Approximately 99 per cent of medicinal molecules don't reach their targets and subsequently, stay in the body of the patient. As these molecules can sometimes be very toxic - particularly in the case of those designed to target cancers - research is being undertaken into more effective ways of safely transporting and delivering drugs.

A challenge for nanotechnology in this research is to create a device which can carry a drug payload to it's target, be monitored throughout it's journey and deliver, without being attacked and destroyed by the body's natural defences. This calls for something which possesses stealth design characteristics and a plausible device is described here in this movie.

This is one of a selection of intriguing movies which are available for free download from the EPSRC Nanotechnology Image Library at : http://www.nanoscience.dept.shef.ac.u...

You may also be interested in navigating to the "Soft Machines" site belonging to Professor Richard Jones - who features in this movie - for up-to-date discourse on all things nano. Here's the link : http://www.softmachines.org/wordpress/ (less)