A Novel Method for Producing Functional Nanoparticles for Medical Applications

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An exciting aspect of Nanotechnology is its multidisciplinarity that crosses barriers between physics, chemistry and biology. Recently it has been explored for new cancer therapies, which conventionally use toxic drugs resulting in a balancing act between harming the patient and treating the cancer. A nanotechnology-based approach is to use magnetic nanoparticles less than 10 nanometres across (5,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair) attached to ‘targeting molecules’ that locate and attach only to cancer cells. Once in place an oscillating external magnetic field heats the particles and their attached cells, thereby killing them, without harming healthy tissue. This gentle treatment is the so-called ‘magic bullet’ approach and has been shown to work in principle in early clinical trials but is hindered by the available nanoparticles not producing enough heat. In a recent breakthrough at Leicester, the Condensed Matter Physics group in Physics and Astronomy developed a new method of producing suspensions of highly magnetic bio-compatible nanoparticles that will generate 5-10 times as much heat per particle as existing fluids. The grant will support a collaboration between Physics, Chemistry and the Leicester General Hospital to develop the technology, conjugate the nanoparticles with targeting molecules and test the new suspensions for their tumour-killing performance in vitro.