Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States, have designed a new type of delivery system that allows nanoparticles to target tumors more effectively. Nanoparticles that deliver cancer drugs directly to tumors typically only get about one percent of the drug to the intended target. The new strategy, developed by MIT researchers, and colleagues from the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and the University of California at San Diego, also in the U.S., sends a first wave of nanoparticles to home in on the tumor, then calls in a much larger second wave, via a chemical reaction, that dispenses the cancer drug. The new strategy could enhance the effectiveness of many drugs for cancer and other diseases. According to Geoffrey von Maltzahn, a former MIT doctoral student now at Flagship VentureLabs, “What we’ve demonstrated is that nanoparticles can be engineered to do things like communicate with each other in the body, and that these capabilities can improve the efficiency with which they find and treat diseases like cancer.” Studies in mice showed that one system of communication nanoparticles delivered 40 times more doxorubicin than non-communicating nanoparticles. Their findings were published in the online edition of the journal Nature Materials.