Nanotechnology Spotlight – Latest Articles

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Showing Spotlights 97 - 104 of 542 in category All (newest first):

 

Injecting biomedical electronics for monitoring and therapy of body organs

electronic-implantMiniaturized needle-like carriers in high aspect ratio structures are a novel class of implantable electronic devices. They are used to deliver tiny sensors and stimulation tools inside the body via minimally invasive injection or insertion into a specific area of an organ. A recent review summarizes the latest developments in materials, designs, and manufacturing techniques in the field of injectable biomedical devices, highlighting unique applications and demonstrations of viable clinical tools that were applied in various internal organs.

May 19th, 2020

Multifunctional polymeric nanoparticles with trimodal affinity for liver cancer therapy

nanoparticlesHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is is the most common type of primary liver cancer and one of the most aggressive and hyper-vascularized forms of cancer. Many current chemotherapeutics fail to achieve the effective therapeutic index in the solid tumours due to poor drug penetration, poor bioavailability, non-specificity and drug resistance - a challenging aspect in this field. In search of new modalities, researchers have developed multifunctional polymeric nanoparticles against HCC. These biocompatible multifunctional polymeric nanoparticles hold trimodal affinity towards targeting microtubules, tyrosine kinases, and high-sensitivity imaging system quantum dots.

May 14th, 2020

Carbon nanotubes pave the way for human breath analysis of lung disease

exhaling-breathBreath is one of the main sources of human health parameters that can be used for predicting the state of internal organs. Exhaled breath composition is very complex and the existence of disease marker molecules can be as low as one part per million. That means that using breath for health monitoring purposes requires highly sensitive tools with a recognition ability down to single molecules. Researchers developed a method for fast, on-site and still accurate breath analysis that does not need special preparation of breath samples. The method is based on an electronic nose platform that uses a set of single-walled carbon nanotube sensors deposited on flexible substrates and modified by different semiconducting organic molecules.

May 13th, 2020

Nanotechnology-based approaches to testing for COVID-19 infections in high-risk individuals

SARS-Cov-2In the absence of vaccines, many scientists argue that the best approach to control the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) would be fast, cheap, reliable, and portable means of diagnosing COVID-19 infection. In particular, the identification of patients with the highest risk of COVID-19 mortality (i.e. those with co-morbidities such as cardiovascular disorders or massive alveolar damage and progressive respiratory failure) could significantly improve the capacity of healthcare providers to take early action and minimize the possibility of overwhelming care centers, which in turn would save many lives.

May 12th, 2020

Glioblastoma-coated nanotubes target and kill brain cancer cells

coated-cnanotubesResearchers exploited for the first time cellular self-recognition process for targeting glioblastoma cells with boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), a biocompatible, yet inorganic, nanomaterial. The team loaded the BNNTs with doxorubicin, a powerful chemotherapy drug, and then functionalized them with glioblastoma cell membranes This targeting approach benefits from the ability of cancer cells to recognize each other due to similarities present on their membrane that make them different from healthy cells.

May 11th, 2020

Deep brain stimulation therapies benefit from graphene fiber electrodes

graphene-fiberDeep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment for many neurological disorders, but despite its widespread utilization the underlying mechanisms and downstream effects of DBS remain poorly understood. One major issue to understand the therapeutic mechanism of DBS is to map the wide variety of brain responses at both the local and global levels. Researchers have developed a highly MRI-compatible graphene fiber electrode that enables full activation pattern mapping by functional magnetic resonance imaging under DBS without the occurence of artifacts resulting from magnetic field interference.

Apr 20th, 2020

3D Bioprinting 101: Making bioprinting more accessible

bioprintingRecent developments in hydrogel chemistries, reinforcement approaches, and crosslinking methods have expanded the applications of 3D bioprinting to pharmaceutics, regenerative medicine, and biomedical devices. A multitude of 3D bioprinting techniques have been developed, but among these different approaches, extrusion-based 3D bioprinting has become a popular technique as it is easy to optimize and all its constituents are economical in price. A recent review elucidates the nuances of 3D bioprinting in a step-by-step guideline format, from its basics to more advanced levels.

Apr 10th, 2020

Developing personalized vaccines with biomimetic nanotechnology

cellsNanotechnology offers many benefits that can be leveraged to increase the potency of vaccine formulations. For anticancer vaccination, antigenic material can be collected directly from a patient's resected tumor, formulated into a biomimetic nanoparticle, and then administered back into the patient to promote tumor-specific immunity. For antibacterial vaccination, strain-specific virulence factors or membrane can be immobilized onto nanoparticle substrates, and the resulting complexes can be used to vaccinate patients with an identified risk against the associated pathogen.

Apr 3rd, 2020