Ultra-high throughput synthesis of nanoparticles with homogeneous size distribution using a coaxial turbulent jet mixer.

Jong-Min Lim, Archana Swami, Laura M Gilson, Sunandini Chopra, Sungyoung Choi, Jun Wu, Robert Langer, Rohit Karnik, Omid C Farokhzad

Index: ACS Nano 8(6) , 6056-65, (2014)

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Abstract

High-throughput production of nanoparticles (NPs) with controlled quality is critical for their clinical translation into effective nanomedicines for diagnostics and therapeutics. Here we report a simple and versatile coaxial turbulent jet mixer that can synthesize a variety of NPs at high throughput up to 3 kg/d, while maintaining the advantages of homogeneity, reproducibility, and tunability that are normally accessible only in specialized microscale mixing devices. The device fabrication does not require specialized machining and is easy to operate. As one example, we show reproducible, high-throughput formulation of siRNA-polyelectrolyte polyplex NPs that exhibit effective gene knockdown but exhibit significant dependence on batch size when formulated using conventional methods. The coaxial turbulent jet mixer can accelerate the development of nanomedicines by providing a robust and versatile platform for preparation of NPs at throughputs suitable for in vivo studies, clinical trials, and industrial-scale production.