Biophysical experiments and simulation in nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems.

We are on the cusp of a new era in therapeutics which will be characterized by drugs that can be individually tailored to a patient to be more effective and less likely to cause side effects. One of the most successful ways to deliver such drugs to the physiological site of interest involves embedding them in lipid nanoparticles. Here we give a brief history of the development of lipid-based drug carriers, emphasizing the role that biophysical characterization played in their development. We further argue that in the future, the revolutionary gain in power of computer simulation techniques will enable researchers to efficiently identify optimal lipid nanoparticle compositions and physical characteristics for experimental validation.