The 2nd International Nanomedicine Conference in Coogee was held in July 2011, and brought together the top minds in a discipline that crosses borders incorporating medicine, chemistry, and engineering. This Research Front, dedicated to Nanomedicine, comprises a selection of papers epitomizing the current sentiments in this emerging field.

Specific killing of cancer cells using enhanced permeability retention effect (EPR) efficacy , with reduced side effects was studied during the recent developments in nano-technology. This review discussed the active targeting towards cancer cell with specific ligands incorporated in biodegradable polymeric nanocarriers to improve the bio-activity of the encapsulated cargo.

Reductively degradable hyperbranched polymers with multiple peripheral alkyl bromide groups were synthesized by the radical copolymerization of di- or oligo(ethylene oxide) methyl ether methacrylate with the disulfide-containing crosslinker bis(2-methacryloyloxyethyl)disulfide. The polymers were used as multifunctional atom-transfer radical polymerization macroinitiators, which were chain-extended to yield star copolymers with hyperbranched disulfide-containing cores. Both the macroinitiators and the star copolymers derived from them degraded in the presence of a reducing agent.

We have developed a novel method for activating T-cells on material surfaces that enable individual and population-based analyses of T-cell signalling events. The analysis of individual T cells on material surfaces provides the capacity to assess the magnitude and quality of inherently heterogeneous effector T-cell responses to antigenic challenge.

[Ag₂(mptrz)(μ₃-X)]_n (X = I (1) and Br (2)) and [Pb₄(μ₄-O)(mptrz)₄(μ₂-X)] (X = I (3) and Cl (4)) have been synthesized. Compounds 1 and 2 have 2D layered structures with unique inorganic [Ag₂X₂]_n chains. Compounds 3 and 4 are discrete tetranuclear lead(ii) cluster compounds featuring oxygen-centred Pb₄(µ₄-O) tetrahedra. All compounds display fluorescent emission.

Calendula oil/chitosan microcapsules prepared by simple coacervation are reported. The optimal parameter combinations are determined. The in vitro and in vivo toxicity evaluation demonstrate that the microcapsules exhibit no significant toxicological effects on human keratinocytes and mice. The microcapsules are suggested as safe drug carriers both topically and orally.

The self-assembly of silver nanoparticles using triglycine as an organic template, and their subsequent self-assembly into one-dimensional nanostructures under ambient temperature in the presence of copper cations is reported.

Polyelectrolytes composed of suitably hydrophobic ions exhibited temperature-sensitive LCST-type phase transitions after mixing with water.

Sulfuryl chloride is a useful alternative to chlorine gas in chlorination reactions, however, it is a neglected reagent in the synthesis community. This focus article describes the application of sulfuryl chloride as an effective chlorinating agent with some comparison to alternative reagents.