University of Maryland professor delivers talk on molecular container research

About 30 students and faculty gathered in Churchill-Haines on Monday night to hear University of Maryland professor Lyle Isaacs speak about molecular containers.

Isaacs said he’s been working in science for many years. With his colleagues, he’s been exploring ways to decrease spending on pharmaceutical drugs, which he says currently generates about $5 billion a year in revenue.

Isaacs and his team have designed multiple molecular containers that are a more effective way to deliver drugs into the body, he said, and only cost $3 per gram to make. His studies have shown that these containers work for steroids and cancer treatment drugs.

When using molecular containers to distribute cancer fighting medication to mice, Isaacs said tumors stopped growing and reduced growth once researchers stopped giving medicine.

“This was the most important contribution to the field,” Isaacs said, referring to the work he and his team published in 2005.

First-year Madison Dangler, a medical biology major, said she enjoyed the presentation.

“It got a little complicated, but the parts I really understood I really liked,” she said.