#Researcher's nanoparticle key to new malaria vaccine A self-assembling nanoparticle designed by a UCONN professor is the key component of a potent new malaria vaccine that is showing promise in early tests.
For years, scientists trying to develop a malaria vaccine have been stymied by the malaria parasite's ability to transform itself
an infectious disease specialist with the Walter reed Army Institute of Research, has shown to be effective at getting the immune system to attack the most lethal species of malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum,
The key to the vaccine's success lies in the nanoparticle's perfect icosahedral symmetry (think of the pattern on a soccer ball)
In tests with mice, the vaccine was 90-100 percent effective in eradicating the Plasmodium falciparum parasite
the world's most advanced malaria vaccine candidate currently undergoing phase 3 clinical trials, which is the last stage of testing before licensing."
"Both vaccines are similar, it's just that the density of the RTS, S protein displays is much lower than ours,
"The homogeneity of our vaccine is much higher, which produces a stronger immune system response. That is why we are confident that ours will be an improvement."
"Every single protein chain that forms our particle displays one of the pathogen's protein molecules that are recognized by the immune system,
"With RTS, S, only about 14 percent of the vaccine's protein is from the malaria parasite.
"The research was published in Malaria Journal in 2013. The search for a malaria vaccine is one of the most important research projects in global public health.
The disease is transported commonly through the bites of nighttime mosquitoes. Those infected suffer from severe fevers, chills,
and a flu-like illness. In severe cases, malaria causes seizures, severe anemia, respiratory distress, and kidney failure.
Each year, more than 200 million cases of malaria are reported worldwide. The World health organization estimated that 627,000 people died from malaria in 2012, many of them children living in Sub-saharan africa.
It took the researchers more than 10 years to finalize the precise assembly of the nanoparticle as the critical carrier of the vaccine
and find the right parts of the malaria protein to trigger an effective immune response. The research was complicated further by the fact that the malaria parasite that impacts mice used in lab tests is structurally different from the one infecting humans.
The scientists used a creative approach to get around the problem.""Testing the vaccine's efficacy was difficult
because the parasite that causes malaria in humans only grows in humans, "Lanar says.""But we developed a little trick.
We took a mouse malaria parasite and put in its DNA a piece of DNA from the human malaria parasite that we wanted our vaccine to attack.
That allowed us to conduct inexpensive mouse studies to test the vaccine before going to expensive human trials."
"The pair's research has been supported by a $2 million grant from the National institutes of health and $2 million from the U s. Military Infectious disease Research Program.
A request for an additional $7 million in funding from the U s army to conduct the next phase of vaccine development, including manufacturing
and human trials, is pending.""We are on schedule to manufacture the vaccine for human use early next year,
"says Lanar.""It will take about six months to finish quality control and toxicology studies on the final product
and get permission from the FDA to do human trials.""Lanar says the team hopes to begin early testing in humans in 2016 and,
if the results are promising, field trials in malaria endemic areas will follow in 2017. The required field trial testing could last five years
or more before the vaccine is available for licensure and public use, Lanar says. Martin Edlund, CEO of Malaria No more, a New york-based nonprofit focused on fighting deaths from malaria,
says,"This research presents a promising new approach to developing a malaria vaccine. Innovative work such as what's being done at the University of Connecticut puts us closer than we've ever been to ending one of the world's oldest
costliest, and deadliest diseases.""A Switzerland-based company, Alpha-O-Peptides, founded by Burkhard, holds the patent on the self-assembling nanoparticle used in the malaria vaccine.
Burkhard is also exploring other potential uses for the nanoparticle, including a vaccine that will fight animal flu
and one that will help people with nicotine addiction. Professor Mazhar Khan from UCONN's Department of Pathobiology is collaborating with Burkhard on the animal flu vaccine e
#Scientists shed light on organic photovoltaic characteristics However, at this time organic photovoltaic devices are hindered by low efficiency relative to commercial solar cells in part
because quantifying their electrical properties has proven challenging. Therefore, predictive models and quantitative metrics for device performance are needed critically.
Scientists from NIST's Physical Measurement Laboratory, led by the Semiconductor and Dimensional Metrology Division's David Gundlach and Curt Richter,
along with James Basham, a guest researcher from Penn State university, have developed a method that allows the prediction of the current density-voltage curve of a photovoltaic device. 1 This new method uses a common measurement technique
(impedance spectroscopy) that is affordable, widely available to manufacturers, and relatively easy to perform. The technique is repeatable, non-destructive,
Along with colleagues at the University of Manchester researchers captured the world's first real-time images and simultaneous chemical analysis of nanostructures while underwater or in solution.
but getting chemical analysis at the same time remained inaccessible. Imagine how helpful it would be for trainers to be able to watch a baseball player pitch with simultaneous X-ray
#Handheld scanner could make brain tumor removal more complete reducing recurrence Cancerous brain tumors are notorious for growing back
despite surgical attempts to remove them and for leading to a dire prognosis for patients.
But scientists are developing a new way to try to root out malignant cells during surgery so fewer
or none get left behind to form new tumors. The method reported in the journal ACS Nano could someday vastly improve the outlook for patients.
Moritz F. Kircher and colleagues at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center point out that malignant brain tumors particularly the kind known as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) are among the toughest to beat.
Surgical removal is one of the main weapons doctors have to treat brain tumors. The problem is that currently there's no way to know
The techniques surgeons have at their disposal today are not accurate enough to identify all the cells that need to be excised.
and go specifically to tumor cells and not to normal brain cells. Using a handheld Raman scanner in a mouse model that mimics human GBM the researchers successfully identified
Surgeons might be able to use the device in the future to treat other types of brain cancer they say.
Neuroscientists use lightwaves to improve brain tumor surgery More information: Guiding Brain tumor Resection Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Nanoparticles and a Hand-held Raman Scanner ACS Nano Article ASAPDOI:
10.1021/nn503948abstractthe current difficulty in visualizing the true extent of malignant brain tumors during surgical resection represents one of the major reasons for the poor prognosis of brain tumor patients.
Here we evaluated the ability of a hand-held Raman scanner guided by surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanoparticles to identify the microscopic tumor extent in a genetically engineered RCAS/tv-a glioblastoma mouse model.
In a simulated intraoperative scenario we tested both a static Raman imaging device and a mobile hand-held Raman scanner.
and correlation with histology showed that SERS nanoparticles accurately outlined the extent of the tumors.
but also detected additional microscopic foci of cancer in the resection bed that were seen not on static SERS images
because it uses inert gold#silica SERS nanoparticles and a hand-held Raman scanner that can guide brain tumor resection in the operating room o
and chemists itching with excitement mesmerised by the possibilities starting to take shape from flexible electronics embedded into clothing to biomedicine (imagine synthetic nerve cells) vastly superior forms of energy storage (tiny
from prosthetic skin to electronic paper, for implantable medical devices, and for flexible displays and touch screens. They can be used in rubberlike electronic devices that,
Now researchers from the University of Surrey and Trinity college Dublin have treated for the first time common elastic bands with graphene to create a flexible sensor that is sensitive enough for medical use
or movement alerting doctors to any irregularities. Until now no such sensor has been produced that meets needs
and joint movement and could be used to create lightweight sensor suits for vulnerable patients such as premature babies making it possible to remotely monitor their subtle movements and alert a doctor to any worrying behaviours.
While these therapeutic agents are a boon for global healthcare productivity constraints pose a serious challenge for manufacturers seeking to make sufficient amounts for therapeutic applications.
At present therapeutic antibodies are purified generally by a technique known as protein A affinity chromatography. The process yields a high purification factorypically 99 per centut it is slow thereby creating a severe productivity bottleneck.
but it has achieved never the level of purity needed for clinical therapeutics. The team discovered that by elevating the salt concentration they could reduce contaminant levels from about 250000 parts per million to 500:
In addition to solving the longstanding problem of productivity for monoclonal antibodies the nanoparticle approach can be applied to many other therapeutic proteins and also to viral vaccines.
Beyond catalysis, Ying predicts these new materials could be useful in electronics, chemical sensing and even biomedicine.
and flexing may aid in our understanding of how changes within a cell can lead to diseases such as cancer.
and how small changes to these processes can lead to diseases such as cancer or Alzheimer's. Researchers from the University of Cambridge have demonstrated how to use light to view individual molecules bending
Many degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Parkinson's cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy are believed to originate from damage to the cell membrane.
and other diseases behave at their earliest stages but also many of the fundamental biological processes which are key to all life.
and understand how small changes to these processes can cause disease. Explore further: Synthetic molecule makes cancer self-destruc c
#Mobile phones come alive with the sound of music thanks to nanogenerators Charging mobile phones with sound, like chants from at football ground, could become a reality, according to a new collaboration between scientists from Queen Mary University of London and Nokia.
The authors are confident that once this technology has matured it will be amenable to miniaturization for integration into a fully functional device for point-of-care diagnosis. Explore further:
and brain signaling with the potential to transform our understanding of how the brain worksnd how to treat its most devastating diseases.
This could get around a lot of serious health problems in neurodegenerative diseases in the future.""These disorders, such as Parkinson's, that involve malfunctioning nerve cells can lead to difficulty with the most mundane and essential movements that most of us take for granted:
This inability to see what's happening in the body's command center hinders the development of effective treatments for diseases that stem from it.
which are affected in some neurodegenerative diseases. And it's at this level where the promise of Lieber's most recent work enters the picture.
Patients must take medicine frequently and can suffer side effects since the contents of pills spread through the bloodstream to the whole body.
whose lab is in the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. The research project tackles a difficult problem in localized drug delivery:
In this specific case the researchers used diclofenac a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is often prescribed for osteoarthritis and other pain or inflammatory conditions.
The film can be applied onto degradable nanoparticles for injection into local sites or used to coat permanent devices such as orthopedic implants.
In tests the research team found that the diclofenac was released steadily over 14 months. Because the effectiveness of pain medication is evaluated subjective they the efficacy of the method by seeing how well the diclofenac blocked the activity of cyclooxygenase (COX) an enzyme central to inflammation in the body.
an illness such as tuberculosis for instance requires at least six months of drug therapy. It's not only viable for diclofenac Hsu says.
energy storage and energy generation takes it a step closer to being used in medicine and human health.
With graphene droplets now easy to produce, researchers say this opens up possibilities for its use in drug delivery and disease detection.
potentially paving the way for new methods of disease detection as well.""Commonly used by jewelers,
#World's smallest propeller could be used for microscopic medicine If you thought that the most impressive news in shrinking technology these days was smart watches,
The impact of these miraculous microscopic machines on medicine can only be imagined, but there is no doubt that it will be significant.
the real significance is how they might affect medicine.""One can now think about targeted applications,
and telecommunications medical devices and security he says. If these could be made flexible they could be integrated in clothes rolled up
which is used now in the medical field to detect biomarkers in the early stages of disease.
#Supercomputers reveal strange stress-induced transformations in world's thinnest materials (Phys. org) Interested in an ultra-fast unbreakable and flexible smart phone that recharges in a matter of seconds?
and break under stress. Fortunately researchers have pinpointed now the breaking mechanism of several monolayer materials hundreds of times stronger than steel with exotic properties that could revolutionize everything from armor to electronics.
In this study DFT calculations revealed the materials'atomic structures stress values vibrational properties and whether they acted as metals semiconductors or insulators under strain.
#Self-assembling nanoparticle could improve MRI scanning for cancer diagnosis Scientists have designed a new self-assembling nanoparticle that targets tumours,
to help doctors diagnose cancer earlier. The new nanoparticle, developed by researchers at Imperial College London,
and will ultimately improve doctor's ability to detect cancerous cells at much earlier stages of development.
Professor Nicholas Long from the Department of chemistry at Imperial College London said the results show real promise for improving cancer diagnosis."By improving the sensitivity of an MRI examination
our aim is to help doctors spot something that might be cancerous much more quickly.
which would hopefully improve survival rates from cancer.""""MRI SCANNERS are found in nearly every hospital up and down the country
and they are used vital machines every day to scan patients'bodies and get to the bottom of
But we are aware that some doctors feel that even though MRI SCANNERS are effective at spotting large tumours,
"We would like to improve the design to make it even easier for doctors to spot a tumour
and for surgeons to then operate on it. We're now trying to add an extra optical signal
Dr Juan Gallo from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London said:"
called plasmonic biosensors, could ultimately become a key asset in personalised medicine by helping to diagnose diseases at an early stage.
Personalised medicine is one of the new developments that is deemed to revolutionise health care. A key component is the detection of biomarkers, proteins in blood or saliva, for example,
whose presence or abnormal concentration is caused by a disease. Biomarkers can indicate the presence of diseases long before the appearance of symptoms.
However, currently the detection of these molecules still requires specialised laboratories and is costly. Thanks to the EU-funded research project called NANOANTENNA
nanotechnologists and biomedical researchers with the aim of developing a so-called plasmonic nanobiosensor for the detection of proteins.
and early detection of diseases, done in point-of-care (POC) or bed-side conditions."
because it will be a component of future medicine, "says Alexandre Brolo, professor of chemistry specialised in nanotechnology research,
He also believes that such approach will make medical care more cost effective.""You want something that is very cheap
and is not going to put a big burden on the health care system, "says Brolo. Another expert agrees."
Ozden explained that the even distribution of stress along the belly-flopping nanotube which is many times longer than it is wide breaks carbon bonds in a line nearly simultaneously.
Fan calls his approach"a simple stress-based fabrication method"that, when applied to nanoparticle arrays, forms new nanostructures with tunable properties."
This external stress manually induced transitions in the film that synthesized new materials, "he said.
The stress-induced synthesis processes are simple and clean. No thermal processing or further purification is needed to remove reaction byproducts r
These toxic liquid solvents raise many issues for concern including environmental pollution, high cost of disposal, health problems and poisoning during the disposal process.
#Scientists develop a'nanosubmarine'that delivers complementary molecules inside cells With the continuing need for very small devices in therapeutic applications there is a growing demand for the development of nanoparticles that can transport
and neutral environment) makes these nanoparticles an ideal vehicle for the controlled activation of therapeutics directly inside the cells Raymo says.
#Nanoparticles could provide easier route for cell therapy UT Arlington physics researchers may have developed a way to use laser technology to deliver drug and gene therapy at the cellular level without damaging surrounding tissue.
The method eventually could help patients suffering from genetic conditions, cancers and neurological diseases. In a study published recently by the journal Nature's Scientific Reports,
to heat up and destroy cancer cells in the lab. The team used the new photothermal delivery method in lab experiments to introduce impermeable dyes and small DNA molecules into human prostate cancer and fibroblast sarcoma cells."
vaccinations, cancer imaging and other medical treatments. Currently, the predominant practice is using viruses for delivery to cells.
Koymen, Mohanty and Gu have taken their collaboration to a new level as they keep building toward valuable implications for human health and disease treatment."
"Carbon nanoparticles produced for the cancer study varied from five to 20 nanometers wide. A human hair is about 100,000 nanometers wide.
So, they can be used to enhance contrast of optical imaging of tumors along with that of MRI I
At the 90â°and 45â°impact angles on the other hand fewer atoms were involved in the impact so the stress was concentrated more on fewer atoms.
that's why when bone density decreases, fractures become more likely. But using the right mathematically determined structures to distribute
The new technology also has major medical implications. Currently, memory used in computers and phones is made with silicon substrates, the surface on
To obtain medical information from a patient such as heart rate or brainwave data, stiff electrode objects are placed on several fixed locations on the patient's body.
In everyday life, we mostly know X-ray imaging as a medical procedure that enables physicians to see inside the human body without harming the patient.
much like a medical X-ray CT SCAN. With the aid of special computer software researchers combine these images to form a three-dimensional picture,
I believe this approach has significant value as a platform for more detailed investigations of realistic systems important for these new biomedical applications of DNA NANOPARTICLE pairings,
"Nanoparticles are extraordinarily small particles at the forefront of advances in many biomedical, optical and electronic fields,
and"hot injection"or other existing synthetic approaches are slow, costly, sometimes toxic and often wasteful.
Hygienic conditions and sterile procedures are particularly important in hospitals, kitchens and sanitary facilities, air conditioning and ventilation systems, in food preparation and in the manufacture of packaging material.
and cures thermally or photochemically. Selective variation of the individual components allows the developers to react to the particular and different needs of potential users.
#Nanotechnology takes on diabetes A sensor which can be used to screen for diabetes in resource-poor settings has been developed by researchers
and tested in diabetic patients, and will soon be tested field in Sub-saharan africa. A low-cost, reusable sensor which uses nanotechnology to screen for
and monitor diabetes and other conditions, has been developed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Cambridge, for use both in clinics and home settings.
The sensors use nanotechnology to monitor levels of glucose, lactate and fructose in individuals with diabetes or urinary tract infections
and change colour when levels reach a certain concentration. They can be used to test compounds in samples such as urine, blood, saliva or tear fluid.
Earlier this year, clinical trials of the sensors were carried out at Addenbrooke's Hospital to monitor glucose levels in 33 diabetic patients.
According to the International Diabetes Federation, there are an estimated 175 million undiagnosed diabetic patients worldwide, 80%of
"These sensors can be used to screen for diabetes in resource-poor countries, where disposable test strips and other equipment are simply not affordable,
The researchers are developing a prototype smartphone-based test suitable for both clinical and home testing of diabetes and other clinically relevant conditions."
and adopted as a diagnostic tool for routine diabetes screening, "said Yunuen Montelongo who co-authored the article e
heart problems and deep vein thrombosis has been developed by researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN).
"Diseases caused by blood clots can be potentially fatal. Genetic testing can improve the treatment of such medical conditions.
By combining our expertise in molecular diagnostics and nanotechnology, we have developed a new genetic test that can determine the appropriate drug dosage to be administered for each patient."
They are used to treat stroke, irregular heartbeat and deep vein thrombosis. Warfarin is the most widely prescribed oral anticoagulant drug.
Doctors currently determine the right dosage by monitoring the patients'reactions and adjusting the dosage accordingly.
therefore help doctors to decide the correct dosage for the patient. This minimizes side effects and improves treatment outcomes.
IBN's test has been validated by the National Cancer Centre Singapore, the National University Cancer Institute Singapore,
By making molecular diagnostics information more readily available, doctors will be able to provide personalized treatment that is safer and more effective
what happens under stress. In most thin film transistors, the material starts to crack, which,
and nanometer scale is crucial from semiconductor electronics to biochemistry and medicine. Explore further: High-resolution microscopy technique resolves individual carbon nanotubes under ambient condition c
in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Michigan, have developed a 3-D artificial enzyme cascade that mimics an important biochemical pathway that could prove important for future biomedical and energy applications.
For example, defects found in the pathway cause anemia in humans.""Dehydrogenase enzymes are particularly important
"said Walter. The work also opens a bright future where biochemical pathways can be replicated outside the cell to develop biomedical applications such as detection methods for diagnostic platforms."
enabling surgeons to better determine which tissue to remove and which to leave. Research by Jeremy Duczynski from the University of WA's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry investigated
whether the nanoparticles would work as effective optical contrast agents to provide an estimate of the size and shape of tumour margins during surgery.
When doctors perform an MRI they administer a contrast agent: a chemical that when injected into the bloodstream
and internal bleeding contains gadolinium a rare-earth metal. Recently biomedical researchers have found ways to increase the effectiveness of certain contrast agents by associating them with nanoparticles.
The contrast agent being used is packaged inside or bonded to the surface of microscopic particles which can be designed to target certain regions of the body
or dyes instead of one or a contrast agent along with another type of diagnostic aid or a medication doctors could more efficiently test for
and limit the number of injections received by patients. Just like toddlers sharing a new toy
#Ultra-sensitive nano-chip capable of detecting cancer at early stages developed Today the majority of cancers are detected on the macroscopic level
when the tumor is composed already of millions of cancer cells and the disease is starting to advance into a more mature phase.
But what if we could diagnose cancer before it took hold -while it was still only affecting a few localized cells?
It would be like putting a fire out while it was still just a few sparks
An international team of researchers led by ICFO-Institute of Photonic Sciences in Castelldefels announce the successful development of a lab-on-a-chip platform capable of detecting protein cancer markers in the blood using the very latest advances
The device is able to detect very low concentrations of protein cancer markers in blood enabling diagnoses of the disease in its earliest stages.
The detection of cancer in its very early stages is seen as key to the successful diagnosis and treatment of this disease.
This cancer-tracking nanodevice shows great promise as a tool for future cancer treatments not only because of its reliability sensitivity and potential low cost but also because of its easy carry on portable properties which is foreseen to facilitate effective diagnosis and suitable
treatment procedures in remote places with difficult access to hospitals or medical clinics. Although very compact (only a few square centimeters) the lab-on-a-chip hosts various sensing sites distributed across a network of fluidic micro-channels that enables it to conduct multiple analyses.
and if cancer markers are present in the blood they will stick to the nanoparticles located on the micro-channels as they pass by setting off changes in
thus providing a direct assessment of the risk for the patient to develop a cancer.
and treatment monitoring of cancer. In 2009 Prof. Quidant's research group at ICFO in collaboration with several groups of oncologists joined the worldwide effort devoted to the ultra-sensitive detection of protein markers located on the surface of cancer cells and in peripheral blood
which had been determined to be a clear indicator of the development of cancer. In 2010 they successfully obtained funding for the project called SPEDOC (Surface Plasmon Early Detection of Circulating Heat shock proteins and Tumor Cells) under the 7th Framework Program (FP7) of the European commission.
The effort was boosted also by generous philanthropic support from Cellex Foundation Barcelona. Today's announcement is an important outcome of this project t
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