Nanoparticles News and Research

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New 'adjuvant' developed by scientists could allow the creation of important new vaccines

Scientists at Oregon State University have developed a new "adjuvant" that could allow the creation of important new vaccines, possibly become a universal vaccine carrier and help medical experts tackle many diseases more effectively.

15 Sep 2009

Chemists develop two-minute water quality monitoring method

Space is not a fun place to get a stomach bug. To ensure drinking water is adequately disinfected, University of Utah chemists developed a two-minute water quality monitoring method that just started six months of tests aboard the International Space Station.

14 Sep 2009

UTSA receives grant from NSF to study nanomaterials

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has received a five-year, $2.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study nanomaterials and their biomedical applications.

11 Sep 2009

UCSB researchers use lasers to deliver drugs into cancer cells

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have developed a new way to deliver drugs into cancer cells by exposing them briefly to a non-harmful laser. Their results are published in a recent article in ACS Nano, a journal of the American Chemical Society.

10 Sep 2009

Nanobio hybrids for brain cancer therapy

In an advance toward better treatments for the most serious form of brain cancer, scientists in Illinois are reporting development of the first nanoparticles that seek out and destroy brain cancer cells without damaging nearby healthy cells. The study is scheduled for the Sept. 9 issue of ACS' Nano Letters, a monthly journal.

10 Sep 2009

BEST bags orders for state-of-the-art synchrotron instrumentation

Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies, Inc. (BEST) today announced that its subsidiary Bruker ASC GmbH in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, has been awarded several significant contracts for state-of-the-art synchrotron instrumentation from leading research institutions worldwide.

8 Sep 2009

Specific targeting of brain tumors with an optical/magnetic resonance imaging nanoprobe across the blood-brain barrier

Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Washington reported that they had developed a toxin-nanoparticle combination that inhibits brain cancer invasion when added to tumor cells growing in culture.

7 Sep 2009

Nanotags pinpoint multiple cancer markers in live animals

Using nanoparticles designed specifically to produce a bright Raman spectroscopic signal, a team of investigators at the Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response (Stanford University Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence [CCNE]) has shown that it can simultaneously track as many as 10 different optical tags in a living animal.

7 Sep 2009

Aptamer nanoflares for molecular detection in living cells

By combining a gold nanoparticle with a unique family of nucleic acids, researchers at Northwestern University have created a new type of intracellular reporting system that with a flash of light reveals the presence and quantity of a wide variety of biologically important molecules. These so-called nanoflares could provide cancer biologists with a highly sensitive method of tracking complex biochemical processes in real time without interfering with those processes.

7 Sep 2009

Nanoparticle-delivered suicide gene therapy effectively reduces ovarian tumor burden in mice

Nanoparticle delivery of diphtheria toxin-encoding DNA that expresses selectively in ovarian cancer cells reduced the burden of ovarian tumors in mice, and researchers expect that this therapy could be tested in humans with advanced ovarian cancer within 18 to 24 months, according to a report in Cancer Research. If additional tests are successful, these finding could lead to a new treatment for ovarian cancer, which now causes more than 15,000 deaths each year in the United States. Because it is usually diagnosed at a relatively late stage, ovarian cancer is one of the most deadly forms of the disease.

7 Sep 2009

Rapid detection and profiling of cancer cells in fine-needle aspirates

Using a new type of paramagnetic nanoparticle and a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system built into a microfluidic device, a team of investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School has created an assay system capable of detecting as few as two cancer cells in 1 microliter of biological fluid. In addition, the new assay requires little sample processing and produces results in less than 15 minutes.

7 Sep 2009

Molecularly targeted nanocarriers deliver the cytolytic peptide melittin specifically to tumor cells in mice, reducing tumor growth

When bees sting, they pump into their victims a peptide toxin called melittin that destroys cell membranes. Now, by encapsulating this extremely potent molecule within a nanoparticle, researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have created a potential new type of anticancer therapy with the potential to target a wide range of tumors. This work was reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

7 Sep 2009

LSU Professor awarded grant to support a Superfund Research Center

LSU Professor and Patrick F. Taylor Chair of Chemistry Barry Dellinger was recently awarded a grant of $3.6 million by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, or NIEHS, to support a Superfund Research Center focusing on hazardous waste disposal and its impact on public health. It is the only center ever awarded by this program that is not located at a medical school or school of public health.

5 Sep 2009

Researchers to analyse nanoparticles

Researchers at Swansea University's Centre for NanoHealth have been awarded £1 million by the Research Councils' Nanoscience through Engineering to Application cross-council programme, led by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC), to analyse the levels at which nanoparticles can be deemed safe within cells.

3 Sep 2009

Annexin-Vivo 750 imaging agent for measuring cell death in vivo

VisEn Medical Inc., a leader in fluorescence in vivo imaging from research through medicine, announced today the commercial launch of its new Annexin-Vivo 750 imaging agent for measuring and monitoring apoptosis and cell death in vivo.

2 Sep 2009

Chemists design polymer-coated nanorods for drug manufacturers

Nanoparticles combining platinum and gold act as superefficient catalysts, but chemists have struggled to create them in an industrially useful form. Rice University chemists have answered the call this week with a polymer-coated version of gold-platinum nanorods, the first catalysts of their kind that can be used in the organic solvents favored by chemical and drug manufacturers.

1 Sep 2009

New drug delivery system for delivering nanoparticles into the tissue

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have discovered a potential new drug delivery system. The finding is a biological mechanism for delivery of nanoparticles into tissue. The results are published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

26 Aug 2009

Applied Nanoscience in joint venture agreement to produce disposable protective face mask

Applied Nanoscience Inc. (ANI) (PINKSHEETS: APNN), a nanotechnology-based filtration development company, today announced it has reached a joint venture agreement to begin production on a disposable protective face mask with its Asia Pacific region partner. The protective mask will incorporate ANI's proprietary NanoFense™ technology, a U.S. patent pending antimicrobial nanoparticle formulation.

21 Aug 2009

Mesenchymal stem cells repair human brain

There is no known cure for neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. But new hope, in the form of stem cells created from the patient's own bone marrow, can be found ― and literally seen ― in laboratories at Tel Aviv University.

20 Aug 2009

Scientists develop new technique to target brain cancer cells

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago's Brain Tumor Center have developed a way to target brain cancer cells using inorganic titanium dioxide nanoparticles bonded to soft biological material.

20 Aug 2009