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Science 25 April 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5619, pp. 595 - 596
DOI: 10.1126/science.1083625
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Perspectives

MATERIALS SCIENCE:
Enhancing Drug Function

Jeffrey A. Hubbell

Micelles--nanoscale core-and-corona assemblies of amphiphilic polymers--may help to deliver drugs to their target areas (such as tumors) within the body. In his Perspective, Hubbell reviews recent efforts to devise such drug-delivery vehicles. He highlights the report by Savi et al., who use such a micellar approach to deliver drugs to particular compartments within the cell. Related methods may help to deliver DNA to cell interiors. Extrapolation of these ideas to vesicles (which enclose an aqueous core) may permit larger molecules to be delivered, independent of the identity of the molecule.

The author is in the Institute for Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Materials Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and University of Zurich, Moussonstrasse 18, 8044 Zurich, Switzerland. E-mail: jeffrey.hubbell{at}mat.ethz.ch

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