What the Cell “Sees” in Bionanoscience

What the biological cell, organ, or barrier actually "sees" when interacting with a nanoparticle dispersed in a biological medium likely matters more than the bare material properties of the particle itself. Typically the bare surface of the particle is covered by several biomolecules, including a select group of proteins drawn from the biological medium. Here, we apply several different methodologies, in a time-resolved manner, to follow the lifetime of such biomolecular "coronas" both in situ and isolated from the excess plasma. We find that such particle-biomolecule complexes can be physically isolated from the surrounding medium and studied in some detail, without altering their structure. For several…