Soft Particle Characterization in Pharmaceutical and Bio-Material Science

Characterization of soft materials such as organic crystalline drug, semi-solid oily material, thin lipid layers and biodegradable polymers is important in the design of functional particles such as particulate drug delivery systems. The interaction of these particles with biological cells is also a novel topic of interest. Surface properties of the particles, as well as characteristics of the materials themselves, are of interest in this session because the particle properties are often determined by surface phenomena. This session will focus on the characterization of these soft materials in particulate form. Studies on recent and novel methods to characterize the particle properties based on nanotechnology with novel instruments such as atomic force microscopy are also invited.