News • Smart wound sealing
Soldering wounds with light and nano thermometers
A new soldering technique developed by Empa researchers is expected to prevent wound healing disorders and life-threatening complications from leaking sutures.
Nanotechnology
News • Urea-powered machines
Nanorobots to reduce bladder tumours by 90%
New research demonstrates how tiny nanomachines could greatly reduce bladder cancer by precisely targeting the tumour and attacking it with a radioisotope carried on their surface.
News • Contraception, wound healing, arthritis treatment
Three promising medical applications of nanoparticles
Contraception, wound healing, arthritis treatment: Here are three recent papers published in ACS journals that could expand the beneficial uses for nanoparticles, based on results in rats.
News • Point-of-care diagnostic platform
Inhalable sensors for early lung cancer detection
Using a new technology developed at MIT, diagnosing lung cancer could become as easy as inhaling nanoparticle sensors and then taking a urine test that reveals whether a tumor is present.
News • Promising approach
Researchers use nanodrones for targeted cancer treatment
A research team has successfully developed “NK cell-engaging nanodrones” capable of selectively targeting and eliminating cancer cells, offering a potential solution for intractable cancer types.
News • Novel treatment strategy
Antibacterial nanoparticles to shorten tuberculosis therapy duration
A low-cost technology involving nano-sized antimicrobial compounds against tuberculosis has been developed by researchers at São Paulo State University (UNESP).
News • Hybrid peptide-DNA nanostructures
Could artificial life forms be the medicine of the future?
What role should artificial life play in medicine? Researchers from Denmark and the US explore the potential of hybrid peptide-DNA nanostructures for diagnosing and treating diseases.
News • Detecting tumors and metastases
Nanoparticles deliver double strike against cancer
A new nanocomplex renders a tumor harmless – and, on top of that, it trains the immune system to detect and eliminate metastases.
News • Diagnosis done quick
New sensor tells apart Covid-19 and flu infections - in 10 seconds
US scientists report using a single-atom-thick nanomaterial to simultaneously detect Covid-19 and flu viruses — at much lower levels and much more quickly than conventional tests for either.
News • Protein-based nanostructures show promise
Nanoparticles to neutralise SARS-CoV-2
Researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have developed a new type of nanoparticles inspired by the structure of amyloids, capable of neutralising the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Video • Early detection of dementias
Promising sensor to screen for Alzheimer's
Canadian researchers are developing a new, ultra-sensitive biosensor to screen for Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases. The device has successfully completed the proof-of-concept stage.
News • "COMPASS" method
Using nanoparticles for more sensitive rapid tests
A newly developed rapid test needs only a few seconds to reliably detect pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2. It is based on specially designed magnetic nanoparticles.
News • Betacoronavirus protection
Nanoparticle vaccine protects against Covid-19 variants and related viruses
A new type of vaccine provides protection against a variety of SARS-like betacoronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 variants, in mice and monkeys, according to a new study.
News • Nanometer-scale imaging
Microscopy technique enables 3D super-resolution
Research team led by Göttingen University combine two techniques to achieve isotropic super-resolution imaging.
News • Fire and Ice
Nanomedicine: more effective tumor treatment
Researchers have succeeded in using metal oxide nanoparticles as "radiosensitizers" – and in producing them on an industrial scale.
Article • Super-resolution miscroscopy
PEAR: setting nano-imaging in motion
Ever since the Abbe diffraction limit of conventional microscopy has been surpassed, super-resolution techniques have been diving ever deeper into the most miniscule details of molecular structures. We spoke with Prof. Dominic Zerulla, whose company PEARlabs is developing an imaging technique that sets out to push the boundaries once more – by looking at in-vivo nano-scale processes in motion.
Article • Diabetes
Microneedles: Nano-sized, huge impact
Drug delivery, blood extraction, contrast agent injection – many procedures in modern medicine would be utterly impossible without needles. Despite the benefits, inserting pointy metal tubes into a patient also comes with several drawbacks. By downscaling the to micrometer-size, Japanese researchers open even more areas of application for needles, while bypassing some of the most important…
News • Drug delivery research
Nanoparticles to help cross the blood-brain barrier
Treating diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s is a challenge because drugs have to be able to cross the blood–brain barrier. As a result, the doses administered must be high and only a small fraction reaches the brain, which can lead to significant systemic side effects.
News • Promising approach
New nanoparticles suppress resistance to cancer immunotherapy
Hokkaido University scientists and colleagues in Japan have found a way that could help some patients overcome resistance to an immunotherapy treatment for cancer. The approach, proven in mice experiments, was reported in the Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer.
News • Up-converting nanoparticles technology
Digital pathology: tissue imaging patent granted
Imaging company Lumito has secured a European patent for an instrument and staining reagents based on UCNPs (up-converting nanoparticles) for imaging in scattering materials, such as human tissue. The instrument is intended for use in tissue diagnostics, to provide pathologists visual depictions of tissue samples as an input for making diagnosis. The technology is patented across three global…
News • Cell delivery vehicles
Bio-inspired nanocontainers could enter cells and release their medical cargo
Nanocontainers can transport substances into cells where they can then take effect. This is the method used in, for example, the mRNA vaccines currently being employed against Covid-19 as well as certain cancer drugs. In research, similar transporters can also be used to deliver labelled substances into cells in order to study basic cellular functions. To take advantage of their full potential,…
News • Mechanical inactivation
'Nano traps' to lock up and neutralize viruses
To date, there are no effective antidotes against most virus infections. An interdisciplinary research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now developed a new approach: they engulf and neutralize viruses with nano-capsules tailored from genetic material using the DNA origami method. The strategy has already been tested against hepatitis and adeno-associated viruses in cell…
News • Advanced care
This 'smart' wound dressing monitors the healing process with built-in sensors
Researchers at RMIT University in Australia have developed smart wound dressings with built-in nanosensors that glow to alert patients when a wound is not healing properly. The multifunctional, antimicrobial dressings feature fluorescent sensors that glow brightly under UV light if infection starts to set in and can be used to monitor healing progress.
News • Targeted drug delivery
'Soft X‑ray' method opens up ways for smart nano-medicine
Before the huge potential of tiny nanocarriers for highly targeted drug delivery and environmental clean-up can be realized, scientists first need to be able to see them. Currently researchers have to rely on attaching fluorescent dyes or heavy metals to label parts of organic nanocarrier structures for investigation, often changing them in the process. A new technique using chemically-sensitive…
News • Chemotherapeutic delivery
Bowel cancer: Nanotechnology offers new hope
Bowel cancer survival rates could be improved if chemotherapy drugs were delivered via tiny nanoparticles to the diseased organs rather than oral treatment. That’s the finding from Indian and Australian scientists who have undertaken the first study, using nanoparticles to target bowel cancer, the third most common cancer in the world and the second most deadliest.
