To treat diseases of the brain such as brain cancer, therapeutics must navigate through a maze of over 100 billion densely packed cells. The Hammond Lab is designing nanoparticle drug carriers that can pass through the tiny gaps between cells to reach as many cancer cells as possible, while minimizing interactions with healthy cells to reduce off-target toxicity.

In this image, the nuclei of brain cells are shown in blue, with the cytoplasm of the most abundant brain cell-type, astrocytes, shown in cyan. The cloud of orange/red shows the trajectory of nanoparticles as they travel away from the infusion site, in search of cancer cells.