#Creating a permanent bacteria barrier Any medical device implanted in the body attracts bacteria, proteins, and other microbes to its surface, causing infections and thrombosis (blood clotting) that lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths annually.
Devices can be coated with antibiotics, blood thinners, and other agents but these eventually dissolve, limiting their longevity and effectiveness.
This has potential to reduce blood clots and infection and improve overall patient health, the cofounders say.
They found many patients suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease and a lack of permanent oatingsfor medical implants that might help these patients.
Thus Loose says, they were ahead of the curve in addressing the nmet needof the medical devices market. e realized an unmet need that was going to grow over the next few years
e found that there is a mechanism that can, in principle, close cracks under any applied stress,
shows a small crack (dark horizontal bar just right of bottom center) that mends itself as the metal is put under stress.
These defects have intense stress fields, which an be so strong, they actually reverse what an applied load would do,
it can heal. he stress from the disclinations is leading to this unexpected behavior, he says.
in conjunction with stress-driven grain boundary migration, could actually heal cracks. This is indeed provocative
When these cells are infected with malaria they lose this ability to deform, and form clogs in tiny vessels.
it could also be used to study the dynamics of the malformed blood cells that cause sickle cell anemia.
#New way to model sickle cell behavior Patients with sickle cell disease often suffer from painful attacks known as vaso-occlusive crises, during
and Vannevar bush Professor of Engineering Emeritus, have developed a tiny microfluidic device that can analyze the behavior of blood from sickle cell disease patients.
It could also help researchers test the efficacy of new drugs for sickle cell disease which occurs in about 300,000 newborns per year, more than 75 percent of them in Africa.
Squeezing by People with sickle cell disease, an inherited genetic disorder, have a variant form of hemoglobin that causes their red blood cells to take on a characteristic sickle shape when in low-oxygen conditions.
Patients now have an average life expectancy of 45 to 50 years in the United states, up from only 14 years as recently as 1973.
Disease severity varies among patients depending on how much abnormal hemoglobin is present in their cells. Sickle cells can squeeze through most blood vessels
Analyzing risk Using this device to measure blood samples from 25 sickle cell disease patients, the researchers were able to determine how deoxygenation affects red blood cellssickling rates;
if the device can be used to reliably predict individual patientsrisk of a vaso-occlusive crisis. his technique represents a major advance to further our understanding and treatment of vaso-occlusion due to sickle cell disease.
and treating other diseases where the deformability of blood cells is affected, says Guruswami Ravichandran, a professor of aeronautics and mechanical engineering at Caltech who was involved not in this study.
and they also plan to pursue it as a tool to test potential new drugs for sickle cell disease.
the researchers analyzed a drug called Aes-103, now in phase II clinical trials to treat sickle cell disease,
and ultimately may also lead to long-lasting devices for treatment of conditions such as Parkinson disease.
#Decoding sugar addiction Together, obesity and Type 2 diabetes rank among our nation greatest health problem,
and anxiety. e need to study this circuit in more depth, but our ultimate goal is to develop safe,
#New findings reveal genetic brain disorders converge at the synapse Picower Institute for Learning and Memory January 12,
2015 SHARE Several genetic disorders cause intellectual disability and autism. Historically, these genetic brain diseases were viewed as untreatable.
However, in recent years neuroscientists have shown in animal models that it is possible to reverse the debilitating effects of these gene mutations.
a treatment developed for one genetic cause of autism and intellectual disability might be useful for many others.
In a paper published today in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience a research team led by Mark Bear,
the Picower Professor of Neuroscience in MIT Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, showed that two very different genetic causes of autism
and intellectual disability disrupt protein synthesis at synapses, and that a treatment developed for one disease produced a cognitive benefit in the other.
The research was performed by postdoc and lead author Di Tian, graduate student Laura Stoppel, and research scientist Arnold Heynen, in collaboration with scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Roche pharmaceuticals.
Researching the role of fragile X syndrome One heritable cause of intellectual disability and autism is fragile X syndrome,
which arises when a single gene on the X chromosome, called FMR1, is turned off during brain development.
Different genes, same consequences Another cause of autism and intellectual disability is the loss of a series of genes on human chromosome 16,
Some of the 27 affected genes play a role in protein synthesis regulation, leading Bear and colleagues to wonder if 16p11.2 microdeletion syndrome and fragile X syndrome affect synapses in the same way.
similar to fragile X. Restoring brain function after disease onset These findings encouraged the MIT researchers to attempt to improve memory function in the 16p11.2 mice with the same approach that has worked in fragile X mice.
The implication, according to Bear, is that ome cognitive aspects of this disease, previously believed to be an intractable consequence of altered early brain development,
Current research indicates that well over 100 distinct gene mutations can manifest as intellectual disability and autism.
coming to a sudden halt and putting stress on the threads, causing them to fail.
the sheller stopped at a more gradual pace, reducing thread stress. All shellers could then be modified,
The researchers found that a sealant they had developed previously worked much differently in cancerous colon tissue than in colon tissue inflamed with colitis. The finding suggests that for this sealant
and rationally designed to match specific tissue types and disease states. After characterizing the adhesive material performance in different diseased tissues,
what happens when an adhesive is used in the same organ but under different disease conditions.
However, it performed worse in tissue inflamed with colitis than in healthy tissue. Further studies of the molecular interactions between the adhesive
but rather, disease type and state-dependent, says Artzi, who is also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical school.
or three different versions that could cover a wide range of tissues. e can take a biopsy from a patient for a quick readout of disease state that would serve as an input for our model,
Between 1979 and 2013, there were over 40,000 reported injuries and nearly 20,000 fatalities due to unexploded land mines.
releasing a bit of stress, and making it easier for a second atom to climb out of a trough
While conventional lithium-ion batteries are composed of brittle electrodes that can crack under stress the new formulation produces battery cells that can be bent,
and pills now needed to treat chronic diseases: Earlier this month, MIT spinout Microchips Biotech partnered with a pharmaceutical giant to commercialize its wirelessly controlled, implantable,
for example, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and osteoporosis. Now Microchips Biotech will begin co-developing microchips with Teva Pharmaceutical, the world largest producer of generic drugs,
to treat specific diseases, with licensing potential for other products. Teva paid $35 million up front, with additional milestone payments as the device goes through clinical trials before it hits the shelves. bviously,
this is a huge validation of the technology, Cima says. major pharmaceutical company sees how this technology can further their efforts to help patients. part from providing convenience,
While its first partnership is for treating chronic diseases, Microchips Biotech will continue work on its flagship product, a birth-control microchip, backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
and somewhat fantastical, applications beyond drug delivery, including disease diagnostics and jewelry that could emit scents. e were trying to find the killer application.
and researchers from Microchips, conducted the microchipsfirst human trials to treat osteoporosis this time with wireless capabilities.
the two lead authors, are former postdocs in the laboratory of Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.
if the dog is under unusual stress or if a chronic health condition may be worsening.
"Making graphene-based nano devices by mechanical fracture sounds attractive, but it wouldn't make sense until we know how to get the right types of edgesnd now we do said
It could help medical professionals diagnose disease and identify the boundaries of tumors.""This nanoparticle may open the door for new'hypermodal'imaging systems that allow a lot of new information to be obtained using just one contrast agent,
"says researcher Jonathan Lovell, Phd, UB assistant professor of biomedical engineering.""Once such systems are developed, a patient could theoretically go in for one scan with one machine instead of multiple scans with multiple machines."
This would enable doctors to better see where tumors begin and end, Lovell says. Explore further:
which proved effective in preventing surrogates of two well-known pathogens, Escherichia coli o157: H7 and Listeria monocytogenes, from attaching,
#A speedy test for bladder cancer A fast and accurate urine test for bladder cancer developed by A*STAR researchers has the potential to replace the currently used invasive physical probe.
Cystoscopy clinical procedure that uses a narrow, tubular optical instrument called a cystoscope to view inside the bladders currently the gold standard for detecting cancer in this organ.
a recently discovered urinary antigen and a potential biomarker for bladder cancer. The new tool could be used as a high-throughput screening platform to identify patients at risk of developing the urologic condition.
They found significantly elevated levels of A1at in bladder cancer patients. There was also a marked difference in the A1at concentrations of cancer and non-cancer patients,
which suggests that the technique is highly discriminative, specific and accurate. Importantly, only tiny amounts of sample were required:
"We have developed a smart SERS biosensor for the rapid screening of bladder cancer, "says Olivo."
but now a team of Israeli scientists has for the first time found that exposure nanoparticles (NPS) of silicon dioxide (Sio2) can play a major role in the development of cardiovascular diseases
and have significant adverse effects on macrophages a type of white blood cell that take up lipids leading to atherosclerotic lesion development and its consequent cardiovascular events such as heart attack or stroke.
Macrophages accumulation in the arterial wall under atherogenic conditions such as high cholesterol triglycerides oxidative stress#are converted into lipids or laden foam cells
which is an inflammatory disease says co-author Dr. Lauren Petrick. The aims of our study were to gain additional insight into the cardiovascular risk associated with silicon dioxide nanoparticle exposure
We also wanted to use nanoparticles as a model for ultrafine particle (UFP) exposure as cardiovascular disease risk factors.
and that they also increase oxidative stress and toxicity. A recent update from the American Heart Association also suggested that fine particles in air pollution leads to elevated risk for cardiovascular diseases.
However more research was needed to examine the role of ultrafine particles (which are much smaller than fine particles) on atherosclerosis development and cardiovascular risk.
#Arming nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis and treatment UCD researchers have manipulated successfully nanoparticles to target two human breast cancer cell lines as a tool in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Coating nanoparticles with different substances allows their interaction with cells to be tuned in a particular way.
The team believe that Fe-Au functionalised nanorods used in conjunction with these drugs could be useful in cancer treatment.
#'Trojan horse'proteins are step forward for nanoparticle-based anticancer and anti-dementia therapeutic approaches Scientists at Brunel University London have found a way of targeting hard-to-reach cancers
and degenerative diseases using nanoparticles but without causing the damaging side effects the treatment normally brings.
and is responsible for clearing pathogens and toxins. The team led by Dr Uday Kishore of the Centre for Infection Immunity
and Disease Mechanisms found the entire complement system was activated from C1 at the start to C5 at the end.
This in turn activated the cell-killing membrane attack complex. In principle this should have caused an acute allergic inflammatory reaction.
However the opposite was true. The interaction between CNTS and C1q (a starter-protein for complement) was anti-inflammatory.
and help treat inflammatory diseases like Parkinson's Huntington's ALS and Alzheimer's. It was not clear
but none reported so far can sense the direction of stress. This is the kind of information that can tell our bodies a lot about the shape
piezoresistive interlocked microdome arrays are employed for stress-direction-sensitive, stretchable electronic skins. Here we show that these arrays possess highly sensitive detection capability of various mechanical stimuli including normal,
This could lead to novel treatment and vaccination strategies in the fight against malaria and other infectious diseases.
For many infectious diseases no vaccine currently exists. In addition resistance against currently used drugs is spreading rapidly.
To fight these diseases innovative strategies using new mechanisms of action are needed. The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum that is transmitted by the Anopheles mosquito is such an example.
Malaria is still responsible for more than 600000 deaths annually especially affecting children in Africa (WHO 2012.
and the reduction of infection through the nanomimics was 100-fold higher when compared to a soluble form of the host cell receptors.
Since many other pathogens use the same host cell receptor for invasion the nanomimics might also be used against other infectious diseases.
Why humans don't suffer from chimpanzee malaria More information: Adrian Najer Dalin Wu Andrej Bieri Franoise Brand Cornelia G. Palivan Hans-Peter Beck and Wolfgang Meier.
This chemical damages nerve cells and apparently plays a role in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
"A subcutaneous sensor could save diabetes patients from having to constantly prick their fingers"thinks Ensinger.
Possibly as a result of the swelling or for other unknown reasons the silicon fractures and breaks down.
An encouraging new study published in Nano Letters describes a revolutionary novel device tested on animal-derived retinal models that has the potential to treat a number of eye diseases.
According to TAU doctoral student and research team member Dr. Lilach Bareket there are already medical devices that attempt to treat visual impairment by sending sensory signals to the brain.
diagnostic techniques are fundamental to understanding the disease (degradation processes) but must then be complemented by the development of medicines (advanced restoration materials) to cure the patient (restore the work of art).
"Dr Ariberto Fassati, co-lead author from the Wohl Virion Centre (UCL Infection & Immunity), added:"
In contrast to conventional cancer therapy a University of Cincinnati team has developed several novel designs for iron-oxide based nanoparticles that detect diagnose
PTT uses the nanoparticles to focus light-induced heat energy only within the tumor harming no adjacent normal cells.
That means the photo-thermal effect of iron-oxide nanoparticles may show in the next decade a strong promise in human cancer therapy likely with localized tumors.
With this technology a low-power laser beam is directed at the tumor where a small amount of magnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles are present either by injecting the particles directly into the tumor
Sufficient heat is generated then locally by the laser light raising the tumor temperature rapidly to above 43 degrees Celsius
but only generates local heat within the tumor therefore posing much less side effects than the traditional chemo or radiation therapies.
because the tumors are usually stage three or four before they can be detected. He stated With nanomaterial technology we can detect the tumor early
and kill it on sight at the same time. Each tumor has a corresponding protein that is cancer specific called a tumor specific ligand
or an antibody antigen reaction that only has expression for that specific cancer such as breast or prostate cancer.
Scientists identify this certain bio-marker that is specific to a certain tumor then conjugates this bio-marker on the surface of the nanocarrier that only has the expression for that specific kind of cancer cell.
It then only targets the abnormal cancer cell not normal healthy cells and because it is so small it can break the membrane
and biodegradable and can potentially stay in the tumor cells until its job is finished then dissolve
Our breakthrough will open up new doors in the various fields of nanomedicine bioimaging and cancer therapeutics.
#This will benefit cancer patients as there will be fewer side effects due to the small doses administered and also higher efficacy as the biomarker has the ability to accurately target tumour cells.
which Dr. Petrof designed to treat C. difficile infections. In this instance rather than being used as therapy the synthetic stool was used to examine the impact of nanoparticles on the human gut.
or ultraviolet light did the DNA form base lesions, a form of DNA damage associated with attack by radicals.
#Research team developing injectable treatment for soldiers wounded in battle Internal bleeding is a leading cause of death on the battlefield,
and the Massachusetts institute of technology could buy wounded soldiers the time they need to survive by preventing blood loss from serious internal injuries.
Once injected, the material locks into place at the site of the injury and rapidly decreases the time it takes for blood to clot in some instances by a whopping 77 percent,
incompressible injury one where it is difficult if not impossible to apply the pressure needed to stop the bleeding he
"Our material's combination of injectability, rapid mechanical recovery, physiological stability and the ability to promote coagulation result in a hemostat for treating incompressible wounds in out-of-hospital, emergency situations,
and his colleagues solidifies at the site of the wound and begins promoting coagulation in the targeted area.
"Most of these penetrating injuries, which today are the result of explosive devices, rupture blood vessels and create internal hemorrhages through
and their use promises to lead to both conceptual and therapeutic advances in the important and emerging field of tissue engineering, drug delivery, cancer therapies and immune engineering,
Researchers synthesize platelet-like nanoparticles that can do more than clot blood (Phys. org) Stanching the free flow of blood from an injury remains a holy grail of clinical medicine.
Controlling blood flow is a primary concern and first line of defense for patients and medical staff in many situations from traumatic injury to illness to surgery.
The process of coagulation is familiar to anyone who has suffered even the most minor of injuries such as a scrape or paper cut.
Blood rushes to the site of the injury and within minutes the flow stops as a plug forms at the site.
and a viscous substance that brings healing factors to the injury. Coagulation is actually a choreography of various substances among the most important
of which are platelets the blood component that accumulates at the site of the wound to form the initial plug.
As soon as an injury occurs however the platelets because of the physics of their shape and their response to chemical stimuli move from the main flow to the side of the blood vessel wall
and congregate binding to the site of the injury and to each other. As they do so the platelets release chemicals that call other platelets to the site eventually plugging the wound.
But what happens when the injury is too severe or the patient is on anticoagulation medication
or is impaired otherwise in his or her ability to form a clot even for a modest or minor injury?
That's where platelet-like nanoparticles (PLNS) come in. These tiny platelet-shaped particles that behave just like their human counterparts can be added to the blood flow to supply
Emergency situations can be brought under control faster injuries can heal more quickly and patients can recover with fewer complications.
and flexibility of natural platelets PLNS can also flow to the injury site and congregate there.
and wound healing in older patients by using nanoparticles that can target where clots are forming without triggering unwanted bleeding.
In other applications bloodborne pathogens and other infectious agents could be minimized with antibiotic-carrying nanoparticles.
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.
#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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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:
#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.
#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.
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."
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:
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