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How gold nanoparticles deliver drugs without damage
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and the Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland, figured out how nanoparticles
of pure gold, coated with a thin layer of a special polymer, deliver drugs, nutrients, or
biosensors without damaging or destroying cells.
They also discovered the size limits of particles that
can be used through a combination of lab experi-
ments and computer simulations.
First, coated gold nanoparticles are fused with
lipids that form the cell wall. Scientists also demon-
strate an upper limit on the size of such particles that
can penetrate the cell wall—a limit that depends on
the composition of the particle’s coating. The coating
applied to the gold particles is a mix of hydrophobic
and hydrophilic components that form a monolayer
on the particle’s surface. Several different compounds
can be used, say researchers.
Evidence shows that the gold particles have therapeutic properties, which could be a
side benefit. Gold particles are also very good at capturing x-rays—so if they could be made
to penetrate cancer cells, and were heated by a beam of x-rays, they could destroy those
cells from within. “So the fact that nanoparticles are made of gold may be useful,” says Dar-
rell Irvine, professor of materials science and engineering and biological engineering. Irvine
is also interested in harnessing this cell-penetrating mechanism as a way of delivering drugs
to the cell’s interior, by binding them to the surface coat-
ing material. For more information: Darrell Irvine,
617/452-4174, ,
Kavli Foundation endows
new nanosciences facility
The Kavli Foundation endowed a new institute at the
University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory to explore the basic sci-
ence of how to capture and channel energy on the
nanoscale. The Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute
(Kavli ENSI) will be supported by a $20 million endowment, with The Kavli Foundation
providing $10 million and UC Berkeley raising matching funds. The institute will explore
fundamental issues in energy science, using tools developed to study and manipulate nano-
materials to understand how solar, heat, and vibrational energy are captured and converted
into useful work by plants and animals or novel materials.
“The field of nanoscience is poised to change the very foundations of how we should
think about future energy conversion systems,” says Kavli ENSI Director Paul Alivisatos.
“We don’t fully understand some foundational issues about how energy is converted to
work on really short length scales.”
Alivisatos explains that much of today’s energy research focuses on improving well-
known technologies, such as batteries and solar cells. On the nanoscale, however, energy
is captured, channeled, and stored in totally different ways dictated by the quantum me-
chanical nature of small-scale interactions.
Kavli ENSI scientists plan to investigate how heat flows in nanomaterials and whether
the vibrational energy, or phonons, can be channeled to make thermal rectifiers or tran-
sistors analogous to today’s electronic switches. They also aim to develop novel materials
with unusual nanoscale properties, and design materials that could sort, count, and chan-
nel molecules along prescribed paths to carry out complex chemical conversions.
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ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES • JANUARY 2014 14
NANOTECHNOLOGY
briefs
Scientists from the National
Physical Laboratory (NPL), UK,
contributed nanoscale images of
bleached hair, gold nanoparticles,
and the impact of cluster guns to
the Guardian’s nanotechnology
blog, Small World. One image
shows nanostructures created by
blasting carbon-containing
molecules with bismuth atoms. The
blog, in association with a
European Commission-funded
project called Nanopinion, aims to
discuss advances in
nanotechnology. It features a
monthly gallery called “Postcards
from the nanoworld,” which brings
together the most picturesque and
interesting images at the
nanoscale.
One of the NPL images shows
nanostructures created by
blasting carbon-containing
molecules with bismuth atoms.
Researchers at Eindhoven
University of Technology (TU/e),
Delft University of Technology,
and Philips, all in the Netherlands,
show that energy losses in a
nanowire solar cell can be
significantly reduced by “cleaning”
the surface with a special etching
method. The solar cell has an
efficiency of 11.1%, putting it just
below the current world record, but
it was reached with much less use
of material. This is the latest step
forward in the rapid development
of this type of solar cell in recent
years.
Researchers from the Institute for
Color Science and Technology,
Iran, produced a new type of coating
with desirable anticorrosion proper-
ties by using zinc oxide nanoparti-
cles, for applications in the
automotive industry. The nanoparti-
cles are used in a formulation for ve-
hicle electrocoating, and adsorb
ultraviolet light to stop it from reach-
ing the inner layer. As a result, coat-
ing damage is prevented.
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