Nanomachines to mount attack on atherosclerotic plaque

A partnership of 25 scientists from The Burnham Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, and The Scripps Research Institute will use a $13 million NIH award to design nanotechnologies to detect, monitor, treat, and eliminate “vulnerable” plaque, the probable cause of death in sudden cardiac arrest. The project team will work on three innovative solutions to combat vulnerable plaque; 1) building delivery vehicles that can be used to transport drugs and nanodevices to sites of vulnerable plaque; 2) designing a series of self-assembling polymers that can be used as molecular nano-stents to physically stabilize vulnerable plaque, 3) creating nano-machines comprised of human proteins linked to synthetic nano-devices for the purpose of sensing and responding to vulnerable plaque. Credit: Futurepundit.