Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 31, 2026

Graphene Coatings for Biomedical Implants
Published on: March 1, 2013
Biodegradable Polymer-Coated Multifunctional Graphene Quantum Dots for Light-Triggered Synergetic Therapy of
Chengbin Yang, Kok Ken Chan1, Gaixia Xu
1School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering , Nanyang Technological University , Singapore 639798 , Singapore.
Abstract:
In this work, we reported the synthesis of an engineered novel nanocarrier composed of biodegradable charged polyester vectors (BCPVs) and graphene quantum dots (GQDs) for pancreatic cancer (MiaPaCa-2 cells) therapy applications. Such a nanocarrier was utilized to co-load doxorubicin (DOX) and small interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA), resulting in the formation of GQD/DOX/BCPV/siRNA nanocomplexes. The resulting nanocomplexes have demonstrated high stability in physiologically mimicking media, excellent K-ras downregulation activity, and effective bioactivity inhibition for MiaPaCa-2 cells. More importantly, laser light was used to generate heat for the nanocomplexes via the photothermal effect to damage the cells, which was further employed to trigger the release of payloads from the nanocomplexes. Such triggered release function greatly enhanced the anticancer activity of the nanocomplexes. Preliminary colony formation study also suggested that GQD/DOX/BCPV/siRNA nanocomplexes are qualified carrier candidates in subsequent in vivo tests.
Related Concept Videos
Quantum Numbers
Cancer Therapies
However, cancer treatments can pose several challenges, as therapies used to kill cancer cells are generally also toxic to normal cells. Moreover, cancer cells mutate rapidly and can develop resistance to chemical agents or radiation therapy. Besides, all types of cancer cells may not respond to the same therapy. Some cancer cells respond to one...
The Quantum-Mechanical Model of an Atom
Targeted Cancer Therapies
There are several types of targeted therapies against...
Polymers
The Dot Product

