Dendrimersomes are an exciting new class of vesicles, comprising bilayers of dendrimer molecules that can be engineered to have sensitivity to e.g. changes in pH and enzymes. However, in order to find applications in triggered drug delivery and biosensing, their fine structure and changes to self-assembly must first be characterised. We propose a series of experiments to characterise the fine structure of a model dendrimersome and its response to changes in ionic strength and dilution. We then use contrast matching to investigate the effect of acidic pH and the enzyme sphingomyelinase on dendrimersomes engineered to respond to these two triggers respectively. Dendrimersomes sensitive to these triggers have huge potential in stimuli-responsive treatment of cancer, Alzheimers disease and atherosclerosis.This experiment will be the first SANS study of dendrimersomes.
