nanoscale: Modeling software could lead to more efficient design of nanoparticles.

Tweet Accelrys, a San Diego-based company with experience developing modeling software used for designing drugs and materials, is building modeling software to help researchers develop new materials and test their compatibility with various molecules, potentially speeding up the development of nanotechnology for drug delivery and diagnostics.

The software would help researchers sort through many combinations of drugs and polymers, to predict which ones will be compatible with each other and which can be made into nanoparticles that safely deliver the drug to target tissues, such a cancer tumor. They can match materials with protein-detecting molecules to help in designing diagnostic nanoparticles that latch onto molecular biomarkers in the body and reveal their location with various imaging technologies.