wife, Sue, started making the trip, which includes an overnight stay at a former hunting-and- fishing lodge called the Glen, in Pitts- burg, N.H., more than 25 years ago. After a few years, students started ask- ing if they could join the trek through the breathtaking scenery of northern New England. “We decided to take whoever want- ed to go,” says Tester, the H.P. Meiss- ner Professor of Chemical Engineering and an avid cyclist. “For some of the students it becomes sort of a rite of pas- sage. It becomes a great achievement for them to make it to the Glen.” Over the years, more than 100 stu- dents and spouses have gone on the PHOTO / ROCCO CICCOLINI See CYCLE Professor Jeff Tester cycling toward Teton Pass, near the border between Idaho and Wyoming. Page 6 PEOPLE NEWS RESEARCH LOUIS MENAND III IN THE WORLD: TOYING WITH THE RAINFOREST A SUPER SURPRISE Beloved political scientist, administrator passes Sloan student hopes to build sustainable toys in MIT physicists gain understanding of high- away at the age of 85. Honduras. temperature superconductors, the uses of which Page 2 Page 3 would be limitless. Page 5 DEFINING STRENGTHS X-CELLENCE MARKS THE SPOT Martha Gray, who will step down as HST director in Institute announces annual Excellence Awards. AUTISTIC SAVANTS EXPLAINED? July, is praised for her inclusiveness and optimism. Page 8 Picower researchers’ findings may reveal reason Page 3 behind mental disability phenomenon. Page 5 PAGE 2 February 13, 2008 PEOPLE MIT Tech Talk OBITUARIES Suresh to receive 2008 Eringen Medal Louis Menand III, political an advocate for civil rights throughout his of the Society of Engineering Science life. His personal passions were music, scientist and former key especially opera, and the natural environ- The Society of Engineer- medal, a cash prize and life- ment. He loved mountains both as scenery ing Science has chosen Subra time membership in the soci- administrator, 85 and as ski slopes. He was a member of the Suresh, Dean of the School of ety. In Suresh’s honor, the St. Botolph Club in Boston. Engineering and Ford Profes- society also plans to organize Sarah H. Wright Menand was a native of Menands, N.Y., sor of Engineering, to receive a special symposium devoted News Office a town named for his great-grandfather. the A.C. Eringen Medal for to the science and applica- He received his BA in political science 2008, one of the highest and tions of advanced material, cell from Middlebury College in 1944 and his most distinguished prizes and molecular biomechanics, PhD from the Maxwell School of Public awarded in recognition of “sus- and nanotechnology, to which Louis Menand III, a celebrated teacher Administration of Syracuse University in tained outstanding achieve- Suresh has made pioneering and political scientist who served three 1952. In 1943, at the age of 20, he enlisted ments in engineering science.” contributions. The list of recip- consecutive MIT administrations in senior in the U.S. Navy; he spent two years in In its annual meeting to be ients of the Eringen Medal leadership roles, died Jan. 30 of complica- the Pacific commanding a landing craft held this fall at the University in recent years includes the tions from cardiac surgery. He was 85. and participating in eight invasions before of Illinois at Urbana, Cham- late Nobel laureate Pierre de Menand came to MIT in 1968 as assis- Subra Suresh leaving the service in 1946 as a lieutenant, paign, Suresh will receive a Gennes. tant to the provost under MIT President junior grade. Howard Johnson; later, he was special Before coming to MIT, Menand was a assistant to provosts under former presi- Washington-based consultant to the Office AWARDS AND HONORS dent Jerome of Economic Opportunity for Upward Wiesner and Bound, a federal program to help disad- John C. Cox, the Nomura Professor of “contributions to data flow and multi-thread Paul Gray, pres- vantaged high school students prepare for Finance, has been elected as an American computing and the development of tools for ident emeritus college. He was dean of Bradford College Finance Association (AFA) Fellow. The the high-level synthesis of hardware.” and professor from 1956 to 1966. He also held faculty purpose of the AFA Society of Fellows is to Armstrong, the Chevron Professor of emeritus of elec- positions at Dartmouth College and Vas- recognize those members who have made Chemical Engineering, was honored for trical engineer- sar College. a distinguished contribution to the field of “conducting outstanding research on non- ing and comput- Menand is survived by his wife, Cath- finance. No more than five candidates are Newtonian fluid mechanics, co-authoring er science. erine (Shults), of Boston; a son, Louis, of nominated each year, and current fellows landmark textbooks and providing leader- “Louis fell Cambridge and New York City; a daughter, elect a maximum of two new fellows. Cox ship in chemical engineering education.” in love with Constance Margowsky of Somersworth, was the sole Principal this special N.H.; a son, Nicholas Brock of Hammon- recipient of Research Sci- place even as ton, N.J.; and four grandchildren. this honor entist Victor the Institute In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent in the most W. Wong has embraced him. Louis Menand to Tutoring Plus of Cambridge, a commu- recent elec- been granted An erudite, cos- nity program assisting local high school tion. fellow status mopolitan, engaging individual with a fine students, where Menand had served as Elfatih by SAE Inter- sense of humor, he will be remembered president of the board of directors.