匯特技術平台 攜手美大學教授 完成藥物移轉合約 2014/12/1鉅亨網提供 興櫃醫材廠匯特(6458)開發的「多功能磁性奈米藥物載體」技術平台，獲台灣智慧財產局發明專利後，日前再傳捷報，與美國馬里蘭大學(University of Maryland)班傑明•夏匹洛(Benjamin Shapiro)教授簽署藥物移轉合約，共同推動「結合磁性奈米藥物載體和磁導引技術，運用於內耳及眼科疾病治療」研究計畫，不但可以促進台、美跨國產學交流合作，也會造福全球耳科與眼科廣大病患。 匯特表示，馬里蘭大學在國際學術研究上擁有極高的地位，由夏匹洛教授領軍的磁導引研發小組，專注於小型化系統控制領域，從初步的物理判定、模組開發、一直到實驗驗證，居世界領導地位，在磁導引設備的研究上受到全球推崇。匯特指出，夏匹洛教授的研發小組長期投注在眼科和內耳疾病奈米標靶藥物的磁導引研究，內耳疾病會有暈眩、耳鳴等症?，嚴重者更會造成聽力與顏面神經的損傷，影響到生活品質，夏匹洛教授團隊開發磁導引技術以操控磁性奈米粒子，利用磁力將磁性藥物載體從中耳處拉到內耳，成功使內耳藥物劑量集中、療效提高，此技術亦可運用於眼科後房治療。匯特今年六月公司的「多功能磁性奈米藥物載體」技術團隊至馬里蘭大學參訪，當時即確立雙方合作意向及技術交流內容，返國後經數月研商，日前正式與班傑明•史匹洛教授簽署藥物移轉合約，由匯特生技提供多功能磁性奈米藥物載體給夏匹洛教授團隊進行磁導引實驗，特別是在內耳或眼科疾病的治療應用上，研究成果可望推進到人體臨床試驗，共同開發醫療新產品。匯特指出，根據統計全球奈米粒子醫藥市場由2007年的1.27億美金，攀升至2014年的4.43億美金，全球市場呈現高度成長。 Google X實驗室生命科學小組甫於全球發佈消息，宣告磁性奈米粒子在癌症治療偵測的相關研究成果與計畫，公司所開發的「多功能磁性奈米藥物載體」技術平台，即獲台灣智慧財產局發明專利，保障至2032年。匯特強調，與美國馬里蘭大學的合作，可望加速磁導引奈米標靶藥物的開發，縮短進軍全球市場的時程。
Shapiro, Ben
Research Interests Control of micro-scale systems, fluid dynamics, biochemicals.
Education Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 1999
Background Dr. Benjamin Shapiro received his bachelors degree from the Aerospace Engineering department at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in Control and Dynamical Systems from Caltech. He has been at the University of Maryland since 2000, and joined the Fischell Department of Bioengineering in 2010. His research is focused on modeling, design, and control of micro-scale systems for chemical, biological, and clinical applications. He holds a joint appointment with the Institute for Systems Research and the Maryland NanoCenter, and is affiliated with the Applied Math and Scientific Computation program. Dr. Shapiro is the recipient of a 2003 NSF CAREER award, and a Fulbright Scholarship. He has filed16 patents based on his research, two of which were awarded 1st and 3rd places in the university's annual Office of Technology Commercialization's Invention of the Year competition. He was born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1973.
Shapiro Promoted to Full Professor
Professor Benjamin Shapiro. The Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BioE), the Institute for Systems Research (ISR), the Maryland NanoCenter and the A. James Clark school of Engineering extend their congratulations to Benjamin Shapiro, who was elevated to the rank of Professor effective July 1, 2013. For Shapiro, it's been an unusual journey, one he sometimes finds himself explaining when asked how and why someone who started out as an aerospace engineer ended up a bioengineer, moving cells around lab-on-a-chip devices and devising new drug delivery techniques. The answer lies in liquid. As an undergraduate, he specialized in aeronautic fluid dynamics. He pursued an interest in control systems as a graduate student, but the focus was still on jet engines. When he joined the Clark School's Department of Aerospace Engineering and ISR in 2000, his thoughts returned to fluid dynamics, but at a different scale. "I had just started becoming interested in microfluidics, and fluid flows on small scales," he explains. "As I became serious about it, I realized that most of the high-impact applications were in areas like chemical testing, manipulating cells, and DNA separation?there were far fewer applications in jet engines and spacecraft. All of the problems I studied were leading me toward chemistry and biology, and eventually clinical topics. By the time I took my sabbatical at the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute for Standards and Technology in 2009, I was doing almost exclusively biological and medical research. At that point I thought, you know, it's getting more and more challenging to explain to people why I'm in the aerospace department." By the time he returned in 2010, he had transferred to BioE. In the end, making the risky, career-changing move was worth it. "It's fantastic," he says, adding that he appreciates his growing connections with the doctors, start-up companies, the NIH and FDA, and with his colleagues on the bioengineering faculty. "There's no question that being surrounded by people who are doing synergistic things is a tremendous benefit. It amplifies my work." As the director of the Control of Miniaturized Systems for Mechatronic, Biological and Clinical Applications Laboratory his research is focused on all aspects of control of medical devices and drug targeting, from initial determination of the dominant physics, to model development, control problem statement and algorithm design, to experimental verification. In recent years, he has applied his expertise in flow control systems and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to a diverse group of research projects, including the development of a new technique for drug delivery to the inner and middle ear, the use of flow control and quantum dots to achieve nanoprecise imaging and fabrication, neonatal ventilator safety, defect-free colloidal crystal assembly for optoelectronic metamaterials, and controlled delivery of chemotherapy to deep tissue tumors using magnetic nanoparticles. He is also the co-editor of and contributor to a book titled Feedback Control from MEMS to Atoms. In 2012 he delivered a plenary talk at the International Conference on Manipulation, Manufacturing and Measurement on the Nanoscale, and he just attended his first Gordon Research Conference. Shapiro is one of a growing number of BioE faculty who have taken department benefactor and inventor Robert E. Fischell's ideals of entrepreneurship, clinical translation, and interdisciplinary research to heart. Commercialization efforts are underway for some of the technologies he and his colleagues have developed. "We're really making a push to get the stuff that we're doing here in the lab out to patients," he says. "We want to make sure that the technology we're developing will be in hospitals and clinics." Shapiro, who received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 2000, also holds an appointment with the Maryland NanoCenter, and is affiliated with the Applied Math and Scientific Computation Program. He is the recipient of a 2003 NSF CAREER award and a 2009 Fulbright Scholarship. He has filed 20 patents based on his research, two of which were awarded 1st and 3rd places in the university's annual Office of Technology Commercialization's Invention of the Year competition.