Researchers unveil shape-shifting nanoparticles that may provide a new drug-delivery strategy

摘要

A team of researchers, at the University of California, San Diego (CA, USA), has designed spherical nanoparticles that, within diseased tissue, can assemble into net-like structures to specifically target cancerous or other diseased cells. The group, led by Nathan Gianneschi, a Professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University, took inspiration from biological systems that use shape to alter the ability of something to lock in place or slip away and escape. "We wanted to come up with a new approach," commented Gianneschi. "Specifically, we wanted to design switchable materials that we could inject in one shape and have them change to another between the blood and tumors."