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IMAGE: Schematic of bubble membrane showing the influence of membrane stiffener and membrane softener in the phospholipid packing. view more
Credit: Amin Jafari Sojahrood and Al C. de Leon
If you were given ultrasound in a word association game, sound wave might easily come to mind. But in recent years, a new term has surfaced: bubbles. Those ephemeral, globular shapes are proving useful in improving medical imaging, disease detection and targeted drug delivery. There s just one glitch: bubbles fizzle out soon after injection into the bloodstream.
Now, after 10 years work, a multidisciplinary research team has built a better bubble. Their new formulations have resulted in nanoscale bubbles with customizable outer shells so small and durable that they can travel to and penetrate some of the most inaccessible areas in the human body.