Multicompartmental nanostructures

A series of self-assembled nanostructures for application in therapeutic delivery applications have been developed.

The aim is to use cutting edge strategies from soft matter and biological physics to provide a greater degree of structural control in the directed assembly of next generation, self-organized nanomedicines.

Phase behaviour, patchy particles, shape anisotropic nanostructures and higher order self-assembly are all concepts that are utilized to maximize the functionality of the delivery systems created.

The formation of multifunctional and multicompartmental nanostructures that can incorporate diagnostic imaging, and the delivery of multiple kinds of therapeutic agents within the same particle are key interests of the project.

Most of the nanostructures studied are formed from lipids and/or block copolymers and based upon vesicular architectures; however the knowledge and expertise are applicable to a wider range of self-assembled materials.

Examples of some of the nanostructures being developing are: Size-limited clusters of “Janus” vesicles; Lipopolymersomes: hybrid lipid – block copolymer vesicles; Lipid – protein nanodisc micelles for hydrophobic small molecule drug delivery.