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Controlled drug delivery technology developed
Robert Langer, professor of chemical and biochemical engineering at MIT, develops the foundation of today’s controlled drug delivery technology. Using pellets of degradable and nondegradable polymers such as polyglycolic acid, he fashions a porous structure that allows the slow diffusion of large molecules. Such structures are turned into a dime-size chemotherapy wafer to treat brain cancer after surgery. Placed at the site where a tumor has been removed, the wafer slowly releases powerful drugs