$1m grant to develop fantastic voyage delivery service to the inner ear

The human body has all sizes of real estate but access to some of its smallest areas is a big problem for those who have to deliver things...drugs for example. The 1966 science fiction film Fantastic Voyage envisaged a submarine and its crew being shrunk to nano dimensions and sent inside the body. Fast forward to our days of daily scientific revelations, and we already have a drug delivery system for fantastic voyages to different parts of the body. Not nano-submarines, but guided magnetic nanoparticles. The routes these nanoparticles travel need special technological planning. The confined anatomy of the inner ear, however, makes for no easy journey, and so far there is no delivery method. So a system needs to be ready for when some of the many pharmaceutical projects under way to create drugs to treat hearing conditions actually bear their fruits. Enter the University of Cincinnati's Dr. Daniel Sun, who has a career development award of slightly over one...