Nanomaterial research potential “game-changer” for drug delivery
Posted: 14 March 2025 | Catherine Eckford (European Pharmaceutical Review) | No comments yet
The throughput achieved by the researchers exceeded that of other reported methods by orders of magnitude, supporting the advancement of precision nanomaterials.
UK-based researchers have developed a new method for rapid, scalable preparation of uniform anisotropic polymer nanoparticles (nanomaterial synthesis). Their study marks a major advancement in precision nanomaterials. It holds potential to significantly advance drug delivery systems, enabling therapeutic agents to be transported directly to targeted cells. This capability could help the industry to improve treatments for diseases like cancer.
Significantly minimising processing time, from a week to just minutes, allows for high-throughput production of precision polymer nanomaterials, Xiao et al. noted.
Polymer nanomaterial synthesis – method development
“We anticipated that minimisation of the processing time would be essential to enable transition of the seed formation process into continuous flow. Therefore, we sought to favour spontaneous self-nucleation in a short window, so that we could develop a more efficient and, hence, more reproducible and scalable method to obtain uniform seeds,” Xiao et al. wrote in Nature Chemistry.
“This innovative method represents a significant leap forward in the field of nanomaterials. By drastically reducing the processing time and increasing throughput, we can now produce high-quality nanostructures at a scale that was previously unattainable,” explained Dr Rachel O’Reilly, a lead researcher on the team.
“This innovative method represents a significant leap forward in the field of nanomaterials. By drastically reducing the processing time and increasing throughput, we can now produce high-quality nanostructures at a scale that was previously unattainable”
The method’s capacity for “integration of seed preparation and living CDSA in a continuous flow setup is a game-changer,” co-author on the paper, Dr Andrew Dove remarked.
Achieving end-to-end production of nanostructures in just three minutes overall, “not only enhances efficiency but also ensures uniformity and reproducibility, which are critical for the practical application of these nanostructures,” Dr Dove added.
“Our flash-freezing strategy is a key innovation that allows us to achieve rapid and uniform seed formation. This breakthrough opens up new possibilities for the scalable synthesis of precision nanomaterials,” Laihui Xiao, the first author of the study commented.
The authors concluded that in addition to the drug delivery field, their advance “opens possibilities for programmable material design” and marks a “meaningful step forward in high-throughput polymer nanomaterial synthesis”.
