Safe and effective administration of therapeutics is a major challenge in today’s healthcare. The challenge is especially prominent for biologics which are increasingly dominating the therapeutic landscape. Current methods of drug delivery have several limitations including the use of needle-based injections in case of biologics and lack of targeting in case of small molecules. Mitragotri’s laboratory is developing novel methods to directly address these challenges. They have developed transdermal and oral delivery methods that offer a painless and needle-free alternative to injection-based methods for delivering drugs such as insulin and vaccines. Mitragotri’s laboratory has also developed novel strategies for targeted drug delivery using nanoparticle-based systems. Nanoparticles are widely explored to improve the therapeutic outcome of small molecules. However, poor vascular circulation, limited targeting and the inability to negotiate biological barriers have prevented the overwhelming majority of nanoparticles from entering the clinic. Mother Nature has provided us with many examples of successful ¥particles’ of her own in the form of viruses, bacteria and circulatory cells. They have developed biologically-inspired and bio-mimetic nanoparticle systems to target drugs to the diseased site. Mitragorti will provide an overview of these systems with respect to their principles and capabilities.