Engineered vertically-aligned polymeric nanostructures for intracellular delivery to mammalian cells

Silicon nanoneedles emerged as powerful therapeutic tools to deliver wide range of biocargoes into cells. But their fabrication process is usually complex and costly. The thesis features a new class of engineered nanoneedles that is made of flexible polymeric materials. The nanoneedles can be integrated into cell culture polystyrene with a relatively simple and cost-effective fabrication pathway. This new platform can effectively deliver mRNA into different cell types, and help to reveal the nanoneedle-mediated delivery mechanism at the cellular level.