Achievement

Nano test tubes are a promising delivery vehicle for a range of therapeutics, including small molecule drugs and biologics. However, current template synthesis methods of producing nano test tubes are prohibitively expensive and time consuming. Our investigators in Materials Engineering collaborated with investigators in Biochemistry to employ a non-destructive template replication to increase nano test tube yield from porous alumina by more than a hundred-fold. They produced nano test tubes of several sizes and compositions, including hybrid tubes with different inner and outer surfaces for targeted surface chemistry. Nano test tubes were readily suspended and stored in aqueous solutions without the need for chemical treatment. These nano test tubes should find application as delivery vehicles for therapeutics, particularly for processive ‘bionanoreactors’ loaded with enzymes. This work was published in Nanotechnology.