New firm targets nanoparticles for drug delivery
have developed a method of creating what they claim are the world's
smallest manufactured particles for delivering drugs and other
organic materials into the human body.
The researchers adapted technology invented by the electronics industry in fabricating transistors to create particles for carrying genetic material, pharmaceuticals and other compounds of unprecedented small size and uniformity, which measure only a hundred nanometers or so in diameter.
"Billions of dollars are being spent now on nanotechnology and nanoparticles, but 99 per cent of the materials people are focusing on are metals and metal oxides, which are inorganic," noted the team's leader, Joseph De Simone.
The technology, Particle Replication In Nonwetting Templates (PRINT), enables fabrication of custom-sized, monodispersed and shape-specific particles of virtually any material and encapsulating nearly any active cargo. This includes delicate substances, biological agents and small molecules, which can then be delivered through a full range of injectable, pulmonary, topical and oral methods.
Along with his colleagues, UNC and other parties, Dr DeSimone has founded a new firm, Liquidia Technologies, which will focus on the further development and commercialisation of the nanoparticle technology. The firm has been set up with venture capital backing to the tune of $2.5 million (€2.1m).
"Our method, which is really exciting, for the first time opens the world's door to marrying organic materials to nanotechnology. Biology, after all, is almost exclusively organic materials," added DeSimone.
He also suggested that this technology will have "a profound positive impact down the road on human health care. This includes, but is not limited to, chemotherapy, gene therapy, disease detection and drug delivery."
