BioMedical Engineering

Sound Waves Steering Microscopic “Flowers” for Targeted Drug Delivery

Scientist have found a way to get drugs and other medicine exactly where needed in the body

By: Prisha Polra, Journalist

March 12, 2025

How It Works

Most microscopic objects are loaded with the needed medication and are meant to be injected into the system. After that, they are steered from the outside to the desired location in the body. Doctors use ultrasound to not only check on the medicine but also to steer it. After the drug reaches the desired location, it can either be triggered from the outside or left to dissolve. Microscopic flowers made up of a variety of differently coated materials that have different coatings based on what the doctors and scientists need injected.

How It Helps

This is an extremely useful item because it lowers the needed drug dose. You don’t need to account for losing part of the dose because it goes to the incorrect place. In this manner, it also greatly decreases the side effects after using the medicine. If people get fewer side effects, then the medicine will work better and more people will be willing to use it.

Why it looks that way

The Microscopic flower is sometimes called a dessert rose because of its flaky paper flower-like texture. The petals of the flower are nanosheets of self-assembling material that assemble into a 3d structure. It is meant to be an improvement over the original spherical design. The original sphere was coated in the medication while the new flower-like object is better at scattering the medicine and more visible in ultrasound. Compared to its size, the flower has a surprising amount of surface area and is extremely absorptive.