Tag Archive for 'nanotechnology'

Now – Nanoparticles for Long Lasting Immunity

Every vaccine scientist wants to discover just one thing – how to stimulate immunity that lasts for a lifetime! There are many live vaccines, such as the ones for smallpox and yellow fever that are able to stimulate immunity against the disease that lasts for many decades. However, in spite of the success of such [...]

New Nanoparticles from MIT could lead to Vaccines for HIV, Malaria and Others

While it might seem unbelievable, MIT engineers have announced that they have managed to design a new type of nanoparticles that could effectively and safely deliver vaccines for diseases such as malaria and HIV. HIV is known to be one of the biggest killers in the world and till now no one has been able [...]

NanoPopcorn Targets, Cooks and Tracks Prostate Cancer Cells

Another week, another nano-prefixed word to add to the lexicon: NanoPopcorn. This one comes courtesy of researchers at Jackson State University in Mississippi who created a popcorn-shaped nanoparticle that can perform three separate tasks. First, it can detect as few as 50 prostate cancer cells, then it switches into thermal scalpel mode to cook the [...]

Hot Gold Nanoparticles Can Cook Cancer Cells

There are many possible ways to kill a cancer cell, and one of them is to cook them to death. There are nanoparticles worth their weight in gold to do just that. Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen are experimenting with tiny gold particles’ ability to melt the lipid membranes [...]

Gold-plated Liposomes an Anti-Cancer Stocking Stuffer

No, gold-plated liposomes are not a luxury gift that you’d find in your Christmas stocking, but they could someday give cancer patients the gift of life by selectively knocking out cancer cells while leaving healthy ones alone. This holiday gift comes courtesy of Marek Romanowski, an associate professor of biomedical engineering in the University of [...]

Nanotechnology Promises Big Benefits for Cancer Patients

A $145-million U.S. Federal Government effort to harness the power of nanotechnology to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer is producing innovations that will radically improve care for the disease. That’s the conclusion of an update on the status of the program, called the National Cancer Institute Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer. It [...]

Chinese Company Big on Microneedles

In its report on Suzhou Natong Bionanotechnology’s microneedle technology, the Wall Street Journal hits on an interesting problem in the drug-delivery world: Is it a device or a drug? Since often the delivery technology often enters the body along with the drug, the old categories often do not work.

‘Nanotox’ Research also has Implications for Nano Drug Delivery

A relatively recent subgroup of nanotech research is what is beginning to be commonly referred to as “nanotox,” or the study of how nanoparticles react to the environment and human body. It is a line of inquiry that directly arose out of concerns that if engineered nanoscale particles have the potential to do great things [...]

Biomedical Devices Powered by Miniature Energy Harvesting Technology

The journal NanoLetters recently published an article highlighting the fascinating nanogenerators developed by Dr. Yong Shi, a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stevens Institute of Technology.  Dr. Shi’s work focuses on miniature energy harvesting technologies that could potentially power wireless electronics, portable devices, stretchable electronics, and implantable biosensors. The concept involves piezoelectric nanowire- [...]

New Spin on DNA Delivery: Enhanced Delivery Method of DNA Payloads into Cells

Chang Lu and his chemical engineering research group at Virginia Tech have discovered how to “greatly enhance” the delivery of DNA payloads into cells. The description of their work will be featured on the cover of Lab on a Chip, the premier journal for researchers in microfluidics. Lu’s ultimate goal is to apply this technique [...]