Tom Riley '16 presents at international professional meeting

Tom Riley ’16, a chemistry major, presented his work on “Magnetically simulated release of a model drug from a magnetic drug carrier” in a session on Metal Oxide Nanoparticles on March 14 at the American Physical Society meeting.

Riley’s work investigated the feasibility of a novel magnetic drug-delivery vehicle which is capable of encapsulating pharmaceuticals to be released at a targeted location within the body. Specifically, Riley showed that the carrier was able to carry and release enough of a model drug to produce local, targeted drug concentrations equal to those delivered systemically with traditional chemotherapy. A targeted delivery system is advantageous since it minimizes dosages to healthy tissues, eliminating many of the side effects of traditional therapy.

Riley’s work was performed on collaboration with associate professor Ben Evans in the Department of Physics.

The March meeting of the American Physical Society is the largest annual international meeting of physicists, featuring more than 9,000 presentations from authors around the world.