Engineering thermoresponsive polymer composites for plasmonically modulated drug delivery

In modern biotechnology there is significant interest in how the release of therapeutic drugs can be controlled. The aim of this is to design safer and more effective ways to deliver therapeutic drugs. This thesis focused on how gold-hydrogel nanoparticles, during periods of stimulation with near infrared light, were able to release vastly increased payloads of drug due to localised heating of the nanoparticles. The thesis outlines the material design and characterisation, stimulated drug release with dexamethasone and a multi-drug release system using dexamethasone and doxorubicin.