Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and MIT have combined two novel technologies to create specialized versions of tiny, coated nanoparticles. Through the use of a special coating technique, the researchers were further able to customize highly reproducible nanoparticles made using the PRINT platform created at UNC, which enables scientists to manufacture particles in a near-infinite array of shapes, sizes and material compositions. The combination of these unique technologies may result in developing more effective medicines, efficient electronics and technological advances in many other fields.
“UNC’s innovative particle development and manufacturing platform has opened the door to completely new approaches to improving the delivery and efficacy of life-saving medicines, including highly targeted cancer treatments,” said Joseph DeSimone, Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry at UNC and William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at N.C. State University and of Chemistry at UNC and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“Our collaboration with Professor Paula Hammond’s lab at MIT demonstrates another opportunity to further tune precisely engineered PRINT particles for different applications.”
The UNC particle technology, known as the PRINT® (Particle Replication In Non-wetting Templates) platform was developed in the DeSimone lab at UNC and is now being commercialized by Liquidia Technologies.
The research was published in the July 1 online edition of Advanced Materials. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201302025/abstract
For more information, please see the news release published by MIT: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/customizable-nanoparticles-0702.html
Date: July 2, 2013