Chemicals, delivered in the form of drugs, are the most common way of influencing the activities of cells in our bodies. While great in many ways, there are a myriad of limitations and side effects for clinicians and patients to grapple with. UCLA bioengineers are investigating whether targeted physical manipulation could serve as an additional […]
Tag: Nanomedicine
Flexible and Conductive Mesh for Implantable and Wearable Bioelectronics
Researchers at the Institute of Basic Science in South Korea have developed a highly stretchable bioelectronic mesh patch which can monitor electrophysiological signals, such as heart muscle electrical activity, and can apply electrical and thermal stimulation for therapeutic purposes. The mesh can be implanted, such as around the heart, or can be worn on the […]
Highly Sensitive Electronic Skin Detects Touch and Temperature Changes
The University of Texas at Arlington has obtained a patent for a highly sensitive electronic skin that may one day give prosthetic devices a keen sense of touch. The e-skin features a dense forest of flexible zinc oxide nanowires on its surface. As it comes in contact with something, each nanowire generates a small electric […]
Technique to Make Nanoparticles Work Inside Pills
Nanomedicine requires the nanoparticles that are administered to be properly absorbed by the body. Given orally via a pill, nanoparticles mostly end up being metabolized and/or excreted by the gastrointestinal system. Researchers at the University of Utah have now come up with a way of making nanoparticles much easier to uptake by the body through […]
Clot Busting Nanogel: A Faster, Safer Therapy for Heart Attacks
Scientists at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a new way of delivering a clot buster and a mitigating drug to limit damage due to reperfusion. Currently, serious blockages leading to the myocardium are typically broken up in the cath lab, usually with a stent left […]
Twisters Inside a Lab-on-a-Chip Trap Viruses, DNA, Biomolecules
At Purdue University engineers have developed a new type of optical nanotweezers that can be used to grab onto and inspect viruses, DNA strings, and other important biomolecules. The innovative lab-on-a-chip device relies on a “nanostructured plasmonic metafilm” created out of a very thin gold sheet with nano-scale holes drilled into it. When light is […]
Nano-Optic Endoscope Allows High-Resolution Imaging
Researchers at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a new type of endoscopic imaging catheter. The catheter uses metalenses, which contain nanostructures to focus light, to achieve higher resolution imaging than conventional catheter imaging systems. So far, the researchers have used the new system to image deep into tissue samples and see tissue […]
Functional Nanofibers Loaded with Antibiotics to Treat Serious Wounds
Researchers at Texas A&M University and Stevens Institute of Technology have been working on developing new materials that could aid clinicians in treating challenging wounds. These polymeric coatings have nano-scale fibers that hold antibiotics and release their cargo when the environment of the wound meets a specific criteria. This makes the material “functional,” and able […]
Magnets Pull Chemotherapy Drugs Across Blood-Brain Barrier Into Spinal Tumors
Tumors within the spinal cord can be very difficult to treat surgically, due to the extremely fragile and important tissues that can be found nearby. While radiation can reach the tumors, chemo agents have trouble crossing the blood-brain barrier, which protects the spinal cord from dangerous pathogens and chemical compounds. Now researchers at the University […]
Microfluidic Device Detects Bacteria in Tiny Samples
Canadian researchers at McGill University and University of Toronto have come up with a new device for rapid detection of small concentrations of pathogenic bacteria within tiny samples. The technology may help to spot diseases early, and so allow clinicians to better treat their patients while slowing down the spread of infection. The device consists […]
Smallest Robots Ever Developed to Sense Their Environment
The reality of being able to inject microscopic robots into the bloodstream that are capable of performing meaningful clinical tasks is now a little bit closer. Researchers are MIT have unveiled the smallest robots to have ever been built capable of sensing their environment. These tiny constructs have not only sensors, but key computing components, […]
Physical Binding Improves Tumor Targeting Nanoparticles
Various research teams around the world have developed tumor killing particles that consist of drug ferrying vessels and antibodies. The vessels protect the drug cargo within, while the antibodies serve as homing mechanisms to deliver the medication precisely where it’s needed. While many of these approaches have demonstrated some effectiveness, the problem is that the […]
Microparticles Carrying Bacteria-Killing Viruses Halt Deadly Pneumonia
Antibiotics suffer from eventual resistance by the bacteria and the fact that they can be quite indiscriminate in who they attack, including the gut’s healthy microbiome. But, there are also bacteriophages, which are viruses that can kill specific bacteria without harming any other bacteria. The problems with bacteriophages, though, is that they’re hard to produce […]
New Nano Microscope Gives Detailed New Look at Alzheimer’s Brains
Alzheimer’s disease seems to develop over many years, if not decades, before symptoms begin to show up. In order to better understand its development, researchers have been looking for new ways to track the formation of amyloid plaques within the brain, which are the best known biomarkers of Alzheimer’s. Researchers at Purdue University recently developed […]
Plasmonic Patch Improves Sensitivity of Fluorescent Diagnostic Testing
A great deal of life science research relies on using fluorescent markers to track molecular biological activity. It’s extremely effective as long as the light signal coming back from a sample is strong enough, but if the light is dim, as with highly sensitive, low concentration tests, fluorescent markers are often insufficient. Now researchers from Washington […]
Nano-Patterned Bone Implants Vascularize and Generate Bone Better Than Smooth Ones
A University of Toronto team from the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) discovered that nano-scale surface topology matters when it comes to vascularization of bone implants. They compared two titanium implants of the same chemical composition and varied only their surfaces at the nano scale. One was smooth and the other was rough […]
Nanoparticles Heat Up in Magnetic Field to Kill Cancer Tumors
A team of researchers, headed by a group from University at Buffalo, has developed a new nanoparticle that can be used to cook tumors to death. The zinc ferrite nanoparticles can be activated by a low strength magnetic field, making the technology clinically applicable. The nanoparticles will hopefully be paired with antibodies, or other targeting mechanisms, […]
Nanolasers to Shine Light on Things Inside Body
At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, scientists have created microscopic lasers that may end up being used for imaging inside the body, control of biological activity via optogenetics, and performing novel biological studies on living specimens. The lasers, which are about 5 microns in diameter, smaller than red blood cells, turn infrared light into coherent […]
Nano Scale Matrix Promotes Neural Stem Cell Growth Without Risk of Cancer
Growing neural stem cells is a complicated process that has the potential to result in the unintended production of cancer cells. In large part this is due to the addition of growth factors to the culture mix, which can result in indiscriminate cellular multiplication. Now researchers from the Hong Kong Baptist University have developed a […]
Special Nanoparticles Cloaked in Tumor Cells Deliver Protein to Kill Cancer
Many cancers tumors are actually quite easy to kill, if not for our extremely skeptical immune systems. There are proteins, for example, that are quite toxic to some cancers, but they get broken down rapidly as soon as they are injected into the body. Researchers at Penn State University have now created a way of […]