Modern chemical designers are often inspired by Nature as well as by man-made objects – think of the classical analogy between molecular building blocks and LEGO bricks, the lock and key principle, etc. This year’s chemistry Nobel laureates have certainly been inspired by a bit of both.
So-called “biosensors” are sensors that detect or quantify biomolecules, such as glucose, proteins, or DNA.
A recently published feature article discusses the reasons for the poor targeting efficiency via polymeric micelles, and the approaches that have been explored to tackle this problem.
To avoid an undesired protein adsorption, nanoparticles were masked with poly(2-oxazoline)s resulting in a stealth coating comparable or superior to PEG.
Alex Palma-Cando and Ullrich Scherf discuss the synthesis, properties, and applications of electrochemically generated thin films of microporous polymer networks.
Anisotropic conductive films can be produced by shear flow that induces the self-assembly of conductive fillers (like carbon nanotubes, graphene or inexpensive carbon black) into parallel stripes in a polymer matrix.
Nanogels were developed as magnetic capturing devices for circulating tumor cells and applied in the magnetic separation of human cancer cells from a mixed cell suspension.
Different mechanisms for imparting conductivity to non-conductive polymeric biomaterials are discussed in a review by Patton et. al.
A new generation of enzyme-responsive HPMA copolymer-drug conjugates employing a enzyme-sensitive oligopeptide linker was developed. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) was applied to investigate the enzyme-responsive performance in both cells and animals.
To tailor the degradation of nanogels, Scientists from Utrecht University investigated the impact of the structure of polymeric building blocks on the properties of nanogels and their degradation behavior.