Better Drug Delivery With New Smart Inhaler (Images 1 and 2)

Professors Clement Kleinstreuer (left) and Stefan Seelecke of the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University examine parts of a smart inhaler system they developed that could improve treatment of diseases by targeting drugs onto diseased tissue without affecting healthy areas of the throat and lungs. The system could be a breakthrough for patients suffering from lung cancer, asthma, diabetes and other ailments.

This computer controlled inhaler system implements a technology that for the first time, tightly controls where inhaled drugs end up in the respiratory system. Developed by engineers at North Carolina State University, the system could improve treatment of diseases by targeting drugs onto diseased tissue without affecting healthy areas of the throat and lungs--a breakthrough for patients suffering from lung cancer, asthma, diabetes and other ailments.

To read more about this discovery, see the NC State news story New Inhaler System Could Be Breakthrough for Disease Treatment. (Date of Images: 2008-09)

Credit: Roger Winstead, North Carolina State University