- Created: Thursday, 12 April 2007
A Princeton University research team has created particles that can deliver medicine deep into the lungs or infiltrate cancer cells while leaving normal cells alone. Only 100 to 300 nanometers wide, the particles can be loaded with medicines or imaging agents to enhance the detection capabilities of CT scans and MRIs.
The new technique, called "Flash NanoPrecipitation," allows the researchers to mix drugs and the materials that encapsulate them. While the nanoparticles are too large to pass through the membrane of normal cells, they will pass through larger defects in the capillaries of rapidly growing solid tumors. Similar mixing techniques have been used to create bulkier pharmaceutical products and have proven practical on a commercial scale.
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