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Drug Delivery

Chemistry In Pictures

Chemistry in Pictures: Flower delivery

by Brianna Barbu
January 28, 2025

 

A colorized electron microscope image of flower-shaped zinc oxide microparticles.
Credit: Dong Wook Kim/Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems/ETH Zurich

The marigold-shaped microparticles pictured here are designed to deliver drugs through the bloodstream using sound. Developed by researchers at ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the particles are about 3 µm across, or a little smaller than a red blood cell. These particular particles are made of zinc oxide. But Paul Wrede, one of the study’s authors, says the material is not nearly as important to their properties as their shape.

A scanning electron microscope image of a zinc oxide microparticle.
Credit: Dong Wook Kim/Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems/ETH Zurich

Assembled from 2D nanosheets, the particles have lots of nooks and crannies that drug molecules can fit into. And the many-petaled shape scatters sound waves in a way that enables researchers to track and maneuver them toward tumors or blood clots using localized ultrasound. The researchers made similar particles from other inorganic materials as well as from polymers and metal-organic frameworks (Adv. Mater. 2024, DOI: 10.1002/adma.202404514).

Credit: Dong Wook Kim/Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems/ETH Zurich

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