Novartis Pathways features article on medical nanorobots

An article by Robert A. Freitas Jr. ("Nanomedicine: robots in the bloodstream") appeared in the October-December 2001 issue of Pathways, a quarterly journal published by Novartis, a major pharmaceutical company. In his article, Freitas, the author of Nanomedicine, reports on recent work on artificial biological nanomotors, nanotweezers, and dendrimers, and features descriptions and illustrations of respirocytes, clottocytes and microbivores, which are medical nanorobot concepts proposed by Freitas. He writes: "In just a few decades physicians could be sending tiny machines into our bodies to diagnose and cure disease. These nanodevices will be able to repair tissues, clean blood vessels and airways, transform our physiological capabilities, and even potentially counteract the aging process."

Freitas concludes: "Although nanotechnology is in its infancy, researchers are steadily making major breakthroughs. If we can learn to harness and precisely control the ability to manipulate molecules, then many aspects of our lives will change forever. In particular, the ability to carry out medical procedures at the molecular level will revolutionize medical practice. The next few decades will be very interesting indeed."

Pathways has a circulation of 20,000 and is sent to health care professionals in 53 countries around the world, so publication of the article represents a small but significant step into the mainstream for the concept of nanorobotic medicine.

More information on the specific medical nanorobots proposed by Freitas can be found in the technical articles that have appeared on the Foresight Nanomedicine web pages or in the IMM Reports that appear as part of his column on nanomedicine in the Foresight Update newsletter:

French conference looks at medical nanotechnology

from the World-Watch dept.
The French newspaper Le Monde has posted a brief description of a presentation on "Therapeutic applications of nanotechnolgies" by Patrick Couvreur, a professor at the University of Paris-Orsay and a researcher with the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), who spoke 31 January 2002 at a conference on "Nanotechnology and new medications". The web page provides links to audio files of the conference (in French).

If you donít read French, try the Babelfish/AltaVista machine translator.

Australia reprioritizes research funding, including nanotechnology

from the World-Watch dept.
A pair of reports in the Canberra Times cover a minor flap that developed when Australian Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson departed from normal practice by directing the Australian Research Council (ARC), the nation's top research body, how to spend a third of its 2003 budget. Making the announcement on 28 January ("Nelson sets priority for research funds" by C. Jackson, 30 January 2002), Nelson said 33 per cent of ARC funding would go to four priority areas of cutting-edge scientific research such as nanotechnology, genomics, complex and intelligent systems and photonics. About A$170 million (about US$86.4 million) would support projects and centres for up to five years; Nelson said that research proposals in the areas of nanotechnology and biomaterials, photon science, genomics and phenomics, and complex and intelligent systems should share one-third of ARC grants allocated in the current application round for 2003. According to the second report ("Minister's decision means some research grants doubled" by C. Jackson S. Grose, 31 January 2002), the result of the reallocation of funds to those four specific areas will result in funds to those areas almost doubling. In the 2002 round, genomic and phenomics received the largest amount of the four, 6.4 per cent. Nanotech and biomaterial work received 5.9 per cent, photon science 2.9 per cent, and 2.8 per cent went to complex and intelligent systems research.

According to the reports, the announcement has thrown the ARC's grants system into turmoil.

Adult stem cell line may serve for regenerative medicine

from the regenerative-medicine dept.
Numerous reports appeared in late-January 2002 in response to a press release (23 January) that reports on a claim by Dr. Catherine M. Verfaillie and colleagues at the University of Minnesota Stem Cell Institute (SCI) that they have isolated a type of stem cell found in adults that can turn into every single tissue in the body. Previously, only stem cells from early embryos were thought to be able to do this. If the finding is confirmed, it will mean cells from your own body could one day be turned into all sorts of perfectly matched replacement tissues and even organs. The finding generated a high level of interest because, if confirmed, there would be no need to resort to therapeutic cloning — cloning human embryos to get matching stem cells from the resulting embryos. Nor would you have to genetically engineer embryonic stem cells (ESCs) to create a "one cell fits all" line that doesn't trigger immune rejection. The discovery of such versatile adult stem cells will also fan the debate about whether embryonic stem cell research is justified.

Additional coverage can be found in articles from the New York Times ("Scientists Herald a Versatile Adult Cell", by N. Wade and S.G. Stolberg, 25 January 2002) and United Press International ("Adult stem cell findings lauded", 24 January 2002).

In related news that demonstrates the importance of this line of research, Dr. Verfaillie announced in another press release (30 January 2002) that her team has demonstrated, for the first time, the ability of adult bone marrow stem cells to expand in vitro as endothelial cells (which line blood- and lymphatic vessels) and then engraft in vivo and contribute to new growth of blood vessels (neoangiogenesis). The report appeared in the 1 February 2002 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Verfaillie and her colleagues announced late last year that these cells, called multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPCs), demonstrate the potential to differentiate beyond mesenchymal cells, into cells of the visceral mesodermal origin, such as endothelium, and may be capable of differentiating into nonmesodermal cell types, such as neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and liver.

ACT claims to grow artificial kidney from stem cells

According to a report from the UK-based New Scientist (" ëFunctionalí kidneys grown from stem cells", by Claire Ainsworth, 29 January 2002), researchers at Advanced Cell Technology in the U.S. claim to have grown functional bovine kidneys using stem cells taken from cloned cow embryos. The report says the ACT researchers, working in collaboration with a group at Harvard University, coaxed the stem cells into becoming kidney cells, and then "grew" them on a kidney-shaped scaffold. The two-inch-long mini-kidneys were then transplanted back into genetically identical cows, where they started making urine. If confirmed, the work raises the prospect of using stem cells taken from human patients with kidney failure to create new organs for transplant. ACT did not reveal details, and the work has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. As the NS article notes, no details are available as to exactly what these miniature kidneys are, and whether they are in fact complete, functional organs. The kidney is a very complex organ, with an intricate supply of blood vessels that are key to its ability to filter blood.

Additional coverage appeared in the New York Times ("Company Says It Used Cloning to Create New Kidneys for Cow", by K. Chang, 31 January 2002).

Biotech company claims to have automated cloning with chip

from the brave-new-world? dept.
According to a press release (30 January 2002) issued by the UK-based New Scientist Magazine, a specialized chip that will automatically create hundreds of cloned embryos at a time is being developed by Aegen Biosciences, a Californian biotech company. If true, the chip should help make cloning cheap and easy enough for companies to mass-produce identical copies of the best milk or meat producing animals for farmers. It might even be used for cloning human embryos. According to the release, the chip automates the laborious process of nuclear transfer, the key step in cloning. At present it takes hours of painstaking work with a microscope to remove the nucleus of an egg cell and replace it by fusing the denucleated egg with another cell.

Purdue researchers reveal structure of viral DNA-injector

from the biological-nanomachines dept.
According to a lengthy press release (30 January 2002), scientists at Purdue University have solved the three-dimensional structure of the bacteriophage T4 virus, which includes a complex syringe-like structure designed to inject viral DNA into a host cell. The researchers reported their work on this natural nano-mechanical device in the 31 January 2002 issue of Nature.

The study also reveals how the virus binds to the surface of the host, punctures the cell wall with a syringe-like tube and injects its own genetic blueprint into the cell. The virus uses its long-tail fibers to recognize its host and to send a signal back to the baseplate. Once the signal is received, the short-tail fibers help anchor the baseplate into the cell surface receptors. As the virus sinks down onto the surface, the baseplate undergoes a change — shifting from a hexagon to a star-shaped structure. At this time, the whole tail structure shrinks and widens, bringing the internal pin-like tube in contact with the outer membrane of the E. coli cell. As the tail tube punctures the outer and inner membranes of the E. coli cell, the virus' DNA is injected through the tail tube into the host cell. This genetic information then sets the cell's machinery to work creating replicas of the virus.

Analysis of the cell-puncturing device also reveals a structure that may hold potential for applications in nanotechnology, such as microscopic probes, said Michael Rossmann, Hanley Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences at Purdue who directed the study. "This a very stable structure that looks like a small stylus. It might be useful as a probe in an atomic force microscope, which employs a probe of molecular dimension."

Update: Additional information on this research, including links to high-resolution images of the T4 virus and the viral baseplate mechanism and a news video, is available on the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) website.

RPI in the final running for U.S. Army NT Center

According to an article in the Albaby, N.Y. Times Union ("RPI among finalists for Army nanotech project", by K. Aaron, 30 January 2002), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is one of just a few U.S. universities still under consideration to be the host institution of the University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) for the U.S. Armyís Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN). Competition for the UARC was quite keen, and included three universities in New York State alone (see Nanodot posts from 1 November and 28 November 2001). According to the article, the Army will announce which school will host the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies by the end of March. The award would bring the winning university $95 million over five years, though Richard W. Siegel, a professor who is leading the RPI effort, expects that to climb.

Synthetic antioxidant enzyme prevents type 1 diabetes in mice

According to a press release (25 January 2002), a new study by researchers at National Jewish Medical and Research Center and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center shows that a synthetic antioxidant can delay and prevent the onset of autoimmune diabetes in mice. The antioxidant protected insulin-producing beta cells from lethal oxygen radicals generated in diabetes. The antioxidant also blocked the ability of the immune system to recognize beta cells, the target of the autoimmune attack in diabetes. The findings suggest that antioxidants may be useful against diabetes as well as other autoimmune diseases and organ-transplant rejections. The researchers used a synthetic catalytic antioxidant developed several years earlier by one of the researchers, and now licensed by Incara Pharmaceuticals Corporation. The antioxidant, dubbed AEOL 10113, mimics the naturally occurring antioxidant superoxide dismutase, but is effective against a wider range of antioxidants and lasts longer in the body. The findings, published by in the February issue of Diabetes, suggest that antioxidants may be useful against diabetes as well as other autoimmune disorders. Additional article can be found in this article (25 January 2002). from United Press International.

This research is following a line similar to that being explored by MetaPhore Pharmaceuticals, which is also testing a family of synthetic analogs of superoxide dismutase (see Nanodot posts from 12 July and 14 December 2001).

Heath team at UCLA reports advance in nanotube molectronics

Not content with the collaborative work with HP Labs that recently earned a molecular electronics patent (see Nanodot post from 24 January 2002), UCLA chemistry professor and California NanoSystems Institute researcher James Heath and his coworkers have announced an advance in using crossed arrays of carbon nanotubes to form molecular electronic circuits. The research was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, v41, pp 353 – 356 (18 January 2002). A summary of the report appeared on the Nature Science Update website ("Cylinders make circuits spontaneously: Carbon nanotubes assemble themselves into electronic grids", by Philip Ball, 29 January 2002).

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