POLYMERIC MICRO/NANOSTRUCTURES AND BIOAPPLICATIONS

Abstract

Polymeric structures on the nano and micron scale are engineered for bioapplications.. Polymeric nanoparticles incorporating highly fluorescent quantum dots are used for qualitative and quantitative evaluation in drug delivery. The photostable quantum dots allow accurate quantitation that is vital for determining of the actual cellular uptake dose and establishing correlation with the resulting biological effects. The fluorescent nanoparticles can be further extended to study the transparent Drosophila larva as an in vivo screening model for real time monitoring and evaluation of oral drug delivery systems. Also, microparticles are engineered with a fluorescent core shell structure to demonstrate size selective uptake only in cancer cells but not in normal cells. The selective uptake of drug-loaded microparticles into cancer cells enables targeted drug delivery and cancer therapy. Lastly, microstructures formed from inorganic-organic polymeric nanocore are further investigated as scaffold biomaterials with improved properties such as porosity, biodegradability and biocompatibility for tissue engineering.