Friday, 27th May 2005 (4747 views)

New research is being conducted into the possibility of using gold-based drugs to treat malaria.

Project AuTEK will look into industrial applications for gold such as biomedicine and catalysts and the World Gold Council (WGC) believes it could see consumption increase by up to 200 tonnes.

Head of the project, Dr Judy Caddy, said: "This research is at an early stage but is expected to be very exciting."

The project is a joint scheme between AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Mintek and Harmony Gold, according to Engineering News.

Its main focus has so far been on developing drug delivery systems for gold containing drugs and gold cationic complexes as potential antimitochondrial agents.

Gold compounds have also been submitted for testing to ascertain their ability against HIV.

The researchers also hope to overcome the problem of producing big quantities of gold catalysts in a form suitable for a host of applications.

"Project AuTEK has sparked off a whole new revolution," project manager, Dr Elma van der Lingen, claimed.

 

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