AN OXFORD University academic has been awarded a £300,000 grant to make drugs more effective by using a special form of injection.

Prof Eleanor Stride, of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, won the AF Harvey Engineering Research Prize after delivering a lecture on “bubbles” filled with medicine.

The bubbles can be injected into the bloodstream and activated by ultrasound.

She believes the pioneering technique could improve the way drugs target problem areas in the body, and reduce side effects such as nausea, hair loss and risk of infection.

The bubbles could then be activated to provide a steady flow of a drug.

The £300,000 will be used to find new ways to create the bubbles and control them more effectively.

She said: “We are still at a very early stage but our recent results suggest that we can vastly improve the way we deliver existing drugs – and that this could be far more effective in the long run than inventing new cures.

“Currently, when drugs are injected, only a tiny percentage actually reaches the site of the disease. The rest of the drug will affect healthy tissue and can lead to extremely unpleasant side effects.

“If we can maximise the amount of drug in the target area, we can both improve their efficacy and reduce side effects.”