New material could be used in drug delivery system

University of Toronto researchers have developed a new class of hybrid materials that could one day move drug delivery systems to the molecular level.
The paper published in the Nov. 26 issue of Science outlines how a U of T research team combined two classes of nanomaterials to create an entirely new composite structure. This new porous architecture may one day act as a nanoscale sieve, enabling researchers to release drug molecules in a slow and controlled way. "We hope one day to create a film of this material and spread it on the skin," says the paper's senior author University Professor Geoffrey Ozin of the Department of Chemistry. "By doing so, drugs can be diffused through the skin, rather than injection, which would guarantee a continuous flow of a drug molecule at a tunable rate and concentration."