The invention was created by Don Ingber at the Harvard Medical School and Children's hospital and it's designed to augment the effect of antibiotics in combating bacterial infections of the blood. These are the infections that apparently kill some 200,000 American citizens each year, so the potential benefits of the treatment could be pretty significant.
Ingber's technique eschews the traditional fine porous methods for filtering blood, and instead specifically targets the bacteria themselves. Microscopic plastic-coated beads of iron oxide are treated with antibodies that seek out the infecting cells, and attach to them -- the beads would be injected into a patient, but in Ingber's experiments the blood was treated in vitro. Next the blood-bead mix is pushed through a dialysis-type machine, where an electromagnet simply attracts the iron beads, bacterial and all, while the cleaned-up blood cycles on and back into the patient.
The beauty of the invention is in its simplicity, and the fact that in tests it removed up to 80% of the pathogens, which is enough that the rest can be easily cleared up with traditional antibiotic remedies.
Ingber is confident his technique will perform well when he moves on to animal experimentation later this year, and that it can even be expanded to cover removing cancer cells from blood in a similar style. It's merely a question of coating the iron microbeads with the right chemicals so they bond to the unwanted target cells. One can even imagine a future where a patient is injected with a concoction of specially engineered filtration beads, each designed to tackle a particular problem -- which is a plot trick I'm sure I've seen on Star Trek sometimes.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-06/dr-magneto
A Magnetic Machine Plucks Pathogens from Blood
A new treatment could save some
of the hundreds of thousands of Americans dying sepsis-related
deaths every year
Nonfatal
Attraction: An
electromagnet pulls out 80 percent of an infectious
pathogen
If your uncle says he's getting magnetic therapy, you might feel the urge to tell him to save his money instead for that tinfoil hat to keep the CIA from reading his mind. But if he's being hooked up to Don Ingber's magnet machine, it just might save his life.
Ingber's device magnetizes microbes and draws them out of the blood. It could save some of the 210,000 Americans — mostly newborns and the elderly — who die sepsis-related deaths every year. Sepsis sets in when bacteria or fungi invade the blood, which can cause organ failure before drugs have time to take effect. "Traditionally, you prescribe antibiotics and pray," says Ingber, a vascular biologist at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital. His machine operates more quickly.
Patents
WO2008130618
US2009078614
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING PARTICLES, CELLS, MOLECULES AND PARTICULATES
Inventor: INGBER, Donald; VARGHESE MATHEW [US] ; FIERING JASON
2009-03-26
Abstract -- A method and apparatus for continuously separating or concentrating particles that includes flowing two fluids in laminar flow through a magnetic field gradient which causes target particles to migrate to a waste fluid stream, and collecting each fluid stream after being flowed through the magnetic field gradient.
WO2008156904
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR NANOMAGNETIC ACTUATION OF MOLECULAR CELL SIGNALING
Inventor: INGBER DONALD E [US] ; MANNIX ROBERT
2008-12-24
Abstract -- The present invention relates to signaling mechanisms that transduce magnetic inputs into physiological cellular outputs. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for non-invasively controlling cellular signaling functions and behaviors by harnessing receptor-mediated and intracellular molecular-mediated signal transduction using nanomagnetic cellular switches.
WO2007044642
DEVICE AND METHOD FOR COMBINED MICROFLUIDIC-MICROMAGNETIC SEPARATION OF MATERIAL IN CONTINUOUS FLOW
Inventor: INGBER DONALD E [US] ; XIA SHANNON
2007-04-19
Abstract -- A miniaturized, integrated, microfluidic device pulls materials bound to magnetic particles from one laminar flow path to another by applying a local magnetic field gradient. The device removes microbial and mammalian cells from flowing biological fluids without any wash steps. A microfabricated high-gradient magnetic field concentrator (HGMC) is integrated at one side of a microfluidic channel. When magnetic particles are introduced into one flow path, they remain limited to that flow path. When the HGMC is magnetized, the magnetic beads are pulled from the initial flow path into the collection stream, thereby cleansing the fluid. The microdevice allows large numbers of beads and materials to be sorted simultaneously, has no capacity limit, does not lose separation efficiency as particles are removed, and is useful for cell separations from blood and other biological fluids.; This on-chip separator allows cell separations to be performed in the field outside of hospitals and laboratories.
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GUIDED SELF-ASSEMBLY OF MATRICES WITH ORDERED NANO-SCALE STRUCTURE FOR TISSUE ENGINEERING
Inventor: INGBER DONALD E
2008-10-23
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Method and apparatus for displaying information
Inventor: INGBER DONALD E [US] ; HUANG SUI
2008-07-24
KR0128287
PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITION FOR THE INHIBITION OF ANGIOGENESIS
Inventor: FOLKMAN JUDAH [US] ; INGBER DONALD
1998-04-02
KR20000003811
BIOMIMETIC MATERIALS
Inventor: DONALD E INGBER
2000-01-25
US2006141000
Porous biodegradable polymeric materials for cell transplantation
Inventor: MIKOS ANTONIOS G [US] ; INGBER DONALD
2006-06-29
AU2002306862
Selective deposition of materials on contoured surfaces
Inventor: INGBER DONALD E ; OSTUNI EMANUELE
2002-11-05
WO2006039675
APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR NANOMANIPULATION OF BIOMOLECULES AND LIVING CELLS
Inventor: INGBER DONALD E [US] ; MATTHEWS BENJAMIN
2006-04-13
JP2002200162
PREVASCULARIZED POLYMERIC GRAFT FOR ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION
Inventor: INGBER DONALD E ; LANGER ROBERT
2002-07-16
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METHODS FOR ANALYZING DYNAMIC CHANGES IN CELLULAR INFORMATICS AND USES THEREFOR
Inventor: HUANG SUI ; INGBER DONALD
2002-05-10
WO0012832
RADIALLY EXPANDABLE DEVICE
Inventor: CLIFFORD DALE TIMOTHY [US] ; INGBER DONALD
2000-03-09
WO0009307
A MOLD FOR MAKING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL COMPLEX STRUCTURE, SAID MOLD COMPRISING AT LEAST THREE MOLD PORTIONS, METHOD OF MAKING SAID MOLD, AND USE OF SAID MOLD FOR MAKING THREE-DIMENSIONAL COMPLEX STRUCTURES
Inventor: INGBER DONALD E [US] ; BUTZ DAVID
2000-02-24
WO9933641
FOAM SCAFFOLD MATERIALS
Inventor: INGBER DONALD E [US] ; MEUSE ARTHUR
1999-07-08
WO9922861
BIOMIMETIC MATERIALS FOR FILTRATION, CHEMICAL PROCESSING AND DETOXIFICATION
Inventor: INGBER DONALD E ; LIU QUING
1999-05-14