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A star-shaped polymer developed at Purdue University in Indiana could deliver
high concentrations of drugs to tumours, or even remove cholesterol from the
blood. Chemical engineer Kelley Keys told the Controlled Release Society meeting
in Las Vegas last week that she has created a polymer whose molecules have a
central core with many arms radiating from it. The end of each arm can be highly
chemically reactive, allowing it to bind with cells, drugs, proteins and
antibodies, she says. The star molecules are only one-hundredth the size of a
red blood cell.