At Nagoya University in Japan, researchers have developed a nanowire-based device to extract large numbers of microRNA strands found in urine. The technology may provide a way to identify the presence of cancers and other diseases through easy to gather patient samples. Over the past few years, researchers have been focusing on how cells within […]
Tag: Nanomedicine
Novel Microneedle Drug Delivery Patch for Burning Fat
Obesity results from excess white fat storage, making it difficult to treat because the effectiveness of diet, exercise, and systemic anti-obesity agents is limited, and in the latter case may cause serious side effects. As a result, researchers are investigating innovative strategies for localized delivery of fat burning compounds via transdermal patches. Medgadget recently reported on […]
Nanoparticle-Based Imaging of Metastasis Throughout Body
Common radiological tumor detection technique these days is done using contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can only detect tumors of a certain size or larger. This is a major limitation, as it leaves patients with smaller tumors that grow and spread undetected, preventing early treatment of many cancers. Researchers at Rutgers University have just […]
Synthetic Lethality Nanoparticles Kill Difficult to Treat Cancers
Researchers at the University of Iowa have developed dual-action nanoparticles that have been shown, in a laboratory study, to selectively kill endometrial cancer (uterine serous carcinoma) cells. The therapeutic approach combines paclitaxel, a common chemo agent, and nintedanib, aka BIBF 1120, a new cancer drug that is typically used to hinder angiogenesis, but in the […]
Nanopore DNA Reader with Greater Accuracy Thanks to a Bit of Luck in The Laboratory
Scientific collaborators at University of Rochester and University of Ottawa have developed a new DNA reader based nanopores that can accurately identify the nucleotides passing through. It consists of a silicon nitride membrane, that has nano-sized pores within its body, and a biosensor membrane with only one nanopore. The two membranes are positioned 200 nanometers […]
Magnetically Guided Bacteria Move Confidently Within Strong Currents, May Soon Deliver Drugs Inside Body
Researchers at Queen’s University in Canada have managed to get a special type of bacteria to swim against a strong current, opening up the possibility of using the organisms as drug delivery vehicles. The team is using magnetotactic bacteria which have magnetic crystals within them and naturally orient themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field. By setting up the […]
Cells Powered by Magnetic Nanoparticles Help Heal Post Infarct Hearts
Heart attacks result in dead myocardial tissue that forms a scar, and so patients are left with a chronically weakened heart. Replacement heart cells or stems cells that can become desired cardiac cells can be grown in the lab and injected into the dead tissue, but it’s a major challenge to keep them in place […]
Nanoparticles Laden with Tapeworm Drug Stop Activity of Cancer Stem Cells
Researchers at the University of Illinois are working on preventing the metastasis of cancer by using nanoparticles laden with drugs to deactivate cancer stem cells. Cancers often spread via cancer stem cells that can reappear and grow new tumors long after a patient has been in remission. The Illini researchers managed to target these cells […]
Guided Microrobots Made of Algae and Magnetic Particles
Researchers have developed microrobots using algae and magnetic particles that can be guided magnetically to sites in the body and tracked, by spotting the algae’s natural luminescence or using an MRI scanner. The investigators hope that swarms of these tiny robots could help with diagnostics and treatment in areas of the body that are currently […]
Quantum Dots Attached to Antibodies Seek Out, Light Up Tumors in Bright Technicolor
Quantum dots are tiny nanoparticles made of semiconductors that have unusual optical properties. In medicine, they may be very useful because they emit light when stimulated by electricity or an external light source, making them easy to spot in diagnostic tests. They’re more than ten times brighter than fluorescent dyes commonly used today, potentially allowing […]
Nanoparticles with Long Afterglow for Life Sciences Research
Molecular-scale fluorescent markers are a staple of many branches of life sciences research. They get excited and emit a glow when illuminated with a laser, and so can be spotted and associated with cells and other biological things they’re attached to. A common problem with the fluorescent agents is that they lose their glow shortly […]
Nanoparticles Can Reduce Inflammation by Distracting Immune Cells
Researchers at the University of Michigan have shown that nanoparticles can distract neutrophils from causing inflammation, which could be helpful in treating inflammatory diseases. The immune cells carry the nanoparticles to the liver instead of causing inflammation at injury sites. Excessive inflammation is a component of many diseases, from atherosclerosis to sepsis. In a recent […]
Gold Nanoshells Ferry Chemo Drugs Into Cancer Cells to Spare Rest of Body
Researchers at Rice and Northwestern universities engineered a way of encapsulating toxic chemo agents inside of gold nanoshells that deliver and deposit their contents only inside neoplastic cells. Reported on in the latest Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study involved getting docetaxel and lapatinib chemo drugs inside of gold nanoshells […]
Encellin is Developing a Cell Therapy Technology to Address Type I Diabetes
Molecular drugs are far from perfect. As biotechnology develops, researchers are finding that human cells may be used in the treatment of certain diseases, and in some cases offer benefits over traditional therapies. This is the theory behind Encellin, a San Francisco-based company that hopes to change the treatment for Type I diabetes. Encellin’s technology […]
New Brain Probe Maps Dopamine in Brain to Help Study Psychiatric Drugs and Diseases
Researchers at University of California, Berkeley have developed special sensors that provide a look at the location and concentration of neurotransmitter chemicals, such as dopamine, inside living brain tissue. The new capability should help scientists to study a variety of neurological conditions and the drugs that are used to treat them. The nano-scale sensors are made […]
Artificial Beta Cells Can Release Insulin On-Demand
Researchers from the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University have developed artificial beta cells that can release insulin in response to rising glucose levels in the blood stream. The technology could be used to treat diabetes through subcutaneous injections of the cells into patients, or gradual delivery using a skin patch. The […]
Abionic Detects Your Allergies in Minutes
Abionic, a Swiss company, has received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) registration for detecting allergies to cats, dogs, trees, and grasses. The firm’s nanotechnology-focused assay can yield results in as little as five minutes, with some tests taking up to 20 minutes, and uses just a single drop of blood (no this isn’t a […]
Genetically Programmed Bacteria Grow Into Electronic Devices
For folks that fear the consequences of genetic engineering and related fields, it’s time to dial it up to eleven. That’s because researchers at Duke University have now demonstrated that they’re able to genetically modify bacteria to coax them to produce electronic devices, potentially leading to a new and surprising way for to interface with […]
Iridium-Coated Gold Nanoparticles Provide View of Blood Flow in Tiniest of Vessels
What happens to blood within the body’s narrow capillary vessels is not fully understood, but knowing more how blood cells and plasma propagate through all sorts of vessels may help us understand and treat a number of cardiovascular diseases. To help advance knowledge in this field, researchers at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. […]
Tiny Nanopatch Shown Highly Effective Against Polio Virus
A new vaccine delivering “Nanopatch” has just been tested that may finally help put an end to polio. Developed by a scientist at Queensland University in Australia and commercialized by Vaxxas, a firm based in Sydney, the patch has microscopic needles projecting from its bottom that pass the vaccine directly to the antigen-presenting cells below […]