As the world population grows, there is a need for efficient agricultural technologies to provide global food requirements and reduce environmental toll. In medicine, nanoscale drug delivery systems grant improved therapeutic precision by overcoming biological barriers and enhancing drug targeting to diseased tissues. Here, we loaded nanoscale drug-delivery systems with agricultural nutrients, and applied them to the leaves of tomato plants. We show that the nanoparticles – liposomes composed of plant-derived lipids, penetrate the leaf and translocate in a bidirectional manner, distributing to other leaves and to the roots. The liposomes were then internalized by the plant cells, where they released their active ingredient. Up to 33% of the applied nanoparticles penetrated the leaf, compared to less than one percent of free-molecules applied in a similar manner. In our study, tomato plants treated with liposomes loaded with Fe and Mg overcame acute nutrient deficiency which was not treatable using ordinary agricultural nutrients. Furthermore, to address regulatory concerns regarding airborne nanoparticles, we rationally designed liposomes that were stable only over short spraying distances (less than 2 meters), while the liposomes disintegrated into safe molecular building blocks (phospholipids) over longer airborne distances. These findings support expanding the implementation of nanotechnology for delivering micronutrients to agricultural crops for increasing yield.

Personalized medicine promises to revolutionize cancer therapy by matching the most effective treatment to the individual patient. Using a nanoparticle-based system, we predict the therapeutic potency of anticancer medicines in a personalized manner. We carry out the diagnostic stage through a multidrug screen performed inside the tumour, extracting drug activity information with single cell sensitivity. By using 100 nm liposomes, loaded with various cancer drugs and corresponding synthetic DNA barcodes, we find a correlation between the cell viability and the drug it was exposed to, according to the matching barcodes. Based on this screen, we devise a treatment protocol for mice bearing triple-negative breast-cancer tumours, and its results confirm the diagnostic prediction. We show that the use of nanotechnology in cancer care is effective for generating personalized treatment protocols.

Despite advances in cancer therapy, treating cancer after it has metastasized remains an unmet clinical challenge. In this study we demonstrate that 100 nm liposomes target triple-negative murine breast-cancer metastases post intravenous administration. Metastatic breast cancer was induced in BALB/c mice either experimentally, by a tail vein injection of 4T1 cells, or spontaneously, after implanting a primary tumor xenograft. To track their biodistribution in vivo the liposomes were labeled with multi-modal diagnostic agents, including indocyanine green and rhodamine for whole-animal fluorescent imaging, gadolinium for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and europium for a quantitative biodistribution analysis. The accumulation of liposomes in the metastases peaked at 24 h post the intravenous administration, similar to the time they peaked in the primary tumor. The efficiency of liposomal targeting to the metastatic tissue exceeded that of a non-liposomal agent by 4.5-fold. Liposomes were detected at very early stages in the metastatic progression, including metastatic lesions smaller than 2 mm in diameter. Surprisingly, while nanoparticles target breast cancer metastasis, they may also be found in elevated levels in the pre-metastatic niche, several days before metastases are visualized by MRI or histologically in the tissue. This study highlights the promise of diagnostic and therapeutic nanoparticles for treating metastatic cancer, possibly even for preventing the onset of the metastatic dissemination by targeting the pre-metastatic niche.