The polymersome, a fully synthetic cell mimetic, is a tunable platform for drug delivery vehicles to detect and treat disease (theranostics). Here, we design a leuko-polymersome, a polymersome with the adhesive properties of leukocytes, which can effectively bind to inflammatory sites under flow. We hypothesize that optimal leukocyte adhesion can be recreated with ligands that mimic receptors o...

Copper-bis(oxazoline) complexes have been immobilised in the hydrophobic domain of a polymersome membrane to perform asymmetric cyclopropanation reactions in aqueous media with enhanced conversions and enantioselectivities.

Traditional anticancer chemotherapy often displays toxic side effects, poor bioavailability, and a low therapeutic index. Targeting and controlled release of a chemotherapeutic agent can increase drug bioavailability, mitigate undesirable side effects, and increase the therapeutic index. Here we report a polymersome-based system to deliver gemcitabine to Panc-1 cells in vitro. The polymersomes ...

Vesicles are formed when a membrane curves to produce a spherical structure, which in turn entraps an aqueous volume within its lumen. When these structures are formed using a polymers, a polymeric vesicle or “Polymersome” is formed. The biomimetic nature of these assemblies has attracted much attention in the field of biomedicine over the last decade, especially with regards to therapeutic or ...

Self-assembled nanoparticles conjugated with various imaging contrast agents have been used for the detection and imaging of pathologic tissues. Inadvertently, these nanoparticles undergo fast, dilution-induced disintegration in circulation and quickly lose their capability to associate with and image the site of interest. To resolve this challenge, we hypothesize that decreasing the bilayer pe...

Hierarchical biological systems such as tissues and organs are often characterised by highly crowded and packed environments with nanoscopic interconnections between them. Engineering nanovectors that can penetrate and diffuse across these is critical to ensure enhanced delivery and targeting. Here we demonstrate that flexible polymeric vesicles, known as polymersomes, enable the translocation ...