Nanotechnology studies
Barun Brahma, M.D., Tobey MacDonald, M.D., and researchers from Georgia Tech and Emory University published ground-breaking brain tumor research in the journal Nature Materials. This new treatment approach uses nanotechnology to direct tumor cells outside of the brain where they can be isolated and killed.
Read an abstract of the article
In 2010, the Georgia Institute of Technology received the EUREKA grant (Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration) from the National Institutes of Health for research by Drs. Brahma and MacDonald, and Ravi Bellamkonda, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech). The grant will allow researchers to design a treatment for brain tumors that would direct tumor cells through a scaffold to a sink, located on the brain’s surface, which would contain medicine to kill the cells.
Learn more about the research:
Read “Brain Exvaders,” an article in Peds
Read an interview with Dr. Brahma
Other studies
- Stem cells: Along with colleagues at the Emory Department of Neurosurgery, Tracy-Ann Read, Ph.D., is studying medulloblastoma, a type of brain tumor that occurs in infants and young children, and cancer stem cells in the central nervous system.
- Brain tumor staining: Drs. Brahma and Bellamkonda are conducting a donor-funded research study to use nanotechnology to help surgeons distinguish brain tumors from healthy brain tissue.
- Drug therapy: Dr. MacDonald is leading a study to develop a drug therapy, as an alternative to radiation therapy, to stop the spread of medulloblastoma.