Multifunctional nanoparticles trick drug-resistant cell into committing suicide
In an effort to overcome the drug resistance that often occurs in cancer, a team of investigators has developed a nanoparticle made of a blend of polymers that first releases a powerful anticancer drug and then delivers an agent that tricks a drug-resistant cell into committing suicide. Now, tests in mice with human breast cancer have shown that these blended nanoparticles are effective in maintaining high levels of both drugs in the vicinity of tumors.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreCarbon nanotubes get more drugs into cancer cells
Researchers at the Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response (CCNE-TR), based at Stanford University, have found a new way to target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells untouched.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreMapping tumor blood supply in 3-D with targeted nanoparticles
New research describes the development of a perfluorinated nanoparticle loaded with gadolinium ions, which boost magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signals, and then coating this nanoparticle with a peptide that targets new blood vessels.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreHybrid stealth nanoparticle mothership to image and kill cancer cells
By combining a magnetic nanoparticle, a fluorescent quantum dot, and an anticancer drug within a lipid-based nanoparticle, a multi-institutional research team headed by members of the National Cancer Institute?s (NCI) Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer has created a single agent that can image and treat tumors.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreBridges, pipelines expected to benefit from research on preventing corrosion
Rice University has established a National Corrosion Center where researchers will develop better technology for preventing corrosion - a problem that is estimated to cost $276 billion a year in the U.S.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreFirst concrete results of ISO work on nanotechnology definitions
The first concrete result of the work ISO launched in 2005 to develop standards to support the innovative field of nanotechnologies comes with the publication of ISO/TS 27687:2008, which provides terms and definitions related to particles in the field of nanotechnologies.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreMeta-screens: Squeezing light into sub-wavelength spots
In a new study, physicists at the University of Toronto have invented a simple structure called a meta-screen, designed to focus light into tiny spots smaller than the wavelength of the photons in use.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreOptical tweezers trap nanotubes by color
Physicists at Osaka University in Japan used colored light to selectively manipulate different types of carbon nanotubes. They found that some of nanotubes displayed a tendency to cluster at the focal area of a focused laser beam.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreA new imaging method for breast cancer using near infrared nanoparticles
A new imaging method for breast cancer has been developed by a team of scientists from Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine and the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Physics at Penn State. Their researche utilizes encapsulated fluorescent molecules in calcium phosphate nanoparticles and non-toxic near infrared imaging.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreA four-dimensional picture of our three-dimensional world
An international team of scientists from RIKEN at Brookhaven National Laboratory and elsewhere in the USA, Japan and the UK are testing the Standard Model - the foundation of high-energy physics that unifies three of the four known forces found in nature - by calculating a well-known nuclear decay process.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreStructural 'snapshots' of a protein implicated in Alzheimer's disease
A recent study describes the structure of the active form of BACE1, which is an enzyme implicated in Alzheimer?s disease.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreStudy obtains protein structures more efficiently using a combination of techniques
The chances of obtaining crystals of sufficient quality and quantity to allow determination of three-dimensional protein structures using synchrotron radiation are significantly increased using a mix of robots geared to different crystallization techniques.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreMetamaterials shake up electrons
A team at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako has predicted that man-made structures called metamaterials could produce instabilities in electron beams.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreNew work allows scientists to create and study different types of graphene
A new graphene-based material that helps solve the structure of graphite oxide and could lead to other potential discoveries of the one-atom thick substance called graphene, which has applications in nanoelectronics, energy storage and production, and transportation such as airplanes and cars, has been created by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.
Posted: Sep 25th, 2008
Read moreNew research could lead to practical uses for metal-organic frameworks
Acting like molecular-scale sponges, these MOFs have wide ranging potential uses for filtering, capturing or detecting molecules such as carbon dioxide or hydrogen storage for fuel cells.
Posted: Sep 25th, 2008
Read moreScientists peer into heart of compound that may detect chemical, biological weapons
A light-transmitting compound that could one day be used in high-efficiency fiber optics and in sensors to detect biological and chemical weapons at long distance almost went undiscovered by scientists because its structure was too difficult to examine.
Posted: Sep 25th, 2008
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