Success story: 12 February 07
Research aims to reduce drug doses and patient side effects

An international research programme underway at the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at Victoria University is developing ‘quantum dots’ as a non-toxic targeted drug delivery system and optical probes.

The New Zealand scientists and their Japanese collaborators say their work has the potential to dramatically reduce drug doses and hence the side effects experienced by patients.

With investment of $1.26 million over three years through the Foundation’s International Investment Opportunities Fund (IIOF?), the scientists are investigating whether silicon nanocrystals can be used as a new type of medical dye to track the spread of disease, and as a method of delivering drugs directly to the affected areas of the body.

“The organic dyes currently available to medical science are fragile, breaking down within hours, which consequently makes them unsuitable for tracking and monitoring diseases over long periods of time,” says project leader Dr Richard Tilley.

“In contrast, silicon quantum dots are robust and should be able to track and monitor diseases for days or weeks inside the human body.”

Attaching molecules and medicines to the silicon dots means the infected area would be specifically targeted for the delivery of drugs, thus reducing the dose needed and the side effects suffered.

New Zealand scientists are responsible for the chemical synthesis of the quantum dots and surface treatment of silicon particles. In Japan, Professor Yamamoto, Deputy Director of the International Medical Centre of Japan and a world leader in this field of study, is investigating the toxicology of silicon particles and their suitability as medical dyes.

The Foundation? invests more than $4 million each year through IIOF to help New Zealand researchers take advantage of opportunities for international collaborations.