UNSW Sydney, Media Release, 17 March 2025

Cancer drugs and agrichemicals can be powerful, but toxic, tools. Now, UNSW scientists are applying nanomedicine insights on a project to make greener agrichemicals more affordable.

Dr. Cong Vu, Adjunct Fellow at UNSW’s School of Chemistry, outlined his research in a recent article exploring how the principles of nanoparticle design—originally developed to fight cancer—can be applied to agriculture.

In the article, Dr. Vu explains how design principles from nanomedicine, such as altering the size, surface, and material of nanoparticles that encapsulate cancer drugs, could be used to target and deliver agrichemicals to plants more effectively.

Dr. Vu, who is also the founder of the UNSW agrichemicals startup, NanoSoils Bio, says the ultimate goal is to create nanotechnology products that improve pesticide and fungicide delivery, promoting cleaner and more sustainable agriculture.

Last week, NanoSoils Bio filed for its first two patents on processes designed to optimise nanoparticle efficiency.

In addition to developing improved pesticides, NanoSoils is also working on creating silica nanoparticles that will help cotton crops become more resilient to drought.

Article coauthor and Nanosoils scientific advisor, UNSW Scientia Professor Justin Gooding, emphasises the significance of this crossover between nanomedicine and agriculture.

Prof. Gooding notes that nanomedicine has more patents and over twice as many publications as nano-agriculture. Insights from nanomedicine, therefore, hold the potential to lower one of the biggest barriers to nano-agrochemical innovation—cost.

“Rather than starting from scratch, Dr. Vu is leveraging existing knowledge to address pressing issues in agriculture and the environment,” he says.