Designer Biomaterials for Nanomedicine

Nanotechnology has had tremendous impact on medical science and has resulted in phenomenal progress in the field of drug delivery and diagnostics. A wide spectrum of novel nanomaterials including polymeric particles, liposomes, quantum dots, and iron oxide particles have been developed for applications in therapeutic delivery and diagnostics. This has resulted in control over the rate and period of delivery and targeting of drugs to specific organs in the human body. This feature article focuses on the delivery of drugs using polymeric particles. The size; choice of polymer, surface chemistry, shape, and mechanical properties of the particles are parameters that critically affect particle function. Numerous biomaterials and fabrication techniques have been developed in the last decade that focus on novel design parameters, such as shape and mechanical properties and the interplay of these parameters with the size and surface chemistry of particles. Recent advances with particular focus on the importance of particle shape are highlighted, and the challenges that are yet to be fulfilled are underscored.