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These small particles are reminiscent of paper flowers or desert roses. Physicians can use them to guide medicines to a precise destination within the body. Better yet, the particles can easily be tracked using ultrasound as they scatter sound waves. These findings have just been reported by the groups led by Daniel Razansky and Metin Sitti in a study published in the journal external page Advanced Materials. Razansky is Professor of Biomedical Imaging with double appointment at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich. Sitti is an expert in microrobotics and, until recently, was a professor at ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart prior to moving to Koç University in Istanbul. “Previously, researchers primarily investigated tiny gas bubbles as a method of transport through the bloodstream using ultrasound or other acoustic methods,” said Paul Wrede, co-author of the study and a CLS doctoral student. “We have now demonstrated that solid microparticles can also be acoustically guided.” The advantage of the flower particles over the bubbles is that they can be loaded with larger quantities of active ingredient molecules. (Image: Dong Wook Kim / Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, colorization: ETH Zurich)
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