Polymersomes: A Synthetic Biological Approach to Encapsulation and Delivery.

Compartmentalization, i.e. the ability to create controlled volumes and separate molecules one from another is possibly the most important requisite for complex manipulations. Indeed, compartmentalization has been the first step to isolate the building blocks of life and ensure the dynamic nature that today makes the complexity of any living system. For decades scientists have tried using many synthetic approaches to imitate such ability and one the most successful comes from mimicking the biological component responsible for the compartmentalization: the phospholipid. We are now able to synthesize macromolecular analogues of the phospholipid using advanced co-polymerization techniques. Copolymers that comprise hydrophilic and hydrophobic components (i.e. amphiphilic) can be designed to self assemble into membrane enclosed structures. The simplest of those is represented by a sac resulting from the enclosure of a membrane into a sphere: the vesicle. Vesicles made of amphiphilic copolymers are commonly known as polymersomes and are now one of the most important nanotechnological tool for many applications spanning from drug delivery, gene therapy, medical imaging, electronics and nanoreactors. Herein we review the molecular properties, the fabrication processes and the most important applications of polymersomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]