Direct Fabrication and Harvesting of Monodisperse, Shape-Specific Nanobiomaterials

Abstract

A versatile "top-down" method for the fabrication of particles, Particle Replication In Nonwetting Templates (PRINT), is described which affords absolute control over particle size, shape, and composition. This technique is versatile and general enough to fabricate particles with a variety of chemical structures, yet delicate enough to be compatible with sophisticated biological agents. Using PRINT, we have fabricated monodisperse particles of poly(ethylene glycol diacrylate), triacrylate resin, poly(lactic acid), and poly(pyrrole). Monodisperse particle populations, ranging from sub-200 nm nanoparticles to complex micron-scale objects, have been fabricated and harvested. PRINT uses low-surface energy, chemically resistant fluoropolymers as molding materials, which eliminates the formation of a residual interconnecting film between molded objects. Until now, the presence of this film has largely prevented particle fabrication using soft lithography. Importantly, we have demonstrated that PRINT affords the simple, straightforward encapsulation of a variety of important bioactive agents, including proteins, DNA, and small-molecule therapeutics, which indicates that PRINT can be used to fabricate next-generation particulate drug-delivery agents.

Porous polymer particles—A comprehensive guide to synthesis, characterization, functionalization and applications

“…Microfluidics was revolutionary for paving the way to unprecedented control over size dispersity, shape anisotropy and structure complexity of particles. A novel or improved technique [453][454][455] inheriting abilities of microfluidics but overcoming its problems such as tedious device preparation and scalability would be another renaissance for particle production. Finally, unique mechanical, packing and assembly properties of nonspherical particles are already drawing attention [6,85,161,[453][454][456][457][458][459][460][461][462][463][464][465][466][467][468] but the effect of porosity on such regular nonspherical particles is still waiting to be further exploited.…”

Nanoparticle clearance is governed by Th1/Th2 immunity and strain background

“…PRINT provides superior control over particle geometry and physical properties by taking advantage of a novel soft lithographic technique for particle fabrication. This results in low batch-to-batch variability with very low polydispersity values (29,30). Recent work has demonstrated that the PK of PRINT nanoparticles can be carefully and reproducibly calibrated by adjusting the density of PEG chains present on the surface (31).…”

Synthesis of colloidal microgels using oxygen-controlled flow lithography

“…5,17 In order to elucidate a complete set of design criteria for maximizing selectivity at the cell and tissue levels, synthesis methods need to afford independent control over the physicochemical properties of the resulting particles. A variety of versatile top-down particle fabrication techniques have emerged in the past few decades, chief among them microuidics, 18 lithography, 19 electrospraying, 20 template stretching, 21,22 or combinations thereof. 23,24 However, not all techniques can freely access the material composition, particle architecture, or length scale (#10 mm) relevant to biological assays, especially cellular uptake, and intravenous injections.…”