Sound waves are used to improve drugs

Talking Points Memo : To develop more effective pharmaceutical drugs, researchers have turned to levitation. The reason is that at the molecular level, drugs fall into one of two categories: amorphous or crystalline. Amorphous drugs are the most desirable because they are more efficiently absorbed by the body, so less of the drug is needed. However, most drugs tend to crystallize, especially when they come in contact with the vessel containing them. Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have developed a containerless processing method by using an acoustic levitator designed for NASA. The device uses sound waves to create an acoustic pressure, which counteracts the effect of gravity for light objects. Thus the researchers can levitate individual droplets of solutions and probe their structure with high-energy x-ray beams. The method has proven to be a powerful analytical tool for studying amorphous substances and the conditions required to produce them.