Supercomputers Explore Optical Properties of Plasmonic Nanovesicles for Drug Delivery
Imagine a microscopic gold pill that could travel to a specific location in your body and deliver a drug just where it is needed. This is the promise of plasmonic nanovesicles.
These minute capsules can navigate the bloodstream, and, when hit with a quick pulse of laser light, change shape to release their contents. It can then exit the body, leaving only the desired package.
This on-demand, light-triggered drug release method could transform medicine, especially the treatment of cancer. Clinicians are beginning to test plasmonic nanovesicles on head and neck tumors. They can also help efforts to study the nervous system in real-time and provide insights into how the brain works.
However, like many aspects of nanotechnology, the devil is in the details. Much remains unknown about the specific behavior of these nanoparticles – for instance, the wavelengths of light they respond to and how best to engineer them.
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