Direct Delivery

To make sure drugs reach their target cells even in the most inaccessible places, researchers are recruiting mobile single-celled organisms to swim around the body, delivering the goods where they’re most needed. Bacteria are often used to develop these systems but have the potential to reproduce rapidly in the body, at the risk of becoming toxic, so a team of scientists is working on an alternative, based on the freshwater alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Propelling themselves forward with their long tails, these single-celled algae (pictured, in green) can swim through body fluids, such as blood and plasma. With magnetic microbeads (in orange) attached to the algae, their movements can be steered using a magnetic field, and the beads can store useful compounds for delivery. Experiments in the laboratory showed that the algae could successfully transfer molecules to mammalian cells, paving the way for future tests in live organisms.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Emmanuelle Briolat

Writer

A researcher specialising in visual signals in Lepidoptera, camouflage and the effects of light pollution, Emmanuelle’s writing covers a range of topics, from biomedical research to children’s books about moth defences.

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• Image courtesy of Metin Sitti, Physical Intelligence Department, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, Germany
• Physical Intelligence Department, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, Germany
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Advanced Materials, September 2018