npj： 生物医用功能化纳米粒子——理论、模拟和设计

生物医用功能化纳米粒子是近年来一个激动人心、快速发展的研究领域。然而由于纳米-生物界面的相互作用极为复杂，针对该体系的理论和模拟究竟能在多大程度上真实有效是一个十分重要的问题。来自伦敦帝国理工学院材料系和北京化工大学北京软物质科学与工程先进创新中心的Stefano Angioletti-Uberti教授从“软物质”的角度对这一问题进行了综述，并给出了积极答案。他主要关注了纳米粒子那些可以被经典理论描述的性质，综述了纳米粒子与生物环境之间相互作用方式，以及针对不同应用需求如何通过对材料表面功能化来调控这些相互作用方式。文章着重概述了描述这些相互作用的理论和粗粒化模型，并介绍了该领域中的最新进展。该文近期发表于npj Computational Materials 3: 48(2017); doi: 10.1038/s41524-017-0050-y。

英文标题与摘要如下，点击阅读原文可以自由获取论文PDF。

Functionalised nanoparticles for biomedical applications represents an incredibly exciting and rapidly growing field of research. Considering the complexity of the nano–bio interface, an important question is to what extent can theory and simulations be used to study these systems in a realistic, meaningful way. In this review, we will argue for a positive answer to this question. Approaching the issue from a “Soft Matter” perspective, we will consider those properties of functionalised nanoparticles that can be captured within a classical description. We will thus not concentrate on optical and electronic properties, but rather on the way nanoparticles’ interactions with the biological environment can be tuned by functionalising their surface and exploited in different contexts relevant to applications. In particular, we wish to provide a critical overview of theoretical and computational coarse-grained models, developed to describe these interactions and present to the readers some of the latest results in this fascinating area of research.