Scientific article: Running circles around proteins
Cyclic polymer grafts make stealth nanoparticles
Nanoparticles for biomedical and biotechnological applications must remain undetected by the body, which means avoiding binding of proteins from biological fluids such as blood. This challenge remains unsolved for inorganic nanoparticles, such as those used for biomedical imaging. In a study published in ACS Nano, we show that coating particles with cyclic polymers prevents binding of the stickiest and most abundant blood protein, human serum albumin.