The Allen Institute for Brain Science is using nanotech methods to map in which cells in the brain which genes are expressed.
Using a promising nanotech approach to deliver the RNA molecules, a type of nanoparticle described as a neutral liposome was administered to mice bearing melanoma tumors and found to cause a significant decrease in tumor growth and in the number of metastatic tumor colonies.
Previously unknown spectral properties of carbon nanotubes functionalized with DNA have been exploited to create nanotech sensors that can simultaneously detect several different substances, in real time, within living cells, to single molecule sensitivity.
The effectiveness of treatment with multifunctional nanoparticles was studied using human breast tumors grown in rats lacking an immune system so that the variation in the effectiveness of treatment could be compared among individual breast tumors.
In laboratory tests, nanoparticles that include a small molecule of nucleic acid that binds to a target molecule on prostate cancer cells were used to carry a lethal dose of the drug into the cancer cells without affecting cells lacking the cancer-specific target.
A nanotech assay for trace levels of proteins associated with cancer is a thousand fold more sensitive than are current assays.
Dr. David Baker, who with Dr. Brian Kuhlman was awarded the 2004 Foresight Nanotech Institute Feynman Prize for Theory, will be one of three winners of the 2008 Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics. Dr. Baker has been featured on Nanodot posts this year for inviting online gamers to aid in protein design… Continue reading Nanotechnology researcher to receive Sackler Prize in Biophysics
A startup company has now received a $3.5 million grant from the state of Texas to commercialize the nanotech delivery of a drug for cancer treatment.
Nanotech membranes made of nanoporous alumina coated with diamond-like carbon films promise to minimize problems with medical implants.
A patch consisting of three layers of polymers can be loaded with nanoparticles and attached to living cells to give them nanotech backpacks.
