"Smart" Bio-Nanotubes Developed; May Help In Drug Delivery

Materials scientists working with biologists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have developed "smart" bio-nanotubes — with open or closed ends — that could be developed for drug or gene delivery applications. The nanotubes are "smart" because in the future they could be designed to encapsulate and then open up to deliver a drug or gene in a particular location in the body. The scientists found that by manipulating the electrical charges of lipid bilayer membranes and microtubules from cells, they could create open or closed bio-nanotubes, or nanoscale capsules.The news is reported in an article to be published August 9 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is currently available on-line in the PNAS Early Edition. See: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0502183102v1 The findings resulted from a collaboration between the laboratories of Cyrus R. Safinya, professor of materials and physics and faculty member of the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Department, and Leslie Wilson, professor of biochemistry in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and the Biomolecular Science and Engineering Program. The first author of the article is Uri Raviv, a post-doctoral researcher in Safinya's lab and a fellow of the International Human Frontier Science Program Organization. The other co-authors are: Daniel J. Needleman, formerly Safinya's graduate student who is now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School; Youli Li, researcher in the Materials Research Laboratory; and Herbert P. Miller, staff research associate in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.