FreeZone Freeze Dryers Aid Parkinson’s Drug Discovery

By Aaron Hilgedick, Product Manager

On May 18, 2018 in Case Studies

At Labconco we don’t just make laboratory equipment for the sake of making it; we design and manufacture tools that enable life-changing scientific research around the globe. 

Here’s proof: Our FreeZone Freeze Dryer was recently used for an important drug discovery initiative led by a team of South Korean medical students. The purpose of the study was to determine if a specific herb would be helpful in treating Parkinson’s Disease. The herb, Sophora flavescens Aiton (SF), is thought to prevent cell death and inflammation. 

You can read the full method here, but here are the Cliffs Notes: Researchers extracted SF, immersed it in methanol, filtered it, and dried it—all before lyophilizing it in a FreeZone Freeze Dryer. The resulting powder was used in subsequent cell tests and scientific procedures to test the hypothesis that SF could be a viable treatment for Parkinson’s. 

The result? Researchers concluded that SF does have targeted neuroprotective effects that make it a potential candidate for treating Parkinson’s Disease—good news, no doubt, for the 7 to 10 million people living with the condition worldwide, and for the scientific community working to find a cure. 

Video: See how FreeZone Freeze Dryers improve science and medicine