Hairy spheres nanoantibiotics.png (IMAGE) Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Caption Nanoantibiotics developed by the Liang lab at TTUHSC are tiny “hairy” spheres comprised of polymer brushes (blue) covalently grafted atop silica nanoparticles (black). Once they land on bacterial membranes (headgroups in green and white; hydrocarbon tails in golden), the bundled polymer brushes act as daggers to pierce the bacterial membranes. Credit TTUHSC Usage Restrictions None License Original content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.