(Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense)
Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Medical School, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Riverside, have developed polymeric nanocarriers that can cross plant cell walls, delivering functional proteins directly into the cells with unprecedented efficiency. These nanocarriers are engineered with a high aspect ratio, meaning they are long and thin, which is essential for their ability to cross the plant cell wall. One of the critical findings of the study is that the efficiency of protein delivery highly depends on the size and charge of the nanocarriers: Nanocarriers with a width greater than 14 nanometers or with insufficient positive charge were less effective at penetrating the plant cell wall and delivering their protein cargo.
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