Researchers at Ohio State University have developed new software that allows them to rapidly design and simulate DNA nanorobots. Previously, it was challenging to engineer such tiny devices, but now researchers can map out their design in minutes. DNA-based devices have significant promise as medical technologies with potential applications in drug (Read more...)
Tag: Nanomedicine
Gold Sensor Lives Under Skin for Months Measuring Drugs and Biomarkers
Researchers at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany have developed an implantable biosensor that can measure concentrations of various biomarkers and drugs in the body. Unlike many implantable devices, the sensor can reside in place under the skin for many months without being rejected by the body or losing its functionality. The syst (Read more...)
Magnetic Nanoparticles Deliver Chem and Heat Cancer Cells for Synergistic Effects
Researchers at University College London have shown that tiny magnetic nanoparticles could enhance cancer treatment. The particles can deliver chemotherapy drugs to cancer cells and also produce a mild heating effect when stimulated with an external alternating magnetic field. Combining particle-mediated heat treatment and chemotherapy resulted in (Read more...)
Artificial Attachments for Immune Cells Help Kill Tumors
Though immune cells have the capabilities to kill cancer cells, they’re often thwarted by cancer’s ability to evade detection. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have now developed engineered natural killer cells that have a much better ability to find and kill cancerous cells. “We explored a novel method to engineer nat (Read more...)
Microbubbles Deliver Drugs Directly to Tumors
When fighting cancerous tumors, all too often the very drugs that can destroy a lesion tend to have significant negative effects on the rest of the body. Doses have to be maintained at moderate levels to avoid side-effects that are even worse than the disease. In light of this, researchers have been trying to develop […]
Red Blood Cells Deliver Nanoparticles to Provoke Immune Response to Lung Metastases
Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have developed a way to deliver immune-stimulating agents to lung metastases. Their system involves nanoparticles loaded with an immune-stimulating agent that are attached to red blood cells. When injected into the blood stream, the red blood cells shed the nanoparticles as they squeeze through the narr (Read more...)
Inhalable Nanobody Therapy Deactivates SARS-CoV-2
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have developed a new antibody-type therapy for SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus for COVID-19. The treatment exploits “nanobodies” – tiny antibody fragments – that are harvested from llama blood. The new nanobody therapy can be used in an inhalable form that may deactivate the virus (Read more...)
Body Sensors Printed Directly on Skin at Room Temperature
Biomedical sensors typically perform their best when they’re placed in close proximity to the body. While wearables, such as wrist-worn heart rate monitors, are common these days, they are very limited by where they can be placed on the body, have poor signal quality, and are often uncomfortable to wear for extended periods. Now, researchers (Read more...)
Laser-Controlled Microrobots Small Enough for Injections
Microrobotics researchers have been working for decades, in a seemingly futile attempt, to keep up with the miniaturization that has been achieved in the field of microelectronics. Although rudimentary microscopic robots have been developed, they have failed to take full advantage of conventional silicon electronics and so are limited in their func (Read more...)
Nanogenerators Harvest Energy from Body, Monitor Heart Health
Wearable medical devices such as continuous heart rate monitors, insulin pumps, and neural stimulators usually need access to an electric power source in order to function. While there’s a great deal of wasted energy that our body emits that can be harvested to power such devices, making it actually happen using biocompatible materials has pr (Read more...)
Mechanically Stimulating Neurons Using Magnetic Nanodiscs
Electrical stimulation and chemical pharmaceuticals are the two ways that doctors and scientists routinely use to manipulate neural cells. Chemicals have their side effects, are slow to take effect, and are usually systemically delivered, while electrical stimulation usually requires invasive wires, is limited in its resolution, and is nearly impos (Read more...)
Nanoparticles for Large Gene Therapy to Cure Common Eye Diseases
Wet age-related macular degeneration and a number of other eye diseases, including congenital conditions, are related to mutated genes that result in blood vessel abnormalities. These can be treated with gene therapy, but delivering genetic material has proven to be difficult when dealing with large gene sequences that are common in retinal conditi (Read more...)
Nanostimulators Activate Damaged Tissue to Heal Itself
Peripheral artery diseases and injuries to tissue reduce the amount of oxygen that reaches the affected muscles. Such ischemia is difficult to treat, as new vessels are required to carry more oxygen into damaged tissues. Stem cells derived from fat tissues have been shown to excrete substances that spur angiogenesis and calm nearby inflammation. Bu (Read more...)
Artificial Red Blood Cells to Carry Oxygen, Drugs, and Work as Biosensors
Manufacturing artificial red blood cells may turn out to be significant in treating a number of diseases and conditions. This has been tried in the past by a number of teams, but some important functions were missing in every design. Now, a team of scientists at the University of New Mexico have developed artificial red […]
Microrobots Roll Along Blood Vessel Walls to Deliver Drugs
Precise delivery of therapeutic drugs into diseased tissue remains a challenge in a variety of cases. Tumors can be hard to seed with chemo agents, particularly when the blood flow is not favorable for delivery. Now, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany have developed microscopic drug delivery devices that can (Read more...)
Nanopropellers to Deliver Gene Therapy Into Cells
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany have developed powerful nanopropellers that can be steered into the interior of cells to deliver gene therapy. The magnets that these devices, each about the size of a bacteria, are made of were created for the first time for this very task. Most powerful […]
Graphene Biosensor Developed for Rapid COVD-19 Testing
Researchers at the Korea Basic Science Institute, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, and collaborators have published an article on the development of graphene-based test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, from nasopharyngeal swabs. They have determined it can detect SARS-CoV-2 in clinical samples at a concentration of 242 co (Read more...)
A Sticky Solution to a Hard Problem : Interview with Dr. Luiz Alavarez, CEO of Theradaptive
The development of biomaterials for orthopedic applications is a crowded space with several large and small companies designing innovative materials. One approach is the use of these materials to deliver therapeutic proteins that enhance healing. Theradaptive has developed a novel method to modify the proteins themselves so that they coat the surfa (Read more...)
Gold Nanoparticles Help Uncover Fine Structure of Amyloid Fibrils
A team of scientists, based at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) with collaborators at Ulm University in Germany, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, and MIT, have developed custom nanoparticles for high-resolution detection of amyloid fibrils, those associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinon’s. The newly (Read more...)
Highly Sensitive Wearable Strain Sensor Uses Light for Detection
Stick-on strain sensors that can accurately measure the flexion of joints, big and small, have turned out hard to make. Piezoresistive devices tend to have a delayed response and are not stable in the long-run, while capacitive sensors are not very sensitive and nearby electromagnetic fields tend to interfere with them. Now researchers at South [&h (Read more...)