Mesoporous silica nanoparticles are highly promising drug carriers due to their inherent biodegradability, low toxicity, high surface area and pore volumes. Furthermore, different imaging modalities can be grafted onto the particles enabling parallel imaging with clinically relevant imaging techniques, including MRI and PET. Our current research in this are concentrate on the

• delivery of drugs in a target cell-specific fashion through relevant functionalizations of imagable mesoporous silica particles,
  
  
• understanding the interplay between the surface chemical properties of the particles and the interaction with the biological system, especially protein adsorption,
  
  
• understanding the influence of particle size and shape on targetability and biodistribution,
  
  
• optimizing particle characteristics for different administration routes, and
  
  
• using porous nanoparticles as static depots for drugs in vivo.