Dendrimers

What are Dendrimers?
Dendrimer structures represent a new class of macromolecular architecture and precise construction modules in the emerging area of nanoscale science and technology. The rapidly accelerating research and development activities in dendrimers and dendritic materials provide critically needed nanoscale building blocks suitable for the development of high performance materials. Dendrimers are widely recognized as the most versatile, compositionally and structurally controlled nanoscale building blocks available.

Precisely Manufactured to Fit Specific Needs
Dendrimers are nanostructures that can be precisely designed and manufactured for a wide variety of applications. Dendrimers are the first large, man-made molecules with precise, nano-sized composition and well-defined three-dimensional shapes. Current polymer molecules are long, spaghetti-like strands that grow in only two directions. Dendrimer molecules grow three-dimensionally by the addition of shells of branched molecules to a central core. The cores are also spacious and have “sticky” points on the outside to which various chemical units can be attached. By adjusting chemical properties of the core, the shells, and especially the surface layer, dendrimers can be tailored to fit the needs of specific applications.

The Ideal BioTech Delivery Vehicle
Dendrimer-based technologies provide exciting new interfaces between chemistry, biology and advanced materials. Dendrimers have the ability to act as appropriate containers for delivery vehicles in-vitro and in-vivo due to their specific, precise and predictable custom designed dendritic polymer architectures. As an enabling technology, dendrimers provide the vehicle — the targeting and delivery mechanisms — for a vast array of diagnostic and therapeutic products. Their precise and designable architecture, tunable solubility, low toxicity and immunogenicity, and bioattachment capability make dendrimers the ideal building blocks for biotechnology.

Because of their precise architecture and construction, dendrimers possess inherently valuable physical, chemical and biological properties. These properties include:

Efficient membrane transport — Dendrimers have demonstrated rapid transport capabilities across biological membranes.
High loading capacity — Dendrimer structures can be used to carry and store a wide range of metals, organic or inorganic molecules by encapsulation and absorption.
High uniformity and purity — The synthetic process used produces dendrimers with uniform sizes, precisely defined surface functionality, and
very low impurity levels.
Low toxicity — Most dendrimer systems display very low cytotoxicity levels.
Low immunogenicity — Dendrimers commonly manifest a very low or negligible immunogenic response when injected or used topically.