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Towards an in vivo biologically inspired nanofactory

Nanotechnology is having a major impact on medicine and the treatment of disease, notably in imaging and targeted drug delivery. It may, however, be possible to go even further and design 'pseudo-cell' nanofactories that work with molecules already in the body to fight disease.

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Figure 1
Figure 2: Schematic of the encapsulation of cells18.
Figure 3: Liposomes formed by thin lipid film organization.
Figure 4: One approach for the transport in an in vivo biological nanofactory is to create channels such as α-haemolysin that span across a membrane.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the W. M. Keck Foundation and the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative “Designing Nanostructures at the Interface between Biomedical and Physical Systems”. This is a 15-year effort to stimulate interdisciplinary research and to enhance communication among researchers, funding agencies, universities and the general public.

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Correspondence to Philip R. LeDuc or Michael S. Wong.

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LeDuc, P., Wong, M., Ferreira, P. et al. Towards an in vivo biologically inspired nanofactory. Nature Nanotech 2, 3–7 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2006.180

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