MIT Innovates Nanoparticle Production Techniques

Producing nanoscale particles according to custom specifications has been a goal in this field of research for several years, but achieving this objective was never easy. Now, it would appear that a collaboration of US researchers managed to do just that.

The investigators developed a method of producing nanoparticles that are custom-tailored to meet the demands of research groups that need specific types of carriers for drugs against cancer and other devastating diseases.

According to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the size and composition of the new nanoparticles can be finely-controlled.

This enables a host of applications that have been off-limits before, due primarily to the incompatibility of the particles with their intended function. Additionally, the team says, large quantities of homogeneous particles can also be produced in a short time frame.

Consistency in the same batch of nanoscale products has always been a problem for experts, but the research group apparently fixed that. A commonly-used, biodegradable polymer is the material of choice for applying the new production method.

Experts selected them because the chemicals have the ability to carry a larger number of drug particles than other mediums, and because they can also release them in a controlled manner.

At the same time, the polymer is able to escape the natural barriers and attacks of the human immune system, ensuring steady drug delivery over prolonged periods of time. The method is explained in detail in the February 22 online issue of the esteemed journal Advanced Materials.

MIT postdoctoral associate Minsoung Rhee, BWH Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Biomaterials director Omid Farokhzad, MIT assistant professor of mechanical engineering Rohit Karnik, and MIT graduate student Pedro Valencia were the authors of the research, among others.

The technology underlying the approach is easy to understand. A strand of the polymer is made to pass through a microfluidic channel that focuses it in three dimensions, while at the same time separating and isolating it from its own walls.

When the polymer enters in contact with water flowing through side streams, it starts producing spherical nanoparticles, whose properties are consistent throughout the batch.

The polymer is kept from clumping up at the two ends of the channel by flowingan organic solvent called acetonitrile through them, the team concludes.