Foresight advisor John Gilmore brings our attention to the use of nanotechnology to inject a nanoscale cargo directly into a human cell. Lynn Harris writes in Science@Berkeley about work by Alex Zettl and team: The prick of a flu shot may momentarily sting, but the penetration of the needle does no lasting harm to the… Continue reading Nanotechnology injects into living human cell
Nanotechwire.com reports on clever work at UCSD on detecting cancer using today’s early nanotechnology-based particles: There is a growing recognition among cancer researchers that the most accurate methods for detecting early-stage cancer will require the development of sensitive assays that can identify simultaneously multiple biomarkers associated with malignant cells. Now, using sets of nanoparticles designed… Continue reading Nanotechnology logical OR to fight cancer
A Yale researcher has won the $25,000 Wiley Prize in the Biomedical Sciences for his discovery of natural molecular machine that guides some proteins to fold properly in the warm, crowded environment inside cells: They learned that a large double donut-shaped machine is responsible. They analyzed how that machine uses the energy of ATP and… Continue reading Molecular machine work wins $25,000
We at Foresight are big fans of researchers with ambitious nanotech goals, and today we introduce to you Prof. Shuguang Zhang, associate director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering at MIT. In eJournal USA he wrote of his vision for the future of nanotechnology via molecular machines: By imitating nature, scientists are designing completely new… Continue reading Visionary nanotechnology molecular machines pursued at MIT
We are only in the very early stages of nanotechnology bringing new abilities to DNA reading, but the latest such nanotech advance comes from New Mexico Tech profs Peng Zhang and Snezna Rogelj, described in an article by George Zamora: NM Tech Researchers Develop Nanomaterial Bio-sensor New Mexico Tech researchers have developed a highly sensitive… Continue reading Nanotechnology DNA sensor promises benefits, possible downsides
The competition must be fierce to be selected by the U.S. National Institutes of Health as one of four National Network of Nanomedicine Development Centers. Based on both this year’s and last year’s medical nanotech funding results, it helps to focus on molecular machines: 2006 Georgia Tech: Nanomedicine Center for Nucleoprotein Machines Purdue: Nanomotor Drug… Continue reading Nanomachines targeted for medical nanotechnology
The term “bottom-up” was originally used to refer to molecule-by-molecule assembly of atomically-precise products. But more recently we’ve seen the term used to describe processes that produce products which are not atomically precise. The following Azonano item is an example of this usage. However, it seems likely that this kind of research — which does… Continue reading DNA-directed self-assembly of nanowires
For the penultimate talk we have Eric Drexler, introduced by Bill Goddard as “grandfather of nanotechnology”. Topic is “Design and Analysis of a Molecular Tool for Carbon Transfer in Mechanosynthesis”. Name of the tool is DC10c. There are multiple paths forward toward artificial molecular machinery made of strong covalent solids. Slide shows stages of nanotechnology,… Continue reading Molecular tool for carbon transfer in mechanosynthesis
Now speaking is Christian Schafmeister of U. Pittsburgh. His career started in computers, then went to bio, now on to chemistry. He’s been at the chemistry for five years. First slide shows an Aldrich chemical catalog and the productive nanosystems cover story from C&E News. His goal is to get from one to the other.… Continue reading Feynman Prize for Experiment: Christian Schafmeister
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… Continue reading Nanomachines to mount attack on atherosclerotic plaque
