However, much about this nanoscale process has remained veiled by the limits of current microscopy. Optical approaches cannot resolve objects below certain wavelength limits,
which at less than 200 nanometers (nm) in size fall below the wavelength limit of what is observable using visible light.
The researchers, led by Elena Batrakova, an associate professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy's Center for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery,
"said Alexander Kabanov, director of the nanotechnology center.""We will continue our translational efforts at CNDD,
#Platelet-Mimicking Nanoparticles Could Effectively Deliver Drugs to Targeted Sites Nanoparticles disguised as human platelets could greatly enhance the healing power of drug treatments for cardiovascular disease and systemic bacterial infections.
These platelet-mimicking nanoparticles, developed by engineers at the University of California, San diego, are capable of delivering drugs to targeted sites in the body--particularly injured blood vessels,
led by nanoengineers at the UC San diego Jacobs School of engineering, was published online Sept. 16 in Nature.""This work addresses a major challenge in the field of nanomedicine:
targeted drug delivery with nanoparticles, "said Liangfang Zhang, a nanoengineering professor at UC San diego and the senior author of the study."
"Because of their targeting ability, platelet-mimicking nanoparticles can directly provide a much higher dose of medication specifically to diseased areas without saturating the entire body with drugs."
"The study is an excellent example of using engineering principles and technology to achieve"precision medicine,
"said Shu Chien, a professor of bioengineering and medicine, director of the Institute of Engineering in Medicine at UC San diego,
The ins and outs of the platelet copycats On the outside, platelet-mimicking nanoparticles are cloaked with human platelet membranes,
which enable the nanoparticles to circulate throughout the bloodstream without being attacked by the immune system. The platelet membrane coating has another beneficial feature:
and certain pathogens such as MRSA bacteria, allowing the nanoparticles to deliver and release their drug payloads specifically to these sites in the body.
Enclosed within the platelet membranes are made nanoparticle cores of a biodegradable polymer that can be metabolized safely by the body.
The nanoparticles can be packed with many small drug molecules that diffuse out of the polymer core and through the platelet membrane onto their targets.
To make the platelet-membrane-coated nanoparticles, engineers first separated platelets from whole blood samples using a centrifuge.
the platelet membranes were broken up into much smaller pieces and fused to the surface of nanoparticle cores.
The resulting platelet-membrane-coated nanoparticles are approximately 100 nanometers in diameter, which is one thousand times thinner than an average sheet of paper.
This cloaking technology is based on the strategy that Zhang's research group had developed to cloak nanoparticles in red blood cell membranes.
The researchers previously demonstrated that nanoparticles disguised as red blood cells are capable of removing dangerous pore-forming toxins produced by MRSA, poisonous snake bites and bee stings from the bloodstream.
Platelet copycats at work In one part of this study, researchers packed platelet-mimicking nanoparticles with docetaxel,
Researchers observed that the docetaxel-containing nanoparticles selectively collected onto the damaged sites of arteries
platelet-mimicking nanoparticles can also greatly minimize bacterial infections that have entered the bloodstream and spread to various organs in the body.
Researchers injected nanoparticles containing just one-sixth the clinical dose of the antibiotic vancomycin into one of group of mice systemically infected with MRSA bacteria.
"Our platelet-mimicking nanoparticles can increase the therapeutic efficacy of antibiotics because they can focus treatment on the bacteria locally without spreading drugs to healthy tissues
"We hope to develop platelet-mimicking nanoparticles into new treatments for systemic bacterial infections and cardiovascular disease
#Coated Silica Nanoparticles Could be used for Restorative Treatment of Sensitive Teeth Researchers at the University of Birmingham have shown how the development of coated silica nanoparticles could be used in restorative treatment of sensitive teeth
Previous attempts have used compounds of calcium fluoride, combinations of carbonate-hydroxypatite nanocrystals and bioactive glass, but all have seen limited success as they are liable to aggregate on delivery to the tubules.
"These silica particles are available in a range of sizes, from nanometre to sub-micron,
an explosion in research in micro and nanotechnologies has led to the development of a variety of techniques that allows control of matter at microscopic levels never before seen,
and Noel Elman, with the Massachusetts institute of technology Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies o
#Physicists Induce Stable Ferroelectricity in Strontium Titanate Nanosheets A team of physicists has defied conventional wisdom by inducing stable ferroelectricity in a sheet of strontium titanate only a few nanometers thick.
The discovery could forge pathways to find new materials for nanotechnology devices, said Alexei Gruverman,
a University of Nebraska-Lincoln physics and astronomy professor who worked on the research. It also contradicts the expected behavior of ferroelectric materials,
Gruverman and his team at UNL used piezoresponse force microscopy, a nanoscale testing technique that Gruverman pioneered,
However, the materialstendency to lose ferroelectric stability as they become thinner has limited their usefulness in nanoelectronics.
Many scientists have been investigating techniques to create ferroelectric materials that can still be useful at nanometer scale dimensions.
and Gruverman is a pioneer in nanoscale studies of ferroelectric materials. A second UNL group involved in these studies,
#Nanopore Method Improves Accuracy of DNA Sequencing EPFL scientists have developed a method that improves the accuracy of DNA sequencing up to a thousand times.
which uses nanopores to read individual nucleotides, paves the way for better-and cheaper-DNA sequencing.
However,"nanopore sequencing"is prone to high inaccuracy because DNA usually passes through very fast. EPFL scientists have discovered now a viscous liquid that slows down the process up to a thousand times,
The breakthrough is published in Nature Nanotechnology. Reading too fast DNA is a long molecule made up of four repeating different building-blocks.
In nanopore sequencing, DNA passes through a tiny pore in a membrane, much like a thread goes through a needle.
The team then created a nanopore on membrane, almost 3 nm wide. The next step was to dissolve DNA in a thick liquid that contained charged ions and
Finally, the team tested their system by passing known nucleotides, dissolved in the liquid, through the nanopore multiple times.
which is promising for sequencing with solid-state nanopores, "says Jiandong Feng. The scientists also predict that using high-end electronics
By combining ionic liquids with nanopores on molybdenum disulfide thin films, they hope to create a cheaper DNA sequencing platform with a better output.
-and nanopore technology can deliver
#Researchers Develop Stretchable, Transparent Conductor with Gold Nanomesh Researchers have discovered a new stretchable, transparent conductor that can be folded
or stretched and released, resulting in a large curvature or a significant strain, at least 10,000 times without showing signs of fatigue.
The work, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pairs gold nanomesh with a stretchable substrate made with polydimethylsiloxane
The substrate is stretched before the gold nanomesh is placed on it-a process known as"prestretching "-and the material showed no sign of fatigue
The gold nanomesh also proved conducive to cell growth, indicating it is a good material for implantable medical devices.
"We weaken the constraint of the substrate by making the interface between the Au (gold) nanomesh and PDMS slippery,
and expect the Au nanomesh to achieve superstretchability and high fatigue resistance, "they wrote in the paper."
"the Au nanomesh does not exhibit strain fatigue when it is stretched to 50 percent for 10,000 cycles."
that, along with the fact that the stretchability of gold nanomesh on a slippery substrate resembles the bioenvironment of tissue
or organ surfaces, suggest the nanomesh"might be implanted in the body as a pacemaker electrode,
using gold nanomesh, in a paper published in Nature Communications in January 2014. This work expands on that,
a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and a member of UCLA California Nanosystems Institute, is published Sept. 21 in the online edition of the journal Nature Materials.
#New Nanosheet-Based Photonic crystal Changes Color in Response to Moisture LMU chemists have developed a photonic crystal from ultrathin nanosheets
which are extremely sensitive to moisture. hese photonic nanostructures change color in response to variations in local humidity.
It is this extreme sensitivity to local moisture that makes the nanostructure so interesting for use in ouchlessscreens. ontactless control is a particularly attractive option for next-generation positioning interfaces such as ticket machines or cash dispensers,
Unparalleled sensitivity and response time Photonic crystals are arranged periodically nanostructures which have the ability to reflect, guide and confine light.
Lotsch and her team have developed now photonic crystals based on nanosheets of phosphatoantimonic acid. The new nanomaterial is extremely moisture sensitive and at the same time chemically stable,
transparent and easy to fabricate into nanosheets. In comparison with other vapor sensors based on nanosheets, the new photonic architecture displays markedly increased response times, higher sensitivity and long-term stability. his unique combination of properties enables it to track
and color-code finger movements in real time, says Pirmin Ganter, who also works in Bettina Lotsch group.
In addition, the new system is stable on exposure to air, and therefore functions not just under controlled conditions in the laboratory but also in the constantly varying environment of the real world.
which can be used to channel molecules into specific positions to create new nanostructures and materials.
resulting in amphiphilic building blocks in the form of a permanent nanostructure. The research is an example of how liquid crystal research is taking us from the nano to macro world,
#Self-Assembled DNA NANOSTRUCTURES Could Be used as Smart Drug-Delivery Vehicles Researchers from Aalto University have published an article in the recent Trends in Biotechnology journal.
The article discusses how DNA molecules can be assembled into tailored and complex nanostructures, and further, how these structures can find uses in therapeutics and bionanotechnological applications.
In the review article, the researchers outline the superior properties of DNA NANOSTRUCTURES, and how these features enable the development of efficient biological DNA-nanomachines.
Moreover, these DNA NANOSTRUCTURES provide new applications in molecular medicine, such as novel approaches in tackling cancer.
Tailored DNA structures could find targeted cells and release their molecular payload (drugs or antibodies) selectively into these cells."
and simulate DNA NANOSTRUCTURES are extremely powerful and user friendly, and thus, researchers can easily construct their own DNA-objects for various uses.
The big boom in the field of structural DNA NANOTECHNOLOGY happened in 2006, when Paul Rothemund introduced a technique dubbed'DNA origami'.
Versatile DNA NANOSTRUCTURES The most important feature of a DNA-based nanostructure is its modularity. DNA structures can be fabricated with nanometer-precision,
and most importantly, other molecules such as RNA, proteins, peptides and drugs can be anchored to them with the same resolution.
the researchers from Aalto University and University of Jyväskylä have shown recently how DNA origamis can be used in efficient fabrication of custom-shaped metal nanoparticles that could be used in various fields of material sciences.
since programmed DNA-nanorobots could detect various agents from the blood stream, and immediately start the battle against disease.
Groundbreaking approach to create nanomaterials The research group lead by Professor Mauri Kostiainen works extensively with DNA NANOSTRUCTURES,
The researchers have coated DNA NANOSTRUCTURES with virus capsid proteins in order to significantly improve their transport to human cells;
In addition, the group has designed a modular DNA-based enzymatic nanoreactor that can be exploited in diagnostics at the molecular scale level v
Having shown the technology works-Professor Lithgow believes other labs working on diverse processes in human cell biology will mimic these experiments to determine how their chosen nanomachines operate.
antenna-rectifier diodes that convert light into DC current, have been built using multiwall carbon nanotubes with integrated nanoscale rectifiers.
When the light waves strike the nanotube antennas, an oscillating charge is created that travels through the rectifier devices.
Georgia Tech Using nanometer scale components, researchers have demonstrated the first optical rectenna, a device that combines the functions of an antenna and a rectifier diode to convert light directly into DC current.
-Prof Baratunde Cola, Georgia Tech The team employed nanoscale fabrication techniques alongside metallic multiwall carbon nanotubes to build devices that utilized light's wave nature rather than its particle nature.
Atomic layer chemical vapour deposition was used to in sulate the nanotubes with a coating of aluminum oxide.
Optically transparent thin calcium layers were deposited then using physical vapor deposition over the nanotube forest.
which is sufficient for ejecting electrons out of the carbon nanotube antennas upon the absorption of visible light Light in the form of oscillating waves interacts with nanotubes after going through the calcium-aluminum electrode.
The nanotube tips have metal-insulator-metal junctions that work as rectifiers. These rectifiers switch on and off at time intervals in the femtosecond range.
that usually means a nanoscale antenna coupled to a metal-insulator-metal diode. The closer you can get the antenna to the diode
#Quantity, Dimensions of Carbon black Nanoparticles Crucial for Lithium-Ion Battery Function A Stanford undergraduate has contributed to a discovery that confounds the conventional wisdom in lithium-ion battery design,
Prior to the team's research, the quantity and dimensions of the carbon black nanoparticles weren't considered particularly crucial to a battery's function."
Among other things, that required the evaluation of nanometer scale images of the battery materials obtained through Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's synchrotron
#Nanostructure Changes Colour When Finger Comes Near Touchscreens suffer from mechanical wear over time and are a transmission path for bacteria
scientists at Stuttgart Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and LMU Munich have developed now nanostructures that change their electrical and even their optical properties as soon as a finger comes anywhere near them.
Scientists of the Nanochemistry group led by Bettina Lotsch at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart
A sandwich nanomaterial structure exposed to moisture also changes its colour However the scientists aren interested
Taking phosphatoantimonate nanosheets as their basis the Stuttgart scientists then developed a photonic nanostructure which reacts to the moisture by changing colour. f this was built into a monitor,
the users would then receive visible feedback to their finger motionexplained Katalin Szendrei, also a doctoral student in Bettina Lotsch group.
To this end, the scientists created a multilayer sandwich material with alternating layers of ultrathin phosphatoantimonate nanosheets and silicon dioxide (Sio2) or titanium dioxide nanoparticles (Tio2.
But scientists had observed never before such a large colour change as they now have in the lab in Stuttgart. he colour of the nanostructure turns from blue to red
The sandwich structure consisting of phosphatoantimonate nanosheets and oxide nanoparticles is highly stable from a chemical perspective
and responds selectively to water vapour. A layer protecting against chemical influences has to let moisture through The scientists can imagine their materials being used in much more than just future generations of smartphones, tablets or notebooks. ltimately,
It important, for example, that the nanostructures can be produced economically. To minimize wear, the structures still need to be coated with a protective layer
#Nanoscale DNA Machine Could Detect HIV Diagnostic Antibodies New research may revolutionize the slow, cumbersome and expensive process of detecting the antibodies that can help with the diagnosis of infectious and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and HIV.
An international team of researchers have designed and synthetized a nanometer scale DNA"machine "whose customized modifications enable it to recognize a specific target antibody.
"This DNA nanomachine can be modified in fact custom so that it can detect a huge range of antibodies,
#Freiburg Researchers Measure Sensitive, Nanoscale Structures Using Photonic Force Microscope Freiburg researchers have developed a method for measuring soft,
In the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the Freiburg physicist Prof. Dr. Alexander Rohrbach and his former Phd candidate Dr..Lars Friedrich have presented an ultra-soft surface scanning method based on an optical trap and optical forces.
which is established well in nanotechnology. An AFM uses a small spring arm-a needle with an ultra-thin tip-to scan a surface.
The sphere is less than 200 nanometers in diameter, making it 500 times thinner than a human hair.
SUNY Polytechnic institute Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (SUNY Poly CNSE) today announced a team of SUNY Poly CNSE researchers,
After hearing about SUNY Poly CNSE Professor and Head of the Nanobioscience Constellation Dr. Jim Castracane research related to novel sensors, the Jamboxx creators connected with Dr. Castracane who found that a Self
#Researchers Enhance Efficiency of Ultrathin CIGSE Solar cells Using Nanoparticles Now, scientists at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin have produced high quality ultrathin CIGSE layers
and increased their efficiency by an array of tiny nanoparticles between the back contact and the active layer.
Nanoparticles with sizes the order of a wavelength interact with light in specific ways. A young investigator group at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, led by Professor Martina Schmid,
is inquiring how to use arrangements of such nanoparticles to improve solar cells and other optoelectronic devices.
me more than one year to be able to produce ultrathin layers of only 0. 46 micrometer or 460 nanometers
He then started to enquire how to implement nanoparticles between different layers of the solar cell.
They proposed to produce arrays of dielectric nanoparticles by nanoimprinting technologies. No big effect by nanoparticles on topin a first step, the colleagues in Amsterdam implemented a pattern of dielectric Tio2-nanoparticles on top of Yin ultrathin solar cells;
the idea was that they would act as light traps and increase absorption in the CIGSE layer.
a nanoparticle array not on top but at the back contact of the cell! Nanoparticles at the back contact:
effiency increases to 12.3%The colleagues from Amsterdam produced an array of Sio2 nanoparticles, directly on the Molybdenum substrate
which corresponds to the back contact of the solar cell. On top of this structured substrate the ultrathin CIGSE layer was grown by Yin,
With additional anti-reflective nanoparticles at the front efficiencies raised even to 13.1%.%Light trapping and prevention of charge carrier losshis leads to efficient light trapping
Further studies indicate that the nanoarray of dielectric Sio2 nanoparticles at the back side could also increase efficiency by reducing chances for charge carrier recombination. his work is just a start,
thus increasing efficiencies by making use of optical and electrical benefits of the nanoparticles, Martina Schmid says M
#Archaeal Gas Vesicle Nanoparticles Hold Potential to Develop Powerful Malaria Vaccine In a recent breakthrough to combat malaria,
when displayed on novel nanoparticles. This approach has the potential to prevent the parasite from multiplying in the human host
Shiladitya Dassarma's laboratory at the University of Maryland School of medicine, Baltimore, USA, who has developed Archaeal gas vesicle nanoparticles (GVNPS.
The small unique segment of enolase was fused genetically to a nanoparticle protein and this conjugated system was used to vaccinate mice.
or red when encountering DNA or RNA, respectively, with emission maximums at 525 nanometers and 650 nanometers.
Engineers are presently trying to develop nanomaterial-based memory chips that perform better than their silicon counterparts to be used in low energy data centers and gadgets with a longer battery life.
#Nanofiber Hydrogel Infused with Snake Venom May Quickly Stop Bleeding A nanofiber hydrogel infused with snake venom may be the best material to stop bleeding quickly, according to Rice university scientists.
The Rice researchers combined batroxobin with their synthetic, self-assembling nanofibers, which can be loaded into a syringe
The fibers might be tens of nanometers in diameter and a hundred nanometers long, far smaller than a red blood cell.
Its pages contain nanoparticles of silver or copper, which kill bacteria in the water as it passes through.
or copper ions-depending on the nanoparticles used-as they percolate through the page.""Ions come off the surface of the nanoparticles,
and those are absorbed by the microbes, "Dr Dankovich explained. According to her tests, one page can clean up to 100 litres of water.
Its pages contain nanoparticles of silver or copper, which kill bacteria in the water as it passes through.
or copper ions-depending on the nanoparticles used-as they percolate through the page.""Ions come off the surface of the nanoparticles,
and those are absorbed by the microbes, "Dr Dankovich explained. According to her tests, one page can clean up to 100 litres of water.
#Atomic view of microtubules Microtubules, hollow fibers of tubulin protein only a few nanometers in diameter, form the cytoskeletons of living cells
#Detecting HIV diagnostic antibodies with DNA nanomachines New research may revolutionize the slow, cumbersome and expensive process of detecting the antibodies that can help with the diagnosis of infectious and autoimmune diseases.
An international team of researchers have designed and synthetized a nanometer scale DNA"machine "whose customized modifications enable it to recognize a specific target antibody.
"This DNA nanomachine can be modified in fact custom so that it can detect a huge range of antibodies,
and used a nanoscale vehicle made of DNA to deliver a CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool into cells in both cell culture and an animal model.
To examine just how some inhaled anesthetic drugs affect viral and bacterial infections, Krishnan Chakravarthy, M d.,Ph d.,a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Institute of Nanobiotechnology and a resident physician in the department of anesthesiology and critical
#Lab-on-a-chip Cuts Costs of Sophisticated Lab Tests Engineers at Rutgers University have designed a three-inch long,
#New Nanoparticles Clean the Environment, Drinking water Nanoparticles are between 1 and 100 nanometers in size.
With the help of nanoparticles and UV LIGHT removal of these toxins could be less expensive and time-consuming than current methods.
How it works The nanoparticles are prepared from molecules (synthetic macromolecules commonly called plastics) that have a protective,
When this happens on a nanoparticle, its protecting corona is removed and only the hydrophobic core remains.
with more than 95 percent of the nanoparticles removed from the water. When the nanoparticle loses its protective layer,
polymers are released into the water. While the polymer released (polyethylene glycol) is recognized as safe and used in various food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics products,
Bertrand nanoparticles have compared benefits with current purification processes. Some current techniques rely on chemical degradation of pollutants,
the nanoparticles float passively in the fluid until we precipitate them. Current water purification infrastructures have UV irradiation systems optimized to kill bacteria,
this irradiation is more than sufficient to precipitate our nanoparticles, Bertrand explained. Bertrand told Laboutlook that one fundamental observation from this work is that small molecules passively absorb on the surface of the nanoparticle,
and that the amounts absorbed correlate with the surface-to-volume ratio, meaning more absorption occurs on small nanoparticles. his is an important consideration for drug delivery
because it could explain what happens with nanoparticles with high drug encapsulation and extensive burst release.
Harnessing nanoparticles in Africa Theresa Dankovich uses nanotechnology to purify drinking water in Africa. By filtering water through paper embedded with silver or copper nanoparticles,
99.9 percent water purity is achievable. She calls it he Drinkable Book. Silver nanoparticles eliminate a wide variety of microorganisms,
including bacteria and some viruses . While some silver and copper will seep from the nanoparticle-coated paper,
the amount is said minimal, Dankovich, and is well below limits for metals put in place by the Environmental protection agency and World health organization.
Dankovich nonprofit company page Drinking Paper, works together with the nonprofit WATERISLIFE to produce a book of this nanoparticle-embedded paper,
which is put in a special holding device that water is filtered then through. One page can filter 26 gallons of drinking water;
Drug delivery and beyond The power of nanoparticles is also being harnessed to fight life-threatening lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis.
Researchers at Johns hopkins university School of medicine, Johns hopkins university Department of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering and Federal University of Rio de janeiro in Brazil conducted a proof-of-concept study that found DNA-loaded nanoparticles could successfully pass through the hard-to-breach mucus barrier
Other attempts to penetrate the barrier with nanoparticles were unsuccessful because they possessed a positive charge that caused them to be tickyand adhere to the negatively charged mucus covering the airways.
To circumvent this problem the team developed a simple method to densely coat the nanoparticles with a nonsticky polymer called PEG,
or drugs inside a man-made biodegradable nanoparticle rapperthat patients inhale could penetrate the mucus barrier
a biomedical engineer and faculty member at the Center for Nanomedicine at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins. Researchers funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering meanwhile,
stopped brain cancer in rats by delivering gene therapy through nanoparticles. The nanoparticles deliver genes for an enzyme that converts a prodrug called ganciclovir into a glioma cell killer.
There is no reliable treatment for glioma which has a 5-year survival rate of 12 percent.
Although their nanoparticle technology is solid, some challenges remain before it can be implemented in an industrial application.
With this knowledge in hand, researchers have opened a new world for designer proteins and investigations into nanotechnology
#Pseudo-platelet Drug Delivery System Targets Cancer Researchers are using patients own platelet membranes to coat drugs and use as nanovehicles for anticancer treatments.
comparted to about six hours for nanoscale vehicles without the coating. his combination of features means that the drugs can
which are placed then in a solution with a nanoscale gel containing the anticancer drug doxorubicin (Dox).
and creates nanoscale spheres that consist of platelet membranes with Dox-gel cores. The surface of the spheres are coated then with the anticancer drug TRAIL,
and circulating tumor cells than using the drugs in a nanogel delivery system without the platelet membrane. e like to do additional preclinical testing on this technique,
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