Ultrasound mediated gene therapy

The rapid advancement of biomedical research has led to many creative applications for biocompatible polymers and medical devices. As modern medicine discerns more mechanisms, both of physiology and of pathophysiology, the approach to healing is to mimic, or if possible, to recreate the physiology of healthy functioning. Thus, the area of smart polymers for targeted drug and gene delivery has evolved. The main objective of gene therapy is the development of efficient, non-toxic gene carriers that can condense and deliver foreign genetic materials into specific cell types. Viral and non-viral carriers have been developed and some already has been approved for cancer and blindness. Still in many studies, the transfection efficiency is too low due to biological barriers in the transfection process. In the presentation ultrasound as a means to overcome these barriers would be presented.