yielding insights into treatment for degenerative neurological conditions or restoring nerve connections after injury. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Wisconsin-Madison created the microtube platform to study neuron growth.
They posit that the microtubes could one day be implanted like stents to promote neuron regrowth at injury sites
or to treat disease.""This is a powerful three-dimensional platform for neuron culture, "said Xiuling Li,
"There are a lot of diseases that are very difficult to figure out the mechanisms of in the body,
-and time is crucial for restoring severed connections in the case of spinal cord injury or limb reattachment.
""Getting to the clinic will take a long time, but that is what keeps us motivated, "Li said d
#What exactly is Google's'cancer nanodetector'?'Last week US tech giants Google made a splash in the media announcing plans to develop new'disease-detecting magnetic nanoparticles'.
'This was welcomed almost universally after all trying to detect diseases earlier is something that's a focus of many research organisations including ours.
But when we tried to dig deeper into the detail behind the story things remained pretty light on actual context and detail.
and expert advisor to Cancer Research UK to get his take on the announcement. The technical definition is that a nanoparticle is an object that is less than 100 nanometres wide along one of its edges Professor Graham told us.
And more immediately they're already used in medical detectors for example the pregnancy tests you buy over-the-counter work use gold nanoparticles attached to antibodies.
Why are they good for medical detection? Nanoparticles have an extremely high surface area in relation to their volume.
One of the top people in this field as far as cancer goes is called a guy Sanjiv Gambhir at Stanford university in the US.
The key thing to emphasise is that there's so much research that needs to be done before we can say'this is a disease-specific diagnostic'says Graham.
when we use the word'diagnose'its doctors not instruments that actually diagnose patients. An instrument can only ever highlight a set of conditions to a clinician it's always going to be the doctor who makes a call as to
whether someone has a disease. There is of course a wider issue here. What utility does the information you're producing actually have?
If I'm wearing a gadget that suddenly tells me I have a form of brain cancer that's incurable
what practical use is that to me? How has helped that my life? This is something Google really seem to have ducked in their announcement.
Are there any other applications of nanotechnology in the field of cancer? Of course it's not all about diagnostics.
There are other ways nanotechnology is being explored by cancer researchers. The other big focus of nanotech in cancer is to deliver treatments says Graham.
This is a field that's in its infancy lots of basic research in animals some of it promising
and neck cancers and lung cancer it will be incredibly exciting to see what this approach yields.
Professor Graham's'take-home'message is that it's a mistake to see Google as the only organisation focusing on nanotechnology to detect disease it's a vibrant active field with incredible potential but still in its early days.
#Cancer-killing nanodaisies NC State researchers have developed a potential new weapon in the fight against cancer:
which researchers attach the cancer-killing drug camptothecin (CPT) like bunches of grapes on a vine.
The result is that the drugs launch an attack on cancer that's more closely#coordinated
So far in vivo testing in mice has shown that this approach produces significant accumulation of drugs in tumor sites instead of healthy organs.
Gu noted that in vitro testing had demonstrated also the potential of nanodaisies to effectively target different kinds of cancer.
It's shown a broad killing effect for a variety of cancer cell lines including leukemia breast
Gu has led other research that#has yielded a bio-inspired cocoon that tricks cells into consuming anticancer drugs and an injectable nanonetwork that controls blood sugar levels in diabetics.
He is supported by faculty staff and Ph d. students in the Joint Department of Biomedical engineering a partnership between NC State and UNC-Chapel hill that tackles urgent biomedical problems.
The next step for nanodaisies is preclinical testing to determine whether they might be ready to fight cancer in humans.
For Gu that prospect has personal significance: His father was diagnosed with cancer when Gu was still in the womb.
When friends and family came to console Gu's mother she told#them that the baby she was carrying might#one day help to treat cancer.
I don't want to say it's a mission but it is a passion that drives
When I moved into the cancer treatments with nanotechnology that's when my mum became really excited about my work.
The wires could also be applied in the biomedical field to maximize heat production in hyperthermia treatment of cancer.
-or even nanorobots could someday perform medical tasks in the human body. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have taken now a first step towards this goal.
so that it can navigate through the human body enabling the crew to perform surgery in the brain.
and transporting a surgical team to a disease site will certainly remain fiction. Nevertheless tiny submarines that could navigate through the body could be of great benefit:
and Molecular Systems Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart then doctors will in the foreseeable future call upon micro
As in the case of their plastic micro-scallop the researchers also envision medical applications for their nanosubmarine.
#An unlikely use for diamonds Tiny diamonds are providing scientists with new possibilities for accurate measurements of processes inside living cells with potential to improve drug delivery and cancer therapeutics.
Published in Nature Nanotechnology researchers from Cardiff University have unveiled a new method for viewing nanodiamonds inside human living cells for purposes of biomedical research.
There is a growing consensus among scientists that nanodiamonds are one of the best inorganic material alternatives for use in biomedical research, because of their compatibility with human cells,
Danny Porath, the Etta and Paul Schankerman Professor in Molecular Biomedicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reports reproducible and quantitative measurements of electricity flow through long molecules made of four
#New nanodevice to improve cancer treatment monitoring In less than a minute, a miniature device developed at the University of Montreal can measure a patient's blood for methotrexate, a commonly used but potentially toxic cancer drug.
Just as accurate and ten times less expensive than equipment currently used in hospitals, this nanoscale device has an optical system that can rapidly gauge the optimal dose of methotrexate a patient needs,
Methotrexate has been used for many years to treat certain cancers among other diseases, because of its ability to block the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR.
This enzyme is active in the synthesis of DNA precursors and thus promotes the proliferation of cancer cells."
Until now, monitoring has been done in hospitals with a device using fluorescent bioassays to measure light polarization produced by a drug sample."
and Jean-François Masson, an expert in biomedical instrument design, investigated how to simplify the measurement of methotrexate concentration in patients.
The accuracy of the measurements taken by the new device were compared with those produced by equipment used at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal."
"In the near future, we can foresee the device in doctors'offices or even at the bedside,
or are perturbed by injury or disease. The new device uses graphene a recently discovered form of carbon on a flexible plastic backing that conforms to the shape of tissue.
and treat brain injury and disease. Explore further: See-through sensors open new window into the brain More information:
Hersam a professor of materials science engineering chemistry and medicine at Northwestern University has developed a method to separate nanomaterials by size
That allows us to integrate electronics on flexible substrates like clothing shoes and wrist bands for real time monitoring of biomedical diagnostics and athletic performance.
#See-through one-atom-thick carbon electrodes powerful tool to study brain disorders Researchers from the Perelman School of medicine and School of engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have used graphene
Pinning down the details of how individual neural circuits operate in epilepsy and other neurological disorders requires real-time observation of their locations firing patterns
The Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics (CNT) under the leadership of senior author Brian Litt Phd has solved this problem with the development of a completely transparent graphene microelectrode that allows for simultaneous optical imaging
Because of graphene's nonmagnetic and anti-corrosive properties these probes can also be a very promising technology to increase the longevity of neural implants.
Graphene's nonmagnetic characteristics also allow for safe artifact-free MRI reading unlike metallic implants. Kuzum emphasizes that the transparent graphene microelectrode technology was achieved through an interdisciplinary effort of CNT and the departments of Neuroscience Pediatrics and Materials science at Penn and the division of Neurology at CHOP.
Ertugrul Cubukcu's lab at Materials science and engineering Department helped with the graphene processing technology used in fabricating flexible transparent neural electrodes as well as performing optical and materials characterization in collaboration with Euijae Shim and Jason Reed.
#Engineers develop prototype of low-cost disposable lung infection detector Imagine a low-cost, disposable breath analysis device that a person with cystic fibrosis could use at home
along with a smartphone to immediately detect a lung infection, much like the device police use to gauge a driver's blood alcohol level.
Timely knowledge of a lung infection would let people with CF or other inflammatory respiratory conditions seek immediate treatment
and thereby prevent life-shortening permanent damage to their already vulnerable airways. Thanks to a nearly $1. 3 million grant from the National Science Foundation
Materials scientist Regina Ragan and electrical engineer Filippo Capolino have created a nano-optical sensor that can detect trace levels of infection in a small sample of breath.
In addition to diagnosing medical conditions, the device could be modified to monitor environmental conditions for instance, identifying harmful airborne agents produced through automotive or chemical industry practices.
disease detection and more. We built tiny foundries made of stiff DNA to fabricate metal nanoparticles in exact three-dimensional shapes that we digitally planned
These coatings can also help scientists develop highly sensitive multiplex methods of detecting early-stage cancers
and genetic diseases by combining the chemical specificity of the DNA with the signal readout of the metal.
This capability should open up entirely new strategies for fields ranging from computer miniaturization to energy and pathogen detection n
The research which has been published in the journal Small drew on the medical expertise of Dr Neil Smyth and Dr Michael Ardern-Jones as well as contributions from physicist Professor Otto Muskens.
Our interest is focused now on incorporating these findings into the design of new nanotechnological drugs for transdermal therapy says Dr Kanaras.
#Drug-infused nanoparticle is right for sore eyes For the millions of sufferers of dry eye syndrome their only recourse to easing the painful condition is to use drug-laced eye drops three times a day.
Now researchers from the University of Waterloo have developed a topical solution containing nanoparticles that will combat dry eye syndrome with only one application a week.
Dry eye syndrome is a more common ailment for people over the age of 50
Currently patients must frequently apply the medicine three times a day because of the eye's ability to self-cleanse a process that washes away 95 per cent of the drug.
The research team is now focusing on preparing the nanoparticle eye drops for clinical trials with the hope that this nanoparticle therapy could reach the shelves of drugstores within five years.
a field that uses biology to develop new tools for science, technology and medicine. The new study, published in print today in the journal Nano Letters,
and to aid our understanding of a range of diseases, "explained Professor Evans. Aside from biological applications,
or to create artificial noses for the early detection of disease or simply to advise you that the milk in your fridge has gone off."
#Targeted nanoparticles that combine imaging with two different therapies could attack cancer other conditions Nanosystems that are'theranostic'they combine both therapeutic and diagnostic functions present an exciting new opportunity for delivering drugs
to specific cells and identifying sites of disease. Bin Liu of the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research
The natural fluorescence of the polymer assists with diagnosis and monitoring of therapy as it shows where nanoparticles have accumulated.
The ROS generated by light stimulation have a direct'photodynamic'therapeutic activity which destroys the targeted cells.
Thus cancer cells can be subjected to a two-pronged attack from the ROS therapy and the chemotherapy drug that is released within them (see image).
and imaging-guided photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy with triggered drug release through one light switch explains Liu emphasizing the significance of the system.
Crucially the combined therapy had a greater cytotoxic effect than any one therapy alone. The white light used in this work does not penetrate tissue sufficiently for in vivo applications Liu explains
but we are now attempting to use near-infrared laser light to improve the tissue penetration and move toward on-demand cancer therapy.
She also suggests that with a few modifications the system may be suitable for the diagnosis and treatment of other pathological processes including inflammation and HIV infection.
Explore further: Introducing the multitasking nanoparticle More information: Yuan Y. Liu J. & Liu B. Conjugated-polyelectrolyte-based polyprodrug:
which is known to have therapeutic applications in the treatment of many disorders including cancer. Using EGCG IBN researchers have engineered successfully nanocarriers that can deliver drugs
the combination of carrier and drug also dramatically reduced tumor growth compared with the drug alone.
A key challenge in chemotherapy is ensuring that the drugs are delivered only to the tumor
When injected into the body these carriers act like homing missiles traveling through the body to zoom in on the target cells where they will release the cancer-destroying drugs.
Effective therapy would typically require the administration of substantial amounts of drug-encapsulating vessels into the body.
Unfortunately existing carriers are made of materials that have no therapeutic effect and they may even cause side effects if used in large quantities.
To solve this problem IBN has designed a therapeutic nanocarrier for drug delivery using novel compounds derived from EGCG.
and filtered out of the body by the immune system before it reaches the tumor. Micellar nanocomplexes of less than 100 nanometers in dimension are formed from the OEGCG core
and renal clearance while providing for tumor targeting. The research team conducted animal studies to evaluate the performance of IBN's green tea-based protein delivery system.
The study revealed that IBN's green tea nanocomplex loaded with Herceptin reduced tumor growth much more effectively
Using the new nanocarrier twice as much drug accumulated in the cancer cells indicating an improved tumor targeting ability.
and can boost cancer treatment when used together with the protein drug. Unlike conventional therapy our green tea carrier can eradicate more cancer cells
and accumulate significantly less drugs in vital organs where they could cause adverse side effects. This invention could pave the way for a better drug delivery system to fight cancer,
said Dr Motoichi Kurisawa IBN Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader. IBN has filed a patent on their green tea nanocarrier
#Researcher develops optically traceable smart 2-D nanosheet that responds to ph Nanoparticles have the potential to revolutionize the medical industry
so that doctors and researchers can track the particles. Finally they need to perform their function at the right moment ideally in response to a stimulus. The Nanoparticles By design Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science
Using these optical properties to characterize the nanosheets Kim determined that he could approximate ph. Kim envisions biomedical engineers wrapping drugs inside of scrolled nanosheets
so that when the sheet unrolls it releases the medicine. PH responsive nanosheets for example could prove useful for targeting different parts of the human digestive tract
A nanosheet with a heat-sensitive polymer could burn surrounding tumors to destroy them functioning as a kind of super-specific chemotherapy.
By encapsulating a dangerous substance such as a cancer-treating drug into a nanosheet doctors can attack very specific parts of the body.
Like cling wrap new biomaterial can coat tricky burn wounds and block out infection More information:
Smart Composite Nanosheets with Adaptive Optical Properties Jeong-Hwan Kim Murtaza Bohra Vidyadhar Singh Cathal Cassidy and Mukhles Sowwan Applied materials & Interfaces2014.
and particles in the air and enzymes molecules and antibodies in the body that could indicate diabetes cancer and other diseases.
Aydin said this design can also be used in applications for photothermal therapy thermophotovoltaics heat-assisted magnetic recording thermal emission and solar-steam generation.
#'Stealth'nanoparticles could improve cancer vaccines Cancer vaccines have emerged recently as a promising approach for killing tumor cells before they spread.
Now scientists have developed a new way to deliver vaccines that successfully stifled tumor growth when tested in laboratory mice.
And the key they report in the journal ACS Nano is in the vaccine's unique stealthy nanoparticles.
Hiroshi Shiku Naozumi Harada and colleagues explain that most cancer vaccine candidates are designed to flag down immune cells called macrophages and dendritic cells that signal killer T cells to attack tumors.
But recent research has suggested that a subset of macrophages only found deep inside lymph nodes could play a major role in slowing cancer.
But how could one get a vaccine to these special immune cells without first being gobbled up by the macrophages
When molecules for signaling killer T cells were put inside the nanoparticles they hindered tumor growth far better than existing vaccines.
Hitchhiking vaccines boost immunity More information: Nanogel-Based Immunologically Stealth Vaccine Targets Macrophages in the Medulla of Lymph node
and Induces Potent Antitumor Immunity ACS Nano 2014 8 (9) pp 9209#9218. DOI: 10.1021/nn502975r Because existing therapeutic cancer vaccines provide only a limited clinical benefit a different vaccination strategy is necessary to improve vaccine efficacy.
We developed a nanoparticulate cancer vaccine by encapsulating a synthetic long peptide antigen within an immunologically inert nanoparticulate hydrogel (nanogel) of cholesteryl pullulan (CHP.
After subcutaneous injection to mice the nanogel-based vaccine was transported efficiently to the draining lymph node and was engulfed preferentially by medullary macrophages
but was sensed not by other macrophages and dendritic cells (so-called immunologically stealth mode). Although the function of medullary macrophages in T cell immunity has been unexplored so far these macrophages effectively cross-primed the vaccine-specific CD8+T cells in the presence of a Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonist as an adjuvant.
The nanogel-based vaccine significantly inhibited in vivo tumor growth in the prophylactic and therapeutic settings compared to another vaccine formulation using a conventional delivery system incomplete Freund's adjuvant.
We also revealed that lymph node macrophages were highly responsive to TLR stimulation which may underlie the potency of the macrophage-oriented nanogel-based vaccine.
These results indicate that targeting medullary macrophages using the immunologically stealth nanoparticulate delivery system is an effective vaccine strategy e
#Nanoparticles accumulate quickly in wetland sediment (Phys. org) A Duke university team has found that nanoparticles called single-walled carbon nanotubes accumulate quickly in the bottom sediments of an experimental wetland setting an action they say could indirectly damage the aquatic food chain.
Carbon nanotubes are rapidly becoming more common because of their usefulness in nanoelectric devices composite materials and biomedicine.
Hybrid'patch'could replace transplants Because heart cells cannot multiply and cardiac muscles contain few stem cells,
heart tissue is unable to repair itself after a heart attack. Now Tel aviv University researchers are literally setting a new gold standard in cardiac tissue engineering.
"We now have to prove that these autologous hybrid cardiac patches improve heart function after heart attacks with minimal immune response,
and medicines then you could transport the vesicle by creating a small opening and only allow the fuel to get out.
which can be used to develop precisely targeted drug therapies are a current focus in the emerging field of pharmacogenomics.
and are validating assay kits for several other applications in pathogen detection pharmacogenomics and genetic disease screening.
#Nanotubes help healing hearts keep the beat (Phys. org) Carbon nanotubes serve as bridges that allow electrical signals to pass unhindered through new pediatric heart-defect patches invented at Rice university and Texas Children's Hospital.
The researchers said their invention could serve as a full-thickness patch to repair defects due to Tetralogy of fallot atrial and ventricular septal defects and other defects without the risk of inducing abnormal cardiac rhythms.
That temporary loss of signal transduction results in arrhythmias. Nanotubes can fix that and Jacot who has a joint appointment at Rice
This stemmed from talking with Dr. Pasquali's lab as well as interventional cardiologists in the Texas Medical center Jacot said.
If there's a hole in the heart a patch has to take the full mechanical stress he said.
Pasquali noted that Rice's nanotechnology expertise and Texas Medical center membership offers great synergy. This is a good example of how it's much better for an application person like Dr. Jacot to work with experts who know how to handle nanotubes rather than trying to go solo as many do said he.
and working with leaders in the biomedical field can really accelerate the path to adoption for these new materials.
fingernail-size mini-labs in mobile analytical devices could test a drop of blood for multiple diseases simultaneously
#Graphene sensor tracks down cancer biomarkers An ultrasensitive biosensor made from the wonder material graphene has been used to detect molecules that indicate an increased risk of developing cancer.
and in elevated levels has been linked to an increased risk of developing several cancers. However 8-OHDG is typically present at very low concentrations in urine so is very difficult to detect using conventional detection assays known as enzyme-linked immunobsorbant assays (ELISAS.
and monitor a whole range of diseases as it is quite simple to substitute the specific receptor molecules on the graphene surface.
Now that we've created the first proof-of-concept biosensor using epitaxial graphene we will look to investigate a range of different biomarkers associated with different diseases and conditions as well as detecting a number of different biomarkers on the same chip.
Generic epitaxial graphene biosensors of ultrasensitive detection of cancer risk biomarker Z Tehrani et al 2014 2d Mater. 1 025004. iopscience. iop. org/2053
Patient noncompliance with doctor-recommended glucose testing frequency can be a problem. By making lancets more affordable and potentially noninvasive we are addressing a critical global need he said.
More frequent tests could lead to better control of the disease which could lead to an associated reduction in health risks.
Supercapacitors are Bluevine Graphene Industries'second application under development for its Folium graphene. Johnson said the company's graphene supercapacitors are reaching the energy density of lithium-ion batteries without a similar energy fade over time.
the method could be particularly useful for applications in optics, energy efficiency, and biomedicine. For example, it could be used to reproduce complex structures such as bone,
and that could significantly enhance clinical breast exams for early detection of cancer. In a newly published article in the journal ACS Advanced Materials & Interfaces, researchers Ravi Saraf and Chieu Van Nguyen describe a thin-film sensor that can detect tumors too small and deep
to be felt with the fingers. In research funded with a grant from the National institutes of health, Saraf and Nguyen perfected a thin film made of nanoparticles and polymers
Using a silicone breast model identical to those used to train doctors in manual breast exams,
the researchers ued the film to successfully detect tumors as small as 5 millimeters, hidden up to 20 millimeters deep.
said he envisions a stethoscope-like device that a doctor would press across a patient's chest to image the buried palpable structure.
or CBE, doctors manually examine the breast for abnormalities and use their hands to palpate the tissue in search of lumps.
CBE is an important cancer-screening tool. Mammograms, which identify lumps by their density compared to breast tissue,
Yet the challenge with CBE is the lack of a visual record to compare with previous examinations to aid in diagnosis. Also,
while the American Cancer Society reports a 94 percent survival rate if breast cancer is diagnosed when tumors are diagnosed at less than 10 millimeters.
Saraf said the thin-film tool would have at least three advantages to a manual breast exam performed by a physician:
An atomically thin two-dimensional ultrasensitive semiconductor material for biosensing developed by researchers at UC Santa barbara promises to push the boundaries of biosensing technology in many fields from health care to environmental protection to forensic industries.
This transformative technology enables highly specific low-power high-throughput physiological sensing that can be multiplexed to detect a number of significant disease-specific factors in real time commented Scott Hammond executive director of UCSB's Translational Medicine
In essence continued Hammond the promise of true evidence-based personalized medicine is finally becoming reality. This demonstration is said quite remarkable Andras Kis professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland and a leading scientist in the field of 2d materials and devices.
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