Young researchers from Siberian Federal University (SibFU) along with their colleagues from FRC KSC SB RAS are designing a technology for producing multilayer gilded nanodisks for targeted drug delivery and treating cancer using dip pen nanolithography (DPN).

“Magnetic nanodiscs coated with gold are in high demand in Biology and Medicine. They can be successfully used for magnetically induced apoptosis (the process of programmed cell death) and mechanical destruction of cell membranes. Nanodiscs can be ‘programmed’ to deliver drugs exclusively to diseased organs and tissues, and they can also mechanically destroy target cells (for example, malignant tumor cells). To place the nanodisks into the human body, they need to be ‘dressed’ in a special coating that will reduce the toxicity of our agents, prevent their early degradation in the body and allow them to ‘increase’ the aptamers on them for targeted delivery of medicines. Therefore, the structure of the disks is multi-layered and consists of a ferromagnetic metal coated with gold. Nowadays, a high-vacuum deposition method is used in combination with lithography methods and chemical etching processes to obtain such nanodisks, which determine the shape and size of the final product,” — says Anna Lukjanenko, the assistant of the specialized department of Solid State Physics and Nanotechnology at Siberian Federal University, scientist of Kirensky Institute of Physics SB RAS.

To yield nanoparticles with a large range of sizes and shapes and strict control of their parameters for producing disks for medical needs, university researchers are developing more cost-effective and adaptable technology compared to the current one.

“We want to improve the technology of dip pen nanolithography so that multilayer thin films of metals can be used as substrates. Then, dip pen nanolithography will help us produce precisely those nanodisks which are required by the medical research groups involved in introducing new treatment methods (for example, researchers from Krasnoyarsk State Medical University named after Professor V. F. Voino-Yasenetsky). Also, this method can be implemented in almost any production such as a plant and or a research center,” — the scientist said.