Medicine meets material research

URL

http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=19883.php

Description

Within the framework of more intensified cooperation between Empa and the Cantonal Hospital St Gall two new collaborative projects commenced at the beginning of 2011. Together with scientists from the Gynaecological Clinic and the Institute of Pathology, the exact transport mechanism of nanoparticles through the placenta, and their influence on placental tissue, will be investigated. A new perfusion system which maintains blood circulation through the maternal and foetal zones of the placenta (thus keeping it alive) is currently being constructed at Empa. And, together with the researchers from the Institute of Immunobiology at the hospital's medical research centre, Empa scientists would also like to study the possible effects of nanomaterials on the human immune system.