Nanotechnology News – Latest Headlines

Inhaled nanoparticles deliver potent anticancer cocktail to lung tumors and block resistance

Researchers have developed an inhalable porous silica nanoparticle that not only delivers potent anticancer drugs only to non-small cell lung tumors, but also delivers agents that prevent the development of drug resistance.

Nov 16th, 2011

Nanoparticles harvest invisible cancer biomarkers

Cancer biologists have long presumed that tumor cells shed telltale markers into the blood and that finding these blood-borne biomarkers could provide an early indicator that cancer is developing somewhere in the body. Now, a research team at the George Mason University has shown that they can fish out the "invisible" proteins masked by albumin and other high concentration proteins using porous nanoparticles decorated with a series of chemical baits, each designed to harvest specific types of trace proteins from body fluids.

Nov 16th, 2011

Biologically targeted nanoparticles may boost radiation therapy effects

Making a tumor more sensitive to radiotherapy is a primary goal of combining chemo and radiation therapy to treat many types of cancer, but with the chemotherapy drugs come unwanted side effects. Now, investigators from the University of North Carolina report what they believe is the first pre-clinical demonstration of the potential of molecularly targeted nanoparticles as a promising new class of agents that can improve chemoradiotherapy treatment.

Nov 16th, 2011

Nanoparticles seek and destroy drug-resistant glioblastoma

Scientists developed a method to combine a tumor-homing peptide, a cell-killing peptide, and a nanoparticle that both enhances tumor cell death and allows the researchers to image the tumors. When used to treat mice with glioblastoma, this new nanosystem eradicated most tumors in one model and significantly delayed tumor development in another.

Nov 16th, 2011

Nanoparticles and mini-NMR point the way to personalized cancer therapy

Using magnetic nanoparticles as a sensitive readout of drug targeting, and a miniaturized nuclear magnetic resonance instrument, researchers created a novel system for directly measuring both target expression and drug binding in a small number of tumor cells obtained via needle biopsy.

Nov 16th, 2011

New material can enhance energy, computer, lighting technologies

Crystal erbium compound offers superior optical properties.

Nov 16th, 2011

Engineers aim to improve performance of technology in extreme environments

Defense Threat Reduction Agency funding electrical and materials research.

Nov 16th, 2011

Adding up photons with a transition edge sensor

Scientists have demonstrated that a superconducting detector called a transition edge sensor (TES) is capable of counting the number of as many as 1,000 photons in a single pulse of light with an accuracy limited mainly by the quantum noise of the laser source.

Nov 16th, 2011

A realistic look at the promises and perils of nanomedicine

Is the emerging field of nanomedicine a breathtaking technological revolution that promises remarkable new ways of diagnosing and treating diseases? Or does it portend the release of dangerous nanoparticles, nanorobots or nanoelectronic devices that will wreak havoc in the body? A new review of more than 500 studies on the topic concludes that neither scenario is likely.

Nov 16th, 2011

Hybrid made from nanofibers and mussel adhesive protein as substrate for tissue culture

Researchers have introduced a novel substrate: a hybrid made of synthetic nanofibers and an "adhesive" from marine mussels, to which cells can simply be "glued".

Nov 16th, 2011

Two million nanorods crammed into single cancer cell

Breakthrough in loading gold nanorods into cells could lead to new cancer treatment.

Nov 16th, 2011

Unusual liquid crystal structures on water surface

Some liquid crystals form monolayers on water surface. When compressed from sides, such films of monomolecular thickness can wrinkle like fabric on a flat, smooth table, pulled together with palms simultaneously from both sides. With increasing surface pressure, the wrinkles of the monolayer fold up and form subsequent layers.