New method enables study of nano-sized particles

Originally published by Karolinska Institutet on June 12, 2023


Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have created a new method of studying the smallest bioparticles in the body. The study, which is published in Nature Biotechnology, has considerable scientific potential, such as in the development of more effective vaccines.

Circulating around the body are nanoparticles that affect it in one way or another. For example, there are lipoproteins that maintain cell metabolism, pathogenic viruses that cause many diseases and lipid nanoparticles that are used to carry drugs, like recent mRNA vaccines.

However, such particles are too small to be studied easily. To enable this, the researchers in this study have developed a new method that they call single-particle profiling (SPP).

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