Previous attempts to deliver nanoparticles into the cytoplasm have resulted in cell death or utilised "chaperone" molecules, which are not effective at carrying all nanoparticles or entering all cells.

Consequently the researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) may have made a significant advance in the field of drug delivery using nanoparticles.

Francesco Stellacci, co-leader of the work, said: "We've created the first fully synthetic material that can pass through a cell membrane without rupturing it, and we've found that order on the nanometer scale is necessary to provide this property."

Upon recognising a foreign object cell membranes normally take it into a cell in a package before excreting it a later time. This means the nanoparticle never has the opportunity to deliver its cargo into the cytoplasm from where it could affect the cells workings.

This inability to enter a cell could hold back the progress of nanoparticle drug delivery and consequently researchers have been searching for ways around the problem.

The research at MIT grew from an initial discovery that striped nanoparticles "interacted with proteins in an interesting way". From this the team went on to test how the nanoparticles interacted with cell membranes.

Although it is not currently clear exactly what enables penetration without cell death the researchers did note the similarity between the properties of the coated nanoparticles and the cell membrane.

Further details may be discovered when researchers begin using the discovery to learn more about the workings of biologically derived cell penetrating materials.

This is one of the next steps for the team, which could give a greater understanding of the workings of cell membranes and consequently facilitate further advancements in drug delivery.