In a huge breakthrough for nanoparticle research, MIT scientists have discovered a way to facilitate the entry of gold nanoparticles into cells without disrupting the cell membrane. The solution? Stripes!
The team found that gold nanoparticles coated with alternating bands of two different kinds of molecules can quickly pass into cells without harming them, while those randomly coated with the same materials cannot. The research was reported in a recent advance online publication of Nature Materials.
“We’ve created the first fully synthetic material that can pass through a cell membrane without rupturing it, and we’ve found that order on the nanometer scale is necessary to provide this property,” said Francesco Stellacci, an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and co-leader of the work with Darrell Irvine, the Eugene Bell Career Development Associate Professor of Tissue Engineering.
Nanoparticles hold a lot of promise, especially for their cancer-targeting abilities.