Nanotechnology News and Research

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DNA overwinds when stretched

Most of us are familiar with the winding staircase image of DNA, the repository of a biological cell's genetic information. But few of us realize just how tightly that famous double helix is wound.

8 Aug 2006

Heat treatment may zap cancer cells

Scientists believe they have discovered a clue as to why so many men with testicular cancer survive against the odds.

26 Jul 2006

Herceptin-linked nanoparticles for targeted cancer therapy

Albumin nanoparticles have recently proven their mettle as anticancer agents with the 2005 approval of Abraxane to treat metastatic breast cancer.

17 Jul 2006

Diblock copolymer micellar nanoparticles decorated with annexin-A5 proteins

One of the banes of modern cancer therapy is that clinicians and patients must often wait months before they can tell if a given treatment is working.

17 Jul 2006

Self-illuminating quantum dots for in vivo imaging

Quantum dots have already proven themselves as powerful imaging probes that can enable researchers to track disease-related molecules inside cells and even within the body.

17 Jul 2006

Scientists develop piezoresponse force microscopy

A seminal early event in the history of nanotechnology was the development of the atomic force microscope (AFM), which used a nanoscale cantilever to image solid materials at the atomic level.

17 Jul 2006

Functionalized carbon nanotubes are non-cytotoxic and preserve the functionality of primary immune cells

Various types of carbon-based nanomaterials, such as buckyballs and nanotubes, have shown promise as drug delivery tools and imaging agents, but reports of toxicity associated with some of these materials have raised questions about their ultimate utility in clinical oncology.

10 Jul 2006

Proteolytic activity monitored by fluorescence resonance energy transfer through quantum-dot-peptide conjugates

Using a synthetic peptide modeled after the protein that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) uses to enter cells, a multi-institutional research team has created quantum dots that can penetrate the cell membrane and image internal structures in a cell.

10 Jul 2006

Nanoscale metal-organic frameworks as potential multimodal contrast enhancing agents

By combining the properties of inorganic and organic molecules in one material, researchers at the Carolina Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNE) have developed a new class of nanomaterials that can be used to create multifunctional nanoparticles.

10 Jul 2006

Imaging pancreatic cancer with a peptide-nanoparticle conjugate targeted to normal pancreas

Most attempts to develop imaging agents that can better distinguish tumors from healthy tissue focus on finding molecules that are more abundant on malignant cells than on normal cells and using those as cellular targets.

10 Jul 2006

New polymer-lipid hybrid nanoparticle

A novel combination of lipids, a negatively charged polymer, and the anticancer drug doxorubicin has yielded a new nanoparticle that can kill breast cancer cells that are normally resistant to this drug.

3 Jul 2006

Thermosensitive pluronic micelles stabilized by shell cross-linking with gold nanoparticles

Many types of nanoparticles can cross the cell membrane and deliver their therapeutic payload into tumor cells.

3 Jul 2006

Buckyballs deliver multiple drugs simultaneously to tumors

Combining a monoclonal antibody known to target melanoma tumors with multiple C60 buckyballs, researchers at Rice University and the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have developed a new way to deliver multiple drugs simultaneously to tumors.

3 Jul 2006

Multiple cancer biomarkers detected simultaneously

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology revolutionized diagnostic medicine and basic research through its ability to amplify and detect minute amounts of specific DNA sequences.

3 Jul 2006

From DNA to RNA to protein

Of the thousands of proteins produced in our cells, few are as important as the enzyme RNA polymerase (RNAP), which has the unique ability to faithfully copy genetic information from DNA.

18 Jun 2006

Silica nanoparticles shown to boost reflection of ultrasonic energy

Targeted nanoparticles may eventually help physicians detect the very earliest stages of cancer using readily available ultrasound equipment, a new study from investigators at The Ohio State University suggests.

9 May 2006

Advancing nanoparticle-based imaging and therapy of brain cancer

Brain cancer is one of the most difficult malignancies to detect and treat, in large part because of the difficulty in getting imaging and therapeutic agents past the so-called blood-brain barrier and into the brain.

9 May 2006

Nanoparticle system for imaging and delivering drugs to tumors

By melding magnetic and luminescent properties with an easily modified surface, a team of investigators at the National Research Council of Canada have created what could prove to be a highly versatile nanoparticle system for imaging and delivering drugs to tumors.

9 May 2006

Scientists assemble a complete viral coat around a gold nanoparticle

Using a short piece of DNA as a template, a team of investigators at North Carolina State University has assembled a complete viral coat around a gold nanoparticle.

9 May 2006

Magnetic nanotechnology holds promise in fighting cancer

Detecting cancer and reinventing computing are two challenges that seemingly have little, if anything, to do with each other. That is, unless you are a nanotechnologist like Shan Wang, an associate professor of materials science and engineering and of electrical engineering at Stanford.

20 Apr 2006