A branching polymer. Dendrimers are used to transfer genetic material into living cells.
A synthetic, three-dimensional macromolecule formed using a nanoscale fabrication process. A dendrimer is built up from monomers, with new branches added in steps until a tree-like structure is created (dendrimer comes from the Greek dendra, meaning tree).
an artificially manufactured or synthesized molecule built up from branched units called monomers
a polymer in which arrangements of atoms on branches connect to a central backbone of carbon atoms
a spherical, highly branched polymer molecule
a star-shaped synthetic molecule that can be as small as three or four nanometers in diameter, about the size of a single molecule of hemoglobin in a red blood cell
a synthetic polymer with a tree-like branching structure.
A dendrimer is a tree-like highly branched polymer molecule (Greek dendra = tree). Dendrimers are synthesized from monomers with new branches added in discrete steps ("generation") to form a tree-like architecture. A high level of synthetic control is achieved through step-wise reactions and purifications at each step to control the size, architecture, functionality and monodispersity. Several different kinds of dendrimers have been synthesized utilizing different monomers and some are commercially available. This picture shows a "3rd generation" polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer. Dendrimers are of particular interest for cancer applications because of their defined and reproducible size, but more importantly, because it is easy to attach a variety of other molecules to the surface of a dendrimer. Such molecules could include tumor-targeting agents (including but not restricted to monoclonal antibodies), imaging contrast agents to pinpoint tumors, drug molecules for delivery to a tumor, and reporter molecules that might detect if an anticancer drug is working.
Dendrimers are fully synthetic macromolecules comprised of perfectly branched repeat units in layers emanating radially from a point-like core. The name comes from the Greek "δενδÏον"/dendron, meaning "tree," because their graphical representations resemble the branches of a tree. The first dendrimers were described by Vögtle in 1978"Cascade"- and "Nonskid-Chain-like" Syntheses of Molecular Cavity Topologies Egon Buhleier, Winfried Wehner, Fritz Vögtle Synthesis 1978; 1978: 155-158 , by Denkewalter and coworkers at Allied Corporation as polylysine dendrimers in 1981 Patent 4,289,872 (published 1981, filed 1979) and 4,410,688 (published 1983, filed 1981) , by Tomalia at Dow Chemical in 1983Dow patent is 4,507,466 (published 1985, filed 1983) and in 1985A New Class of Polymers: Starburst-Dendritic Macromolecules D.
