Professor Colin Raston of Flinders University in Adelaide created the
vortex fluidic device after he did some brainstorming during a long
haul flight between Los Angeles and Sydney.
"The design was actually put together on that 15-hour flight and the rest is history," he said.
"We now have these devices that are delivering stunning results."
The
vortex fluidic device was first tested recently on a hen egg, and
researchers managed to pull apart its tangled proteins and return the
egg white to an earlier state.
Professor Raston said the device
allowed more tightly controlled chemical processes to be performed,
saving researchers time and reducing their materials wastage. One
application already found allows improved delivery of a common cancer
treatment drug, Carboplatin, which is used against ovarian and lung
cancers. The device has allowed drug potency to be boosted as much as four-and-a-half-times, Professor Raston said.
"The drug is released at the tumor so the consequence of that, is you need less drug and you reduce the side-effects."In
terms of the bigger picture, you're minimising the amount of drug that
ends up as waste because most of the drugs we take end up in the waste,
in sewage."
"It gives us the promise of offering an alternative where we have
more drug being delivered to the tumor and less drug being delivered to
the rest of the body," he said.
"That means less side-effects for the patient and hopefully a much better effect in terms of tumor response."What this group is doing is an example of one drug but we would hope we could extend this to many drugs."
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