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Polymersomes: Preparation and Characterization

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Book cover Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2000))

Abstract

Polymersomes, also called polymeric vesicles, are self-assembled by amphiphilic copolymers. Due to their unique characters, polymersomes are attracting more and more interest as an important class of vehicles for nanopharmaceuticals. In this chapter, various methods to prepare and characterize polymersomes are introduced systematically with several applicable examples. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of each method were compared and analyzed with the aim to help readers choose the appropriate method in the process of experiments. Although some methods we introduced here are effective in preparing and characterizing polymersomes, the remaining challenge in this filed is to develop new tools. The reason is that polymersome is a kind of complex nanostructure, and some minor factors can affect the formation of polymersome. Meanwhile, more advanced technology should be developed to precisely determine the structure of some complex polymersomes such as multilayer polymersomes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81222047, 81673384).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Educational (MOE) Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Yumiao Hu & Liyan Qiu

  2. Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Yumiao Hu & Liyan Qiu

Authors
  1. Yumiao Hu
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  2. Liyan Qiu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liyan Qiu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ, USA

    Volkmar Weissig

  2. Nanomedicine Center of Excellence in Translational Cancer Research, Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ, USA

    Tamer Elbayoumi

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Hu, Y., Qiu, L. (2019). Polymersomes: Preparation and Characterization. In: Weissig, V., Elbayoumi, T. (eds) Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2000. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9516-5_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9516-5_17

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-9515-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-9516-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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