Congratulations to former group members Ilaria Meazzini, Steve Comby and Judith Houston as well as current member Kieran Richards and visiting student François-Xavier Turquet for their work on the paper entitled “Synthesis and characterisation of biocompatible organic-inorganic core-shell nanocomposite particles based on ureasils” which has just been published in Journal of Materials Chemistry B.

The paper reports a one-pot method for the fabrication of core-shell nanocomposite particles (CSNPs) comprising a ureasil core and a silica shell. The synthetic conditions are optimised to reproducibly form particles with a hydrodynamic diameter of ~150nm and a polydispersity of <0.2 which are stable in aqueous media for >50 days. Functionalisation of the particles via entrapment and covalent grafting is investigated using fluorescent dyes, providing insight into the internal environment of the particles.

Preliminary live/dead cell assays were also carried out, which indicate that the CSNPs do not show cytotoxicity. A huge thank you to collaborators Aimee M. Withers and Róisín M. Owens from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Cambridge, for their help in obtaining these measurements.