Drug delivery pioneer wins £1m Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering

Published: 4-Feb-2015

Dr Robert Langer has developed implants designed to release specific doses of drugs over a period of years

The 2015 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering has been awarded to Dr Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his development of drug delivery systems for treating diseases such as cancer and mental illness.

The QEPrize is a global £1m prize that celebrates ground-breaking innovation that has been of global benefit to humanity.

Dr Langer has more than 1,000 issued and pending patents for his inventions and is the most cited engineer in history.

His work has helped lay the foundation for a number of health innovations, including the brain cancer treatment Giladel Wafer; the prostate cancer and endometriosis treatments Lupron Depot, Zoladex, and Decapeptyl SR; the schizophrenia treatment Respirdal Consta; the diabetes treatment Bydureon; and the drug-coated cardiovascular stents that have benefited 10 million heart patients.

A chemical engineer by training, Dr Langer was the first person to engineer polymers to control the delivery of large molecule drugs for the treatment of diseases such as cancer and mental illness.

He developed his first drug delivery system in the 1970s while working with Dr Judah Folkman, a Harvard professor and a surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital.

Folkman thought the growth of cancerous tumours could be restricted by stopping angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels), and he asked Dr Langer to find a way to inhibit it. Once he had discovered how to create polymer micro- and nano-particles that could release protein-based drugs in the body, Dr Langer used this technique to test possible drugs to control angiogenesis. He and Dr Folkman isolated the first substances that blocked angiogenesis, which have since been used to treat more than 20 million patients.

An early application of the controlled release technology was in polymer microspheres that deliver nanopeptide drugs over several months and are now widely used to treat prostate cancer and endometriosis. Similar approaches have led to new treatments for schizophrenia, alcoholism, and drug addiction.

With another Harvard surgeon, Dr Joseph Vacanti at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr Langer helped pave the way for major innovations in tissue engineering, pioneering synthetic polymers that could deliver cells to form specific tissue structures. This concept led to the development of a new kind of artificial skin, now approved by the US FDA for use on burn victims and patients with diabetic skin ulcers. Other such systems, including ones for new cartilage formation and spinal cord repair, are now in clinical trials.

More recently, Dr Langer has developed a microchip-based implant designed to release precise doses of a drug on-demand or at scheduled intervals for up to 16 years. Microchips Biotech, the company he co-founded to commercialise the development, announced in December 2014 that it has completed the development and clinical demonstration of the product.

The implant can respond to wireless signals, which can activate, deactivate, or modify the frequency or dose of the drug, without being removed from the patient. The company is looking initially at three areas for such an implant: diabetes, female contraception, and osteoporosis. The contraceptive approach is funded by the Gates Foundation, as are new ways of providing single-step immunisations for polio and other vaccines, for providing long-acting malaria drugs, and for providing essential minerals.

Dr Langer will receive his award from the Queen later this year.

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