Modern medicine increasingly relies on targeted drug delivery - a process during which tiny particles (nanoparticles) transport drugs to specific parts of the body. To ensure these treatments are safe and effective, scientists need to understand exactly how these nanoparticles are built - including their size, shape, and internal structure.

In this study, an international team combined several advanced analysis techniques to investigate drug delivery nanoparticles in unprecedented detail. For the first time, they successfully coupled a particle separation method known as AF4 with small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) during an experiment performed on the D11 instrument at the Insitut Laue-Langevin (ILL).

This new approach allowed the researchers not only to measure the nanoparticles’ size and shape, but also to determine how these particles and drug molecules were organised internally. The work opens up new possibilities for using neutron scattering to study increasingly sophisticated drug delivery systems and could help support the development of safer and more effective treatments in the future.

Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York were among the first to find ways to help patients of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), with the development of an effective drug. A new study suggests earlier use of this FDA-approved therapy may improve outcomes.