And despite their miniscule size, nanoparticles are still big enough to carry a payload of medicine, Rosol said.
"That the particles made it into the liver suggests that they could be used to deliver toxic chemotherapeutic drugs that would act locally on a tissue, at the site of a tumor, and not have such a pronounced affect on the rest of the body," Rosol said. "The problem with chemotherapy is that the drug affects the whole body, causing a host of problems such as hair loss, diarrhea and anemia."