Ren, Zhifeng2018-11-302018-11-30August 2012016-08August 201http://hdl.handle.net/10657/3574Drug delivery that enables spatial and temporal control is essential to improve pharmacotherapy. The emergence of nanotechnology has spurred the development of drug delivery. Herein, we develop a physics-derived approach, magnetically-driven nanospearing to address challenges associated in drug delivery. Template wetting is employed to formulate a poly-ε-caprolactone nanorod-based spear system that incorporates functional agents including amine groups, magnetic nanoparticles, fluorescein molecules, and gold nanorods. The multifunctional polymeric nanospear provides a promising delivery system for drug delivery. Overall, the amine-group-functionalized surface favors loading of negatively charged molecules, and cellular delivery of ATP is successfully achieved. Gold nanorods functions to enable a photothermally-responsive release behavior for the polymeric spear system. It is also found that the photothemal heating only induces localized structural changes in the polymeric matrix thus triggers surrounded encapsulant release. This localized heating is beneficial to maintain stability of the whole spear system. This work provides an alternative way for cell internalization and a promising delivery system for targeted delivery and controlled release.application/pdfengThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).Drug deliveryNanospearingPhotothermalTemplate wetting2018-11-30Thesisborn digital