NanoComputer

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new nanolithography technique that is less expensive than other approaches and can be used to create technologies with biomedical applications.

“Among other things, this type of lithography can be used to manufacture chips for use in biological sensors that can identify target molecules, such as proteins or genetic material associated with specific medical conditions,” says Dr. Albena Ivanisevic, co-author of a paper describing the research. Ivanisevic is an associate professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and associate professor of the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Nanolithography is a way of printing patterns at the nanoscale.
Source: http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wms-ivanisevic-nanolithography/

Several studies have demonstrated that the average life of organisms, including that of mammals, can be lengthened by acting on different genes. Until now this has included permanent modifications in animal genes starting in the embryonic phase, something which is not intended to be carried out with humans. Researchers at CNIO and CBATEG now have proved it possible to prolong the life of mice using a treatment which acts directly on the genes, but is used in adult animals and is applied only once. This is achieved through gene therapy, a strategy never before used to fight the aging process.

The therapy demonstrated to be safe and effective in mice. Researchers worked with adult mice aged one year and older mice aged two. In both cases the gene therapy had a "rejuvenating" effect. The mice which were treated at one year of age on average lived 24% longer.

This research is led at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) by director Maria A. Blasco, in collaboration with Eduard Ayuso and Fátima Bosch, of the Centre for Animal Biotechnology and Gene Therapy (CBATEG) at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona UAB, Spain.

Source: http://www.uab.es/servlet/Satellite/latest-news/news-detail/lifespan-of-mice-grows-by-24–1096476786473.html?noticiaid=1337064121411

Could engineered human stem cells hold the key to cancer survival? Scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) in Singapore, have discovered that neural stem cells possess the innate ability to target tumor cells outside the central nervous system. This finding, which was demonstrated successfully on breast cancer cells, was recently published in leading peer reviewed journal, Stem Cells.

A team of researchers led by IBN Group Leader, Dr Shu Wang, has made a landmark discovery that neural stem cells (NSCs) derived from human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells could be used to treat breast cancer. The effectiveness of using NSCs, which originate from the central nervous system, to treat brain tumors has been investigated in previous studies. This is the first study that demonstrates that iPS cell-derived NSCs could also target tumors outside the central nervous system, to treat both primary and secondary tumors.

Source: http://www.a-star.edu.sg/?TabId=828&articleType=ArticleView&arti, cell stemcleId=1626

"The basic problem with current meat production is that it's inefficient". Instead of getting meat from animals raised in pastures, Professor Mark Post from Maastricht University in  Netherlands wants to grow steaks in lab conditions, directly from muscle stem cells. If successful, the technology will transform the way we produce food. "We want to turn meat production from a farming process to a factory process," he explained.

As head of the department of vascular physiology, he is in the vanguard of a new wave of research to create a way of producing meat that cuts out the need for animal husbandry altogether.

Source: http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/Main/Research.htm

Clck here to get a video interview about Mark Post researches

A new, single-step of  fabricating microcapsules, which have potential commercial applications, in industries, including medicine, agriculture and diagnostics, have been developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, England. The findings are published in the journal Science.
The ability to enclose materials in capsules between 10 and 100 micrometres in diameter, while accurately controlling both the capsule structure and the core contents, is a key concern in biology, chemistry, nanotechnology and materials science.

“This method provides several advantages over current methods as all of the components for the microcapsules are added at once and assemble instantaneously at room temperature,” said lead author Jing Zhang, a PhD student in Professor Abell’s research group. “A variety of ‘cargos’ can be efficiently loaded simultaneously during the formation of the microcapsules. The dynamic supramolecular interactions allow control over the porosity of the capsules and the timed release of their contents using stimuli such as light, pH and temperature.”

Source: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/smart-microcapsules-in-a-single-step/

By shining infrared light on specially designed, gold-filled silicon wafers, scientists at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute (Houston, Texas) have successfully targeted and burned breast cancer cells. If the technology is shown to work in human clinical trials, it could provide patients a non-invasive alternative to surgical ablation, and could be used in conjunction with traditional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, to make those treatments more effective.

"Hollow gold nanoparticles can generate heat if they are hit with a near-infrared laser," said Research Institute Assistant Member Haifa Shen, M.D., Ph.D., the report's lead author. "Multiple investigators have tried to use gold nanoparticles for cancer treatment, but the efficiency has not been very good — they'd need a lot of gold nanoparticles to treat a tumor. "Instead, Shen and his colleagues turned to a technology developed by the study's principal investigator, Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., to amplify the gold particles' response to infrared light.

"We developed a system based on Dr. Ferrari's multi-stage vector technology platform to treat cancers with heat," Shen said. "We found that heat generation was much more efficient when we loaded gold nanoparticles into porous silicon, the carrier of the multistage vectors."

The research is presented in the first issue of the new Advanced Healthcare Materials, a Wiley journal.

Source: http://www.methodisthealth.com/breast-cancer-cells-targeted-then-burned-by-gold-filled-silicon-wafers

How noisy is a walking flea? What sort of sound waves are caused by motile bacteria? Phycisists at the Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM) have managed for the first time to detect sound waves at such minuscule lengh scales. Their nanoear is a single gold nanoparticle that is kept in a state of levitation by a laser beam. Upon weak acoustic excitation the particle oscillates parallel to the direction of sound propagation. The scientists led by Dr. Adurey Lutich, who is member of Prof. Jochen Feldmann's group at LMU Munich, managed to detect such tiny displacements using a dark-field microscope and an ordinary video camera. The nanoear is capable of detecting sound levels of approximatively *60dB. Thus, it is about a million times more sensitive than the hearing threshold of the human ear, which by convention is set at 0 dB.

Trapped gold nanoparticle (left) acts as nanoear

The new method realized by the Munich physicists opens a new world to scientists: for the first time, otherwise imperceptibly weak motions – minuscule sound waves – can be visualized. The researchers developed the nanoear in two stages. “First, we validated the basic principle using a relatively strong sound source” group leader Andrey Lutich explains. “In the second step we were able to detect significantly weaker acoustic excitations.” The main element in both cases is a gold nanoparticle, 60 nm in diameter, which is kept in levitation by a so-called optical trap us­ing a red laser. Each of the experiments was done in a small water drop on a cover slide. 
Source: http://www.nano-initiative-munich.de/en/news/news/article/1/a-nanoear-to-listen-into-the-s/

In the images of fruit flies, clusters of neurons are all lit up, forming a brightly glowing network of highways within the brain. It's exactly what University at Buffalo researcher Shermali Gunawardena was hoping to see: It meant that ORMOSIL, a novel class of nanoparticles, had successfully penetrated the insects' brains. And even after long-term exposure, the cells and the flies themselves remained unharmed.

The particles, which are tagged with fluorescent proteins, hold promise as a potential vehicle for drug delivery. Each particle is a vessel, containing cavities that scientists could potentially fill with helpful chemical compounds or gene therapies to send to different parts of the human body. Gunawardena is particularly interested in using ORMOSIL — organically modified silica — to target problems within neurons that may be related to neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease.

Source: : http://www.buffalo.edu/news/13116

Honing chemotherapy delivery to cancer cells is a challenge for many researchers. Getting the cancer cells to take the chemotherapy "bait" is a greater challenge. But perhaps such a challenge has not been met with greater success than by the nanotechnology research team of Omid Farokhzad, MD, Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH)- Department of Anesthesiology Perioperative and Pain Medicine and Research.
In their latest study with researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Massachusetts General Hospital, the BWH team created a drug delivery system that is able to effectively deliver a tremendous amount of chemotherapeutic drugs to prostate cancer cells.

The process involved is akin to building and equipping a car with the finest features, adding a passenger (in this case the cancer drug), and sending it off to its destination (in this case the cancer cell).

Source: http://www.healthnoise.com/articles/getting-cancer-cells-to-swallow-poison
MIT; http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/61142

As a supramolecular chemist, Hanadi Sleiman found herself strongly drawn to manmade DNA structures. 'We think of DNA as the most programmable structure there is. 'What is really beautiful about DNA structures is the fact that you can control every single aspect of them,' she exclaims. I thought – if it is – let me try to incorporate it into regular supramolecular structures,' says the professor at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Sleiman is one of an increasing number of chemists who have turned to DNA nanotechnology. Some pin their hopes on using DNA in nanoelectronics or for drug delivery, while others are excited about its potential as an analytical tool.

Source: http://aoc.mcgill.ca/news/channels/2010/march/3/dna-nanotechnology-breakthrough-offers-promising-applications-medicine

Researchers from the  Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, produced a  synthetic vaccine based on nanotechnology which holds out the promise of halting autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's and rheumatoid arthritis. Early research has shown that the molecular principle behind the approach works, at least in mice. Scientists are excited by the findings, which hold out the prospect of new treatments for a broad range of conditions including the spread of cancer. However, much more work is needed before experts can be sure the therapy is safe for humans – today it works with mice -.
The vaccine tricks the immune system into producing antibodies that target an enzyme at the heart of autoimmune diseases. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) cut through structural materials such as collagen to assist cellular mobilisation and wound healing. When some members of the enzyme family, especially the enzyme MMP9, get out of control they can promote autoimmune disease and the spread of cancer around the body.

Professor Irit Sagi, from the Weizmann Institute said: "We are excited not only by the potential of this method to treat Crohn's, but by the potential of using this approach to explore novel treatments for many other diseases."

The research is published in the journal 'Nature Medicine'.
Source: http://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biological_Regulation/IritSagi//home.html

FORGET antibiotics, let's try nanoparticles. That's according to DARPA , the US military's research arm, which says that rather than spend money on new antibiotics, which only work until bacterial strains grow resistant, "readily adaptable nanotherapeutics" can fight infection instead. The agency has called for proposals  to find ways to use small interfering RNA (siRNA) to fight bacteria. These scraps of genetic code seek out their mirror image within cells, such as bacteria, and silence them. This stops protein production and leads to cell death.

DARPA is seeking ideas for adaptable nanoparticles that can be "reprogrammed on the fly" by loading up specific siRNA to deal with outbreaks among troops.Let's remember that DARPA finances a lot of civil research programs. As with GPS systems and the internet, this innovation might benefit the military initially, but eventually become a model for mainstream medication.
Source;  NewScientist.com

A new center at UC Santa Barbara (University of California Santa Barbara) has the development of an artificial pancreas in its sights, as well as new biomaterials, new tools for the detection and diagnosis of disease, and new mechanisms for drug delivery, using nanotechnologies.
A group of international diabetes researchers  engineer an artificial pancreas system that will monitor and adapt to the body’s complex real-time changes in behavior and physiology. This collaboration between physicians and engineers aims to merge three key aspects of type 1 diabetes management – human behavior, physiology, and medical technology – and ultimately to transition their artificial pancreas technology into clinical practice.

Biomedical engineering, traditionally defined as engineering applied to biological and medical problems. Engineering of biological systems, the engineering of biological systems or the creation of things that mimic biological systems as a means of solving a pressing technical need. That is, using biology for engineering purposes. Using the engineering perspective to elucidate how cells and organisms function. In other words, applying what we have learned in the fields of engineering to our understanding of the inner workings of biology.

Source: http://www.bmse.ucsb.edu/research/bioengineering/