Mimicking Biological Complexity, in a Tiny Particle
Science Daily, August 16th, 2011- Tiny particles made of polymers hold great promise for targeted delivery of drugs and as structural scaffolds for building artificial tissues. However, current production methods for such microparticles yield a limited array of shapes and can only be made with certain materials, restricting their usefulness.
In an advance that could broadly expand the possible applications for such particles, MIT engineers have developed a way to make microparticles of nearly any shape, using a micromold that changes shape in response to temperature. They can also precisely place drugs into different compartments of the particles, making it easier to control the timing of drug release, or arrange different cells into layers to create tissue that closely mimics the structure of natural tissues.
Using a temperature-responsive micromold, MIT engineers created two-layer gel microparticles (the red and green areas represent separate layers). (Credit: Halil Tekin)
Short URL: http://www.worldhealthconnection.com/?p=4518
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