Remote-control nanoparticles deliver drugs directly into tumors

MIT scientists have devised remotely controlled nanoparticles that, when pulsed with an electromagnetic field, release drugs to attack tumors.


Here, dark gray nanoparticles carry different drug payloads (one red, one green). A remotely generated five-minute pulse of a low-energy electromagnetic field releases the green drug but not the red. A five-minute pulse of a higher-energy electromagnetic field releases the red drug, which had been tethered using a DNA strand twice as long as the green tether, as measured in base pairs. Image courtesy / Bhatia/von Maltzahn, MIT. Derfus, UCSD