Scientists Meet Scientists – Virtual TUM-IAS Wednesday Coffee Talk by TUM-IAS Fellow Job Boekhoven: "Active droplets – Long-lasting and precise dosing of medication thanks to an oil-hydrogel mixture​​​​​​​“

On May 12th, Job Boekhoven, TUM Professor for Supramolecular Chemistry and Rudolf Mößbauer Tenure Track Professor will give a talk on
"Active droplets – Long-lasting and precise dosing of medication thanks to an oil-hydrogel mixture“. (TUM press release)

Watch the coffee talk recording via Panopto here

Date: May 12, 2021
Time: 13:00 (until approx.14:00)
Location: online
Registration: Due to the ongoing pandemic, the TUM-IAS Wednesday Coffee talks are currently held online. To register please send an email to events(at)ias.tum.de.

Using a mixture of oil droplets and hydrogel, medical active agents can be not only precisely dosed, but also continuously administered over periods of up to several days. The active agents inside the active droplets are released at a constant rate, decreasing the risk of over- or underdosage.

Prof. Job Boekhoven was studying the origins of life: Together with his team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the chemist wanted to understand how molecules in the primordial ocean had managed to combine and form the precursors of the first living cells.

However, the oily shield is not entirely impermeable: Some of the oil molecules react with the surrounding water. This hydrolysis causes the droplets to slowly but continuously lose mass and shrink until they eventually disappear. "The constant decay of these 'active droplets', led us to the idea of using them to dose drugs," recalls Boekhoven.

PUBLICATION

Active droplets in a hydrogel release drugs with a constant and tunable rate;
Caren Wanzke, Marta Tena-Solsona, Benedikt Riess, Laura Tebcharani, Job Boekhoven;
Materials Horizons, 12.02.2020 – DOI: 10.1039/C9MH01822K.

THE TUM-IAS WEDNESDAY COFFEE TALKS

Due to the ongoing pandemic, the TUM-IAS Wednesday Coffee talks are currently held online. Would you like to receive regular updates on the TUM-IAS Wednesday Coffee Talk and the Zoom link?
Just send a short note to events(at)ias.tum.de!

An overview on upcoming and past TUM-IAS Wednesday Coffee Talks can be found at the TUM-IAS Wednesday Coffee Talk Overview.