UTSA researcher launches nanomedicine journal

(Feb. 11, 2005)--Tachung Yih, chair of the UTSA Department of Mechanical Engineering, is half of a duo hoping to magnify nanomedicine, a rapidly growing field using medical intervention at the molecular level to cure disease or repair damaged tissues.

Yih and Chiming Wei, director of the Cardiothoracic-Renal Molecular Research Program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md., will launch in March "The Journal of Nanomedicine" -- the first journal in its field.

To be published quarterly by Elsevier, one of the world's leading scientific and medical journal publishers, the journal will feature peer-reviewed articles, clinical and investigative studies, and reports on new equipment and techniques in the emerging field.

"The development of nanomedicine over conventional medicine offers many advantages including portability and implantability," said Yih, executive editor of the new journal. "We hope to provide a common platform for everyone working in this field to stay informed on the latest research findings."

The National Institutes of Health recently announced an initiative to support nanomedicine development centers to help scientists construct miniature synthetic biological devices such as implantable pumps for drug delivery or tiny sensors to scan for the presence of infectious agents or metabolic imbalances indicating disease.

--Kris Rodriguez