With a bit of trickery, engineered nanoparticles can be tiny and talented enough to help combat disease. By using them as carriers they can be designed to gain access to parts of the body that are off limits to conventional drugs, explains medical doctor Yuri Volkov of Trinity College Dublin's Centre on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (Crann).

"It is an opportunity to develop a new drug delivery system, that's what we hope to do. The mechanism of action of historical drugs would be very different from the drugs linked with nanocarriers. There are barriers through which the nanocarriers can go, whereas the traditional water-soluble carriers distribute throughout the body. So you can limit drug delivery to only the cells or tissues that you need and you can probably target them to the specific cells using the nanocarriers."

Engineeered nanoparticles with magnetic or light-emitting properties could also help diagnose disease in the body, he adds.

To identify which nanoparticles are right for the job, TCD is currently using rapid high-quantum analysis to screen large numbers of nanomaterials for their effects on cells.

"It's a question of a bit of time and effort and we will know the answers, what's a no-go area and what's beneficial, what materials are okay and what are not," says Volkov. "We will be in a position to give an informed, professional approach to nanomaterials. Certain things are right, with others you have to proceed with caution."