Nanodrugs

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​One of the main challenges in drug development and also in the food industry is that a majority of newly developed substances

​have a low solubility in relevant aqueous media. Therefore, strategies to increase the solubility of hydrophobic substances and hence their bioavailability are in high demand.

Pulsed laser fragmentation in liquids (PLFL) has proven to be a promising technique with a wide range of applications, particularly for the generation of organic micro- and nanoparticles. This process is ideally suited for the production of highly pure nano-formulations, which are obtained in aqueous solutions and are thus directly available as stable colloids.

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​​​Our main research goals and interests are:

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• Nanoscopic drugs and food ingredients with high colloidal stability for applications in industry
• High yield of organic nanoparticles with minimum degradation by advanced laser setups
• Understanding the laser fragmentation process of organic nanoparticles
• Correlating solubility with colloid properties (size, shape, crystallinity) and how they are altered by the laser irradiation

References:

[1] Amendola, V.; Amans, D.; Ishikawa, Y.; Koshizaki, N.; Scirè, S.; Compagnini, G.; Reichenberger, S.; Barcikowski, S.: Room-temperature laser synthesis in liquid of oxide, metal-oxide core-shells and doped oxide nanoparticles. In: Chemistry – A European Journal (2020)

[2] Zhang, D. ; Goekce, B. ; Barcikowski, S.: Laser Synthesis and Processing of Colloids: Fundamentals and Applications. In: Chemical Reviews 117 (2017), Nr. 5, S. 3990-4103

[3] Ding, W. M.; Sylvestre, J. P.; Bouvier, E.; Leclair, G.; Meunier, M. Ultrafast laser processing of drug particles in water for pharmaceutical discovery. Applied Physics a-Materials Science & Processing (2014), 114, 267-276.