This NDnano research project is focused on demonstrating the efficacy of using externally-controlled magnetoelectric nanoparticles (MENs) as a drug delivery platform to target cancer cells. MENs have a magnetic (Fe/Co) core and a piezoelectric (barium titanate) shell. Using bioconjugation techniques, cancer drugs are bound to the MENs. The magnetic and electric properties of these carrier vehicles, in conjunction with the distinctive electric potentials of cancer cells, can be leveraged to concentrate therapy drugs at tumor sites and enable their selective penetration into cancer cells via a process called nanoelectroporation. Cancer cells experience greater electroporation effects under the small local electric fields generated by the MENs' piezoelectric shells than those experienced by normal cells and are therefore more permeable. Once the MENs penetrate the cancer cells, an alternating magnetic field is applied to the target site, which results in the drug being released from the MENs inside the cancer cell.
University of Notre Dame's Center for Nano Science and Technology (NDnano) research group
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