Scientists from the University of Lincoln have created a new technique using nanotechnology which can make medicine more effective.
Researchers from the institution invented a new method involving ‘decorating’ gold nanoparticles – used to help treatments reach its intended area – with a chosen protein so they can be tailored to target specific sections of the body.
Dr Enrico Ferrari, from the University of Lincoln’s School of Life Sciences, led the study and said: “Gold nanoparticles are a vital tool in new drug development and drug delivery systems. We have unlocked the key to binding proteins and molecules so that those drugs will be more effective.
“This method might help to design nanomedicines that do not need extensive chemical modification of a protein drug or a nano-carrier and therefore can be developed more easily and faster.”
The findings have since been published in the Nature Communications journal.