Nanoparticle Characterisation for Drug Delivery Systems

The use of nanoparticles within drug delivery is a growing area of research with wide ranging implications and is one of the major focuses of Professor Wim Jiskoot’s group at Leiden University. To successfully use nanoparticles is a challenge in that their characterisation is not straightforward. If all the particles are of the same size, known as ‘monodisperse’, there are several techniques available. However, where there are mixes of particles sizes and ratios of different sized particles, it is more difficult to make measurements on these ‘polydisperse’ systems. Jiskoot’s group has recently completed a review of a new technique called nanoparticle

tracking analysis (NanoSight, Amesbury, UK) in comparison with other techniques.

The Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University is the home for Wim Jiskoot and his team of research scientists. Professor Jiskoot’s research is focused on the formulation and delivery of biopharmaceuticals. Biopharmaceuticals are different from conventional drugs because they are based on large, complex molecules (mostly proteins), which are difficult to produce, stabilise, and administer to the patient. He has two lines of work. The first is devoted to the study of unwanted immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins. Although highly pure and (nearly) identical to endogenous proteins, most therapeutic proteins elicit antibodies in patients. Improved fundamental insight into the causative factors of antibody formation will enable the design of better (for example, more effective and safer) protein drugs. The second research line is vaccine delivery, with the intent to make (for example, bacterial or viral) proteins as immunogenic as possible.

"The beam is caused to refract at the interface between the liquid sample and the optical element through which it is passed such that it describes a path close to parallel to the glass-sample interface."