Nanoparticle, nanomaterial

2008/08/28 - Advances in Nanotechnology Crucial to Europe's Space Programm

The European Space Agency (ESA) has appointed the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to survey nanotechnology capabilities in Europe. NPL's Nanomaterials group will lead a consortium to i...
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2008/08/25 - Nanotechnology advances toward atomically precise control of nanoparticle surfaces

Advanced nanotech would benefit from the ability to engineer atomically precise structures on nanoparticles. In a step in that direction, UK scientists have developed a combined computational and experimental method to determine how specific peptides self-assemble on the surface of a gold nanoparticle—in particular how closely spaced on the surface of the nanoparticle the peptides have to be to form chemical bonds. Via ScienceDaily, a news release from UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (includes images and molecular dynamics animations) “Scientists overcome nanotech hurdle“:

When you make a new material on a nanoscale how can you see what you have made? A team lead by a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences research Council (BBSRC) fellow has made a significant step toward overcoming this major challenge faced by nanotechnology scientists. With new research published today (13 August) in ChemBioChem [abstract], the team from the University of Liverpool, The School of Pharmacy (University of London) and the University of Leeds, show that they have developed a technique to examine tiny protein molecules called peptides on the surface of a gold nanoparticle. This is the first time scientists have been able to build a detailed picture of self-assembled peptides on a nanoparticle and it offers the promise of new ways to design and manufacture novel materials on the tiniest scale — one of the key aims of nanoscience.

Engineering new materials through assembly of complex, but tiny, components is difficult for scientists. However, nature has become adept at engineering nanoscale building blocks, e.g. proteins and RNA. These are able to form dynamic and efficient nanomachines such as the cell’s protein assembly machine (the ribosome) and minute motors used for swimming by bacteria. The BBSRC-funded team, led by Dr Raphaël Lévy, has borrowed from nature, developing a way of constructing complex nanoscale building blocks through initiating self-assembly of peptides on the surface of a metal nanoparticle. Whilst this approach can provide a massive number and diversity of new materials relatively easily, the challenge is to be able to examine the structure of the material.

Using a chemistry-based approach and computer modelling, Dr Lévy has been able to measure the distance between the peptides where they sit assembled on the gold nanoparticle. The technique exploits the ability to distinguish between two types of connection or ‘cross-link’ — one that joins different parts of the same molecule (intramolecular), and another that joins together two separate molecules (intermolecular). As two peptides get closer together there is a transition between the two different types of connection. Computer simulations allow the scientists to measure the distance at which this transition occurs, and therefore to apply it as a sort of molecular ruler. Information obtained through this combination of chemistry and computer molecular dynamics shows that the interactions between peptides leads to a nanoparticle that is relatively organized, but not uniform. This is the first time it has been possible to measure distances between peptides on a nanoparticle and the first time computer simulations have been used to model a single layer of self-assembled peptides.

Dr Lévy said: “As nanotechnology scientists we face a challenge similar to the one faced by structural biologists half a century ago: determining the structure with atomic scale precision of a whole range of nanoscale materials. By using a combination of chemistry and computer simulation we have been able to demonstrate a method by which we can start to see what is going on at the nanoscale.

“If we can understand how peptides self-assemble at the surface of a nanoparticle, we can open up a route towards the design and synthesis of nanoparticles that have complex surfaces. These particles could find applications in the biomedical sciences, for example to deliver drugs to a particular target in the body, or to design sensitive diagnostic tests. In the longer term, these particles could also find applications in new generations of electronic components.”

Professor Nigel Brown, BBSRC Director of Science and Technology, said: “Bionanotechnology holds great promise for the future. We may be able to create stronger, lighter and more durable materials, or new medical applications. Basic science and techniques for working at the nanoscale are providing the understanding that will permit future such applications of bionanotechnology.”

—Jim

2008/08/22 - Knockout nanoparticles fight infection

Janet Crombie, RSC: Septicaemia causing bacteria take a blow from two different types of antibacterial nanoparticles, made by scientists working independently in the UK and Korea. <br /> <br />
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/08/21 - Spying on self-assembly

Lewis Brindley, RSC: Proteins attaching to gold nanoparticles don't mill around randomly, but organise into clusters, according to UK scientists who say they have for the first time spied in detail peptides assembling on a surface.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/08/21 - Nanotechnology provides key to turning waste into ethanol

The production of syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen, from coal or other carbon source is an established industrial technology. A new nanotech catalyst now enables the efficient conversion of syngas to ethanol. From an Ames Laboratory news release (via ScienceDaily) “Turning Waste Material into Ethanol“

Say the word “biofuels” and most people think of grain ethanol and biodiesel. But there’s another, older technology called gasification that’s getting a new look from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University. By combining gasification with high-tech nanoscale porous catalysts, they hope to create ethanol from a wide range of biomass, including distiller’s grain left over from ethanol production, corn stover from the field, grass, wood pulp, animal waste, and garbage.

Gasification is a process that turns carbon-based feedstocks under high temperature and pressure in an oxygen-controlled atmosphere into synthesis gas, or syngas. Syngas is made up primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (more than 85 percent by volume) and smaller quantities of carbon dioxide and methane.

It’s basically the same technique that was used to extract the gas from coal that fueled gas light fixtures prior to the advent of the electric light bulb. …

“There was some interest in converting syngas into ethanol during the first oil crisis back in the 70s,” said Ames Lab chemist and Chemical and Biological Science Program Director Victor Lin. “The problem was that catalysis technology at that time didn’t allow selectivity in the byproducts. They could produce ethanol, but you’d also get methane, aldehydes and a number of other undesirable products.”

…In studying the chemical reactions in syngas conversion, Lin found that the carbon monoxide molecules that yielded ethanol could be “activated” in the presence of a catalyst with a unique structural feature.

…Lin’s group looked at using a metal alloy as the catalyst. To increase the surface area, they used nano-scale catalyst particles dispersed widely within the structure of mesoporous nanospheres, tiny sponge-like balls with thousands of channels running through them. The total surface area of these dispersed catalyst nanoparticles is roughly 100 times greater than the surface area you’d get with the same quantity of catalyst material in larger, macro-scale particles.

—Jim

2008/08/21 - Carbon Nanoparticles from Diesel Engines Slipping Through Vehicle Filters

Diesel engines emit countless carbon nanoparticles into the air, slipping through government regulation and vehicle filters. A new University of Michigan simulation shows that these nanopartic...
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2008/08/20 - Nanoparticle-Based Capacitors that Can Deliver Power More Rapidly

The proliferation of solar, wind and even tidal electric generation and the rapid emergence of hybrid electric automobiles demands flexible and reliable methods of high-capacity electrical sto...
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2008/08/20 - Nanotechnology combines two different types of nanoparticles for more antibacterial action

Silver nanoparticles continue to show promise for killing bacteria, especially in a hospital environment. Now a Swiss team has shown that a combination of silver and calcium phosphate nanoparticles provides an even more effective nanotech antiseptic. From Nanowerk News “New nanoparticle film up to 1000 times more effective at killing E. coli bacteria“:

Chemical Engineers in Switzerland have created a plastic film that’s up to 1000 times more effective at killing E. coli bacteria cells than conventional methods.

The team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich have discovered that coating the film with a mix of silver and calcium phosphate nano-particles proves deadly to bacteria.

Wendelin Stark, a chemical engineer and leader of the project explained that it had been previously impossible to apply silver in a targeted and measured way. However, by using a film and applying the silver to the calcium phosphate, he believes the problem has been overcome: “Within 24 hours of the plastic film being applied to a surface, less than 1 bacterium out of 1 million bacteria will survive.”

Because bacteria rely on calcium for their metabolism, the 20-50 nanometer calcium phosphate particles are used by the micro-organisms as nutrition. When the bacteria consume the calcium phosphate, this releases thousands of small silver 1-2 nanometer particles. It’s these tiny silver particles that kill the bacteria and prevent germs from growing and spreading.

The polymer film only emits silver if bacteria are growing in the vicinity.

The research was published in Small (abstract).
—Jim

2008/08/20 - Understanding the Structure of Gold Nanoparticles

The research group lead by Professor Hannu Hkkinen of the Nanoscience Centre of the University of Jyvskyl, published an article concerning the structure of gold nanoparticles in a prominent Am...
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2008/08/19 - Global Market for Nanomaterials to Reach $7 Billion in 2015

The global market for nanomaterials for electronics applications will reach $600 million in 2008 and grow at a compound annual rate of more than 40% to reach nearly $7 billion in 2015, accord...
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2008/08/19 - University of Kentucky Receives EPA Grant to Study Nanoparticles

On August 20, 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will announce the award of a $2 million grant to the University of Kentucky to study nanoparticles. This is the largest E...
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2008/08/19 - Agar Scientific Announces Availability of New Range of Novel Gold Nanoparticles

Agar Scientific is pleased to announce that British Biocell International’s new range of novel gold nanoparticles is available for order. This range of products has been especially comm...
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2008/08/18 - Instant insight: A golden future

RSC Publishing: Gold particles can be real jewels - at least at the nano size they are in great demand by scientists. An inspiration to science from the time of Faraday, today gold nanoparticles are being used for an ever-growing number of applications.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/08/18 - On the road to ultrahigh-density storage

Hitachi and Cornell increase thermal stability of magnetic nanoparticles
read more [Nanotechweb.org News]

2008/08/18 - Large-Scale Australia-China Partnership on Nanomaterials and Fuel Cell Technologies

The University of Queensland will lead a large-scale Australia-China partnership on clean energy technologies, targeting clean coal, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles, hydrogen production and ...
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2008/08/16 - Nanoparticles and Collagen Mimetic Peptides Producing Detailed Images of Tumors

Collagen, the body's most abundant protein, serves as a natural scaffold for cells and directs when and where they will grow. Researchers at the Institute for NanoBioTechnology at Johns Hopkin...
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2008/08/15 - Nanotechnology shows longer particles better to enter cancer cells

Nanotech methods offer a variety of ways to alter the properties of nanostructures to optimize drug delivery. A process that allows the fabrication of different shapes of particles varying in size from about 100 nm to several micrometers demonstrates that long particles are internalized by cancer cells more efficiently than are round particles. From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (credit PhysOrg.com) “UNC study: shape, not just size, impacts effectiveness of emerging nano-medicine therapies“:

In the budding field of nanotechnology, scientists already know that size does matter.

But now, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that shape matters even more — a finding that could lead to new and more effective methods for treating cancer and other diseases, from diabetes and multiple sclerosis to arthritis and obesity.

A team of researchers led by Joseph DeSimone, Ph.D., Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences and William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University, and Stephanie Gratton, a graduate student in DeSimone’s lab, have demonstrated that nanoparticles designed with a specific shape, size and surface chemistry are taken up into cells and behave differently within cells depending on these attributes.

Their findings appear in this week’s online early edition of the journal PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [abstract].

…Using PRINT® (Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates) technology — a technique invented in DeSimone’s lab that allows scientists to design and produce “custom-made” nanoparticles — the UNC researchers made particles with specific shapes, sizes and surface charges. DeSimone said the aim is to optimize particle attributes for specific therapeutic objectives.

“This would mean that we could deliver lower dosages of drugs to specific cells and tissues in the body and actually be more effective in treating the cancer,” said DeSimone, who is also a member of UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the co-principal investigator for the Carolina Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence.

…the scientists discovered that long, rod-shaped particles (diameter, 150 nanometers; height, 450 nanometers) were internalized by cells approximately four times faster than lower aspect ratio particles (diameter, 200 nanometers; height, 200 nanometers), and traveled significantly further into the cells as well.

More information about the PRINT® process can be found on the web site of the DeSimone research group.
—Jim

2008/08/14 - NanoSight Opens Office in Western Region of USA

NanoSight Limited, the nanoparticle characterization company, announced today that Duncan Griffiths has joined the company as Business Development Manager for the Western region of the USA...
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2008/08/14 - Remove Bacteria and Other Contaminants from Water using Nanoparticles

UniSA scientists have discovered a simple way to remove bacteria and other contaminants from water using tiny particles of pure silica coated with an active nano-material. The water treatme...
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2008/08/13 - DoD Award Presented to UCSB Professor for Life-Saving Gauze Infused with Nanoparticles

UC Santa Barbara Chemistry Professor Galen Stucky has been honored for his role in the development of a blood-clotting gauze that is helping save soldiers who suffer severe, life-threatening ...
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2008/08/08 - Major Concern Still Ignored by FDA is Nanoparticles in Sunscreen

Since 1978, sunscreens have been regulated and labeled by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the basis of their SPF (Skin Protection Factor). On August 23, 2007, the FDA proposed new regul...
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2008/08/07 - Nanotechnology Provider Signs Contract to Deliver Prototype Batteries for U.S. Army

Altair Nanotechnologies Inc., a leading provider of advanced nanomaterials technology used in power and energy systems and other applications, today announced that it has signed a $350,000...
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2008/08/06 - Potential of nanotechnology for clean energy draws attention of US presidential candidates

A role for nanotech applications can be seen in the responses to the US energy crisis made by both candidates for the US Presidency. In remarks prepared for delivery in Lansing, Michigan Senator Barack Obama called for new energy for America. Among the many steps he advocated:

The second step I’ll take is to require that 10% of our energy comes from renewable sources by the end of my first term — more than double what we have now. To meet these goals, we will invest more in the clean technology research and development that’s occurring in labs and research facilities all across the country and right here at MSU, where you’re working with farm owners to develop this state’s wind potential and developing nanotechnology that will make solar cells cheaper.

A recent MSU news release highlighted the energy applications of a new nanomaterial developed in the laboratory of MSU researcher Lawrence Drzal—xGnP Exfoliated Graphite NanoPlatelets.

“XGnP can either be used as an additive to plastics or by itself it can make a transformational change in the performance of many advanced electronic and energy devices,” Drzal said. “It can do so because it’s a nanoparticle with a unique shape made from environmentally benign carbon, and it can be made at a very reasonable cost.”

As a step toward solving American energy problems, Senator John McCain has suggested a national prize of $300 million for anyone who can develop a better, more efficient car battery. Although Senator McCain did not mention nanotechnology in his proposal, nanotech solutions for better batteries were mentioned in several comments posted in response to the article.
—Jim

2008/08/06 - Intriguing structures of gold nanoparticles

Alpha Galileo: Scientists from Germany, Canada and the Netherlands have studied tiny gold nanoparticles, so-called clusters, and found them to have fascinating arrangements of their constituent atoms.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/08/06 - Saladax Biomedical Signs Agreement with Karolinska University Hospital to Supply Nanoparticle-Based Immunoassay

Saladax Biomedical, Inc. has signed an agreement with Karolinska University Hospital to supply the novel 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) Personalized Chemotherapy Management (PCM™) reagent ki...
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2008/08/05 - NanoSight Opens US Offices to Provide Local Sales and Service Support

NanoSight Limited, the nanoparticle characterization company, has recently opened offices in the USA to provide local sales, applications and service support to their growing family of use...
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2008/08/05 - Scientists from Europe and Canada are Studying Tiny Gold Nanoparticles

Scientists from Germany, Canada and the Netherlands have studied tiny gold nanoparticles, so-called clusters, and found them to have fascinating arrangements of their constituent atoms. For ex...
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2008/08/05 - Eliminating Metal Nanoparticles Result in a More Corrosion-Resistant Alloy

Oxide scales are supposed to protect alloys from extensive corrosion, but scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have discovered metal nanoparticle chinks i...
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2008/08/05 - NanoCharM Consortium Invites Characterisation and Materials Community Participation

NanoCharM: NanoCharM (Multifunctional NanoMaterials Characterization exploiting Ellipsometry and Polarimetry) has produced its first newsletter aimed at keeping the community abreast of developments, opportunities, and events in the area of non-destructive material characterisation. It also invites the community to take part in a short questionnaire.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/08/05 - NanoCharM Consortium Invites Characterisation and Materials Community Participation

NanoCharM: NanoCharM (Multifunctional NanoMaterials Characterization exploiting Ellipsometry and Polarimetry) has produced its first newsletter aimed at keeping the community abreast of developments, opportunities, and events in the area of non-destructive material characterisation. It also invites the community to take part in a short questionnaire.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/08/05 - NanoCharM Consortium Invites Characterisation and Materials Community Participation

NanoCharM: NanoCharM (Multifunctional NanoMaterials Characterization exploiting Ellipsometry and Polarimetry) has produced its first newsletter aimed at keeping the community abreast of developments, opportunities, and events in the area of non-destructive material characterisation. It also invites the community to take part in a short questionnaire.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/08/05 - NanoCharM Consortium Invites Characterisation and Materials Community Participation

NanoCharM: NanoCharM (Multifunctional NanoMaterials Characterization exploiting Ellipsometry and Polarimetry) has produced its first newsletter aimed at keeping the community abreast of developments, opportunities, and events in the area of non-destructive material characterisation. It also invites the community to take part in a short questionnaire.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/08/05 - NanoCharM Consortium Invites Characterisation and Materials Community Participation

NanoCharM: NanoCharM (Multifunctional NanoMaterials Characterization exploiting Ellipsometry and Polarimetry) has produced its first newsletter aimed at keeping the community abreast of developments, opportunities, and events in the area of non-destructive material characterisation. It also invites the community to take part in a short questionnaire.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/08/05 - NanoCharM Consortium Invites Characterisation and Materials Community Participation

NanoCharM: NanoCharM (Multifunctional NanoMaterials Characterization exploiting Ellipsometry and Polarimetry) has produced its first newsletter aimed at keeping the community abreast of developments, opportunities, and events in the area of non-destructive material characterisation. It also invites the community to take part in a short questionnaire.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/08/04 - Toward atomically precise graphene structures for nanotechnology

Graphene—a sheet of sp²-bonded carbon atoms one atom thick—increasingly shows promise for nanotech applications, but ultimately it would be useful to be able to control the edges of the planar sheet to atomic precision. In one step toward the goal of atomically precise graphene nanostructures, researchers have demonstrated atomically precise cuts through a few graphene layers. From the University of Pennsylvania, via AAAS EurekAlert “Penn Scientists Carve Functional Nanoribbons Using Super-Heated, Nano-Sized Particles of Iron“:

Due to its remarkable electronic properties, few layer graphene, or FLG, has emerged as a promising new material for use in post-silicon devices that incorporate the quantum effects that emerge at the nanoscale. Now, physicists at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated a new method by which FLG can be etched along flawless, crystallographic axes by using thermally activated nanoparticles, a technique that results in atomically precise, macroscopic length ribbons of graphene. The advance could enable atomically precise, and far simpler, construction of integrated circuits from single graphene sheets with a wide range of technological applications.

A.T. Charlie Johnson, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Penn, and his team have demonstrated this new etching process which relies on catalytic metal particles to etch the graphene along precise atomic directions.

Johnson’s team is now attempting to refine their control of the process and test Penn’s capability to fabricate devices whose properties will reflect the intrinsic quality of atomically precise graphene.

“Graphene is a great material for electronics, but it would be even better if it were possible to create devices with crystallographic edges, that is, edges where the atoms lie along single lines in the graphene plane,” Johnson said. “Standard etching techniques being used in the semiconductor industry do not allow this sort of fabrication. Instead, they produce rough edges with lots of atomic scale defects that limit the performance of the fabricated devices.”

Specifically, the Penn team investigated the construction of atomically precise graphene nanoribbons in which charge-carrying electrons are confined in a nearly two-dimensional, lateral plane and the electronic properties of the ribbon are controlled by the width and specific crystallographic orientation of the material. These structures hold enormous promise as nanoscale devices, with the advantage that graphene’s two-dimensionality lends itself to existing device architectures based on planar geometries.

The research was published in Nano Letters (abstract).
—Jim

2008/08/01 - Nanotechnology delivers safer MRI contrast agent to image clots

A novel toroidal-shaped nanoparticle provides a nanotech way to image blood clots without using magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents that are toxic to some patients. From Washington University in St. Louis (via ScienceDaily) “New disease-fighting nanoparticles look like miniature pastries“, written by Gwen Ericson:

Ultra-miniature bialy-shaped particles — called nanobialys because they resemble tiny versions of the flat, onion-topped rolls popular in New York City — could soon be carrying medicinal compounds through patients’ bloodstreams to tumors or atherosclerotic plaques.

The nanobialys are an important addition to the stock of diagnostic and disease-fighting nanoparticles developed by researchers in the Consortium for Translational Research in Advanced Imaging and Nanomedicine (C-TRAIN) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. C-TRAIN’s “smart” nanoparticles can deliver drugs and imaging agents directly to the site of tumors and plaques.

The new nanobialys weren’t cooked up for their appealing shape — that’s a natural result of the manufacturing process. The nanobialys answered a need for an alternative to the research group’s gadolinium-containing nanoparticles, which were created for their high visibility in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

Gadolinium is a common contrast agent for MRI scans, but recent studies have shown that it can be harmful to some patients with severe kidney disease.

“The nanobialys contain manganese instead of gadolinium,” says first author Dipanjan Pan, Ph.D., research instructor in medicine in the Cardiovascular Division. “Manganese is an element found naturally in the body. In addition, the manganese in the nanobialys is tied up so it stays with the particles, making them very safe.”

The bulk of a nanobialy is a synthetic polymer that can accept a variety of medical, imaging or targeting components. In the July 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (abstract) the researchers report that targeted manganese-carrying nanobialys readily attached themselves to fibrin molecules, which are found in atherosclerotic plaques and blood clots. Laboratory-made clots then glowed brightly in MRI scans. They also showed that the nanobialys could carry both water-soluble and insoluble drugs.

—Jim

2008/08/01 - New Nanomaterial Making Plastic Stiffer, Lighter and Stronger

A Michigan State University researcher and his students have developed a nanomaterial that makes plastic stiffer, lighter and stronger and could result in more fuel-efficient airplanes an...
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2008/07/31 - Graphene-Derived Nanomaterials Show Promise as Next Generation Atomically Thin Transistors

Physicists at the University of Pennsylvania have characterized an aspect of graphene film behavior by measuring the way it conducts electricity on a substrate. This milestone advances the...
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2008/07/31 - Ondine Acquires License for the Human Therapeutic Use of Gold-Nanoparticle Photosensitizer

Ondine Biopharma Corporation, a medical technology company developing photodisinfection-based products, today announced that it has acquired an exclusive license for the human therapeutic ...
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2008/07/30 - A Novel Way to Kill Tumor Cells Using Nanoparticles and Light

Medical physicists at the University of Virginia have created a novel way to kill tumor cells using nanoparticles and light. The technique, devised by Wensha Yang, an instructor in radiation ...
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2008/07/29 - Program Intended to Provide Better Understanding of What Nanomaterials Being Produced

Six months after launching its voluntary nanotechnology reporting program for nanomaterial producers, EPA has made virtually no information public about the limited number of submissions i...
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2008/07/29 - Officials Begin Monitoring Manufacture and Storage of Nanomaterials

State and local officials have taken steps to begin monitoring the manufacture and storage of nanomaterials, a major step for a cutting-edge technology that has yet to be regulated by the fede...
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2008/07/29 - Venture Promotes Development in Nanomaterials for High Performance Engineering Industry

The Nanotechnology Knowledge Transfer Network (NanoKTN), the UK’s primary knowledge-based network for Micro and Nanotechnologies, has launched the HiPerNano Sector Focus Group. This ...
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2008/07/28 - Bacteria in Sewage Sludge Prevent Certain Nanoparticles Clumping Together

In a conventional sewage works, nanoparticles should really be bound in the sludge and should not represent a major problem in the aqueous effluent. This is not true, however, as shown by a ne...
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2008/07/25 - Nanoparticle-Based Assay Able to Detect Telomerase Activity

Telomerase, an enzyme that prevents chromosomes from shortening when they divide, is widely suspected of playing a key role in making cancer cells immortal. Though researchers have developed a...
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2008/07/24 - Particle Sizing System Demonstrates DNA-Guided Formation of Ordered 3-D Crystalline Structures

A research team led by Dr Oleg Gang at the Brookhaven Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) in New York is using the Zetasizer Nano particle characterization system from Malvern Instruments in gro...
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2008/07/24 - Activating cancer-fighting cells using nanotechnology

Single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) bundles may provide a nanotech method to activate certain cancer-fighting white blood cells outside a patient’s body in the hope that they will more effectively fight the patient’s cancer upon being returned to the patient. From a Nanowerk Spotlight written by Michael Berger “Nanotechnology enhanced immunotheraphy in the fight against cancer“:

A new study that exploits the unique properties of single-walled CNTs (SWCNT) for biomedical purposes shows the use of SWCNTs as an efficient platform for immunotherapeutic applications. Scientists demonstrate the surface area tunability of SWCNT bundles by chemical treatment and its effect on antibody adsorption and subsequent T cell activation. T cells are central players in initiating and maintaining immune responses. An important goal of successful immunotherapy is the stimulation of T cell immune responses against targets of interest such as tumors.

“We show that antibodies against the T cell CD3 complex (anti-CD3) adsorbed onto SWCNT bundles stimulate cells more effectively than equivalent concentrations of soluble anti-CD3; when immobilized on SWCNT, anti-CD3 can activate T cells at concentrations at least an order of magnitude less than antibody alone” Dr. Tarek Fahmy explains to Nanowerk. “Stimulation by antibody adsorbed onto SWCNT is significantly higher than other high surface area materials (activated carbon, polystyrene, and C60 nanoparticles), suggesting unique properties of SWCNT bundles for stimuli presentation and activation of T cells.”

In contrast to the majority of biomedical applications which use or propose the usage of SWCNTs in vivo — where toxicity becomes an issue — the proposed applications by the Yale scientists uses SWCNTs ex vivo with blood cells derived from the patients blood.

“We find that lymphocytes can be effectively stimulated by SWCNTs,” says Fahmy. “This is important for the field of adoptive immunotherapy which requires efficient activation and proliferation of lymphocytes ex vivo and the generation of large numbers of cells that can be infused back into the patient for efficient immunotherapy. Single walled carbon nanotube bundles can be adopted as a platform for efficient activation of T cells with patient derived blood when combined with antibody stimuli.”

The research was published in Nano Letters [abstract].
—Jim

2008/07/24 - Exhibition Envisages Future of Nanoparticles

New-media art installations that caution visitors about a future when books are relics of the past, and nanoparticles represent a pervasive threat to human health, will be on display starting ...
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2008/07/24 - New Centre to Study Possible Health Effects of Human Exposure to Nanoparticles

The Health Protection Agency has set up a new centre to study the possible health effects of human exposure to nanoparticles. The National Nanotoxicology Research Centre (NNRC) is being de...
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2008/07/24 - Patent Covers Three Main Methods of Associating Nanoparticles with Filter Media

Applied Nanoscience Inc., a nanotechnology-based filtration development company, today announced that it has been issued a patent in New Zealand for its core technology platform encompassi...
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2008/07/23 - Gold Nanoparticles Reduce Drug Delivery Time from Days to Hours

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have developed a technique that has the potential to deliver cancer-fighting drugs to diseased areas within hours, as opposed to the two days...
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2008/07/23 - Adding Nanoparticles to Improve Energy Efficiency of Chillers

Adding just the right dash of nanoparticles to standard mixes of lubricants and refrigerants could yield the equivalent of an energy-saving chill pill for factories, hospitals, ships, and othe...
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2008/07/21 - Roundup and removal of cancer cells using nanotechnology

A nanotech method to capture cancer cells and remove them from the body might be useful for combating ovarian cancer, in particular. From Georgia Tech, via AAAS EurekAlert “Using magenetic nanoparticles to combat cancer“:

Scientists at Georgia Tech have developed a potential new treatment against cancer that attaches magnetic nanoparticles to cancer cells, allowing them to be captured and carried out of the body. The treatment, which has been tested in the laboratory and will now be looked at in survival studies, is detailed online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society [abstract].

“We’ve been able to use magnetic nanoparticles to capture free-floating cancer cells and then take them out of the body,” said John McDonald, chair of the School of Biology at Georgia Tech and chief research scientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute. “This technology may be of special importance in the treatment of ovarian cancer where the malignancy is typically spread by free-floating cancer cells released from the primary tumor into the abdominal cavity.”

…After giving the cancer cells in the mice a fluorescent green tag and staining the magnetic nanoparticles red, they were able to apply a magnet and move the green cancer cells to the abdominal region.

“If the therapy is able to pass further tests that show it can prevent the cancer from spreading from the original tumor,” Scarberry said, “it could be an important tool in cancer treatment.”

LInked to the polymer coating the magnetic nanoparticles are peptides that bind to a receptor protein expressed on the surface of ovarian cancer cells. The researchers claim that their approach would also be applicable to other cancer cells for which appropriate receptor proteins and peptides have been identified.
—Jim

2008/07/21 - Electrochemistry facilitates nanoparticle production

Solid metals transformed into tiny particles in one easy step
read more [Nanotechweb.org News]

2008/07/18 - Quantum Rod System May Safely 'Sneak' Drugs, Diagnostics into Brain

Physorg: A unique nanoparticle system developed by University at Buffalo scientists takes advantage of the versatility of bioconjugated quantum rods to ferry novel diagnostic and therapeutic agents across the blood-brain barrier, according to recent in vitro findings.<br /> <br />
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/07/17 - Nanotechnology may be able to deliver drugs across the blood-brain barrier

Experiments in which quantum rods conjugated to the protein transferrin crossed a laboratory model of the blood-brain barrier point to a nanotech method for ferrying various diagnostic and therapeutic molecules across the blood brain barrier. The researchers expect protein-conjugated quantum rods to be able to transport multiple agents across the blood-brain barrier so that they could function synergistically. From a Nanowerk Spotlight, written by Michael Berger “Crossing the blood-brain barrier with nanotechnology“:

The challenge in treating most brain disorders is overcoming the difficulty of delivering therapeutic agents to specific regions of the brain by crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB). This barrier — a tight seal of endothelial cells that lines the blood vessels in the brain — is a physiological checkpoint that selectively allows the entry of certain molecules from blood circulation into the brain. … while the BBB naturally evolved in order to protect the brain from invasion of various circulating toxins and other harmful molecules, it also serves as a major impediment towards the brain-specific delivery of various diagnostic/therapeutic molecules needed for combating various neuronal disorders.

To date, delivery of therapeutic molecules into the brain often involves highly invasive techniques (like drilling a hole in the skull). The utter scarcity of techniques for brain-specific delivery of therapeutic molecules using non-invasive approaches has led researchers to increasingly explore the vast potential of nanotechnology toward the diagnosis and treatment of diseases/disorders incurable with present techniques.

Scientists have now reported a nanoparticle-based platform which ‘tricks’ the BBB into allowing the entry of the nanoparticle into the brain, using an approach that draws parallel to the ‘trojan horse’ concept. Certain proteins and peptides, such as the iron-transporting protein transferrin, are allowed free access across the intact BBB as they function as carriers of essential nutrients into the brain. By linking transferrin with rod-shaped semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum rods) — an up and coming diagnostic agent which can also multitask as carriers of therapeutic molecules — it was found that the transferrin helps the linked quantum rods to ’sneak’ across the BBB into the brain. This finding can have significant potential implications towards the development of brain-directed nanoparticle based diagnostic and therapeutic agents using minimally invasive procedures.

The research was published in the journal Bioconjugate Chemistry (abstract).
—Jim

2008/07/17 - Magnetic Nanoparticles - New Treatment Against Cancer

Scientists at Georgia Tech have developed a potential new treatment against cancer that attaches magnetic nanoparticles to cancer cells, allowing them to be captured and carried out of th...
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2008/07/17 - Quantum Rods to Ferry Diagnostic and Therapeutic Agents Across Blood-Brain Barrier

A unique nanoparticle system developed by University at Buffalo scientists takes advantage of the versatility of bioconjugated quantum rods to ferry novel diagnostic and therapeutic agents acr...
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2008/07/16 - Magnetic refrigeration materials resist oxidation

No need to encapsulate DyCo2 nanoparticles
read more [Nanotechweb.org News]

2008/07/16 - nGimat Awarded SBIR to Develop Electrode Nanomaterials for Lithium-Ion Batteries

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded nGimat a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I to develop electrode nanomaterials for high-performance Lithium-ion batteries that wil...
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2008/07/16 - Findings Demonstrate Superior Efficacy of Nanoparticle-Based MR Diagnostic Technology

T2 Biosystems, Inc., a company developing the first portable medical diagnostic products which combine nanotechnology and miniaturized magnetic resonance (MR) technology, today announced s...
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2008/07/15 - Open source nanotechnology for clean water

From the conference report Setting an Agenda for the Social Studies of Nanotechnology (PDF):

For example, researchers at Rice University have been working on the use of nanoparticles to absorb arsenic from drinking water supplies.

Nanoscale iron oxide absorbs arsenic effi ciently, but in many countries implementing the process is either too expensive or technically impossible. The Rice researchers realized they could use magnetic filtration for nanosorbents, which, at the small-size range, could pull out unsafe particles with a handheld magnet…

The “recipe” to make nanoscale magnetite can be posted on the Web, allowing the technique to be distributed to many villages and used by any individual with modest means in a regular kitchen setting.

This solution might be called “open-source nanotechnology”…

So, the recipe “can” be posted on the web, but has this happened? Unclear. —Christine

2008/07/15 - SurModics Licensed Lipid Nanoparticle Technology from PharmaSol

SurModics, Inc., a leading provider of surface modification and drug delivery technologies to the healthcare industry, announced today that its Brookwood Pharmaceuticals subsidiary has lic...
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2008/07/11 - Nanotechnology therapies for cancer progress, block metastasis

Nanotech approaches to cancer therapies continue to show great promise, in large part thanks to wise investment of government funds in basic research. Brandon Keim briefly describes why in a report on the Wired Science blog “Cancer Nanotech: Government Spending Done Right“:

The [National Cancer Institute] poured money into cancer nanotech training and research. At the time, experiments were largely restricted to animals; as of today, at least 48 clinical trials are ongoing, many already in Phase II.

…”The field has been quietly progressing,” said David Cheresh, a University of California, San Diego pathologist … “What happened is that the National Cancer Institute supported this area. They assembled teams at various universities, including my own. That money directly allowed us to do this work [see below].”

Such basic research, said Cheresh, “is not something that industry would necessarily do. They’re not going to support the kind of research that the government would for bringing this to fruition. But they’ll capitalize on the discoveries we make. Those will be taken into the private sector, because we do discovery but aren’t in a position to do a scale-up and the pre-clinical studies. That has to come from the private sector.”

One very recent example of the potential of nanotechnology for cancer therapy is the topic of another article by Keim. In experiments in mice, chemotherapy drugs encapsulated in nanoparticles targeted to the blood vessels that supply nutrients to tumor cells prevented the usually fatal spread of the cancer to additional sites. From “Drug-Infused Nanoparticles Stop Cancer From Spreading“:

By using tumor-targeting nanoparticles filled with chemotherapy drugs, scientists kept kidney and pancreas cancers from spreading through the bodies of mice.

In an experiment described today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [abstract], researchers led by University of California, San Diego pathologist David Cheresh designed nanoparticles that selectively attached to a protein found on the surface of blood vessels that supply tumors with nutrients and oxygen.

The particles were loaded with doxorubicin, an effective but highly toxic anti-cancer drug with side effects ranging from white cell destruction to fatal heart disease. By targeting blood vessel cells, the researchers needed just one-fifteenth the amount used in a traditional, system-flooding dose.

…Such findings aren’t unique in the fast-growing field of cancer nanotech, but the researchers found something new: Although their nanoparticles didn’t affect the original tumor, they did stop the cancers from spreading through the mice. That process is known as metastasis — a word synonymous, for anyone who has experience with cancer, with doom.

…”Those trials have begun or are in the process of being finalized,” [Cheresh] said. “The day isn’t too far off.”

A press release from the University of California - San Diego, via AAAS EurekAlert, provides the additional information that the nanoparticles used were “of 100 nanometers [diameter], made of various lipid-based polymers”.

Additional coverage of this research in Discover magazine elicited a comment from someone presumably associated with the drug delivery company pSivida about a nanostructured silicon product for pancreatic cancer that is already in phase IIb clinical trials in humans.

There is also another nano-structured product that is in development for pancreatic cancer called BrachySil. This is nano-structured silicon, doped with P³² that is injected directly into the pancreas. On July 7 it was announced that a Phase IIb clinical trial in humans started in the UK at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London and University Hospital in Birmingham. In the Phase IIa trials completed last year (and the data presented at the ASCO-GI meeting in January) BrachySil in combination with standard chemotherapy (gemcitabine) was well tolerated with no clinical significant adverse events related to the device. Data showed disease control in 82% of patients and an overall median survival of 309 days.

This research from UC San Diego is the second example we’ve seen in less than two weeks of using nanoparticles to enable an otherwise-too-toxic drug to attack the blood vessels supporting a cancer (see Nanodot July 3).
—Jim

2008/07/10 - Agreement Provides Opportunities to Expand Performance and Applications of Nanomaterials

Zyvex Performance Materials, a recognized worldwide leader in nanomaterials applications, announced an agreement with Lockheed Martin for nano-enhanced composite materials. The cooperation ...
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2008/07/10 - Nanoparticle-Based Assay Accurate and Sensitive Enough for Clinical Use

Telomerase, an enzyme that prevents chromosomes from shortening when they divide, is widely suspected of playing a key role in making cancer cells immortal. Though researchers have developed a...
read more [Azonano]

2008/07/10 - A Method for Imaging Nanoparticles Inside Cells

Borrowing from a Nobel Prize-winning technique credited with starting the nanotechnology revolution, a team of researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Northwestern Univer...
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2008/07/10 - New Type of Imaging Agent with Potential to Deliver Drugs to Tumors

Using a polymer that has both water-soluble and water-insoluble regions, a team of investigators from the Siteman Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence has created a nanoparticle shaped ...
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2008/07/09 - ETUC wants precautionary principle applied to nanotechnologies

ETUC: The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) adopted a first resolution on nanotechnologies and nanomaterials at its recent Executive Committee meeting. The key demand: the precautionary principle must apply to nanotechnologies.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/07/09 - Nano Risk Analysis: Advancing the Science for Nanomaterial Risk Management

Workshop: 10 Sep 2008 - 11 Sep 2008, Washington, DC, United States. Organized by Society for Risk Analysis.
read more [Nanotechweb.org Events]

2008/07/08 - Ultrasmall nanoparticles pin-point cancer

Functionalized nanoparticles show promise as disease-specific MRI contrast agents
read more [Nanotechweb.org News]

2008/07/08 - Nanoparticle Carrying Payload of Chemotherapy Homes in on Metastasis

A new treatment strategy using molecular smart bombs to target metastasis with anti-cancer drugs leads to good results using significantly lower doses of toxic chemotherapy, with less collate...
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2008/07/07 - A new spin on sorting nanotubes

Hayley Birch, Chemistry World: A new method for sorting carbon nanotubes could prove useful in creating nanomaterials for fast switching transistors, solar cells and touch screens, say scientists.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/07/03 - Quantum Dot Nanoparticles Penetrate Skin Through Abrasion

Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that quantum dot nanoparticles can penetrate the skin if there is an abrasion, providing insight into potential workplace concerns...
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2008/07/02 - Bottom-up nanotechnology with metals and polymers

Producing highly porous nanostructures made from metal is difficult because metal atoms are unhappy in structures having very high surface areas. By coating metal nanoparticles with organic molecules and using a block co-polymer as a scaffold, a novel nanotech procedure produces metal nanostructures containing uniform hexagonal pores about 10 nm across that could supply new catalysts, faster metal wires for microchips, and better optical materials. From the National Science Foundation, via AAAS EurekAlert “Metals shape up with a little help from friends“:

New method ’self-assembles’ metal atoms into porous nanostructures

For 5,000 years the only way to shape metal has been by the “heat and beat” technique. Even with modern nanotechnology, metalworking involves carving metals with electron beams or etching them with acid.

Now Cornell researchers have developed a method to self-assemble metals into complex configurations with structural details about 100 times smaller than a bacterial cell by guiding metal particles into the desired form using soft polymers.

“I think this is ingenious work that takes the fundamental concepts of polymer science and applies them to make metals in a totally novel way,” said Andrew Lovinger, the director of the Polymers Program at the National Science Foundation. “In so doing, it opens the door to all kinds of new possibilities.”

Applications include making more efficient and cheaper catalysts for fuel cells and industrial processes, and creating “plasmonic” surface structures capable of carrying more information across microchips than conventional wires do.

“The polymer community has tried to do this for almost 20 years,” said Uli Wiesner, Cornell professor of materials science and engineering, who reports on the new method in the June 27, 2008, issue of the journal Science [abstract]. “But metals have a tendency to cluster into uncontrolled structures.”

…In addition to making porous materials for catalysis, the researchers said, the technique could be used to create finely structured metals on surfaces, a key to transform the field of plasmonics, which studies the interactions among metal surfaces, light, and density waves of electrons, known as plasmons. Currently, researchers are investigating the use of plasmons to transmit more information across metal wires in microchips and to improve optics applications, like lasers, displays, and lenses.

—Jim

2008/07/01 - Another Reason Why Nanoparticles are Attractive Potential Biomedical Sensors

The ability to use genetic material to assemble nanoscopic particles of gold could be an important step toward creating tiny spies that will be able to infiltrate individual cells and report b...
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2008/07/01 - Professor Awarded Grant to Conduct Nanoparticle Cancer Research

A biomedical engineering assistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin has been awarded a $1.5 million National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute grant to conduct nanop...
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2008/06/30 - Magnetic nanoparticles seek out artery plaques

MRI-assisted imaging technique could help in fight against heart disease
read more [Nanotechweb.org News]

2008/06/30 - Nanotechnology approach to drug delivery uses multifunctional nanoparticles to silence gene

A major nanotech advance in engineering multifunctional nanoparticles for imaging and therapeutic applications combines a short RNA (siRNA) to “silence” a specific gene with quantum dots and a “proton sponge” polymer coating to get the siRNA into the cell and released into the right compartment of the cell, rendering it both much more efficient and much less toxic to the cell. From the University of Washington, via AAAS EurekAlert “Gene silencer and quantum dots reduce protein production to a whisper“:

More than 15 years ago scientists discovered a way to stop a particular gene in its tracks. The Nobel Prize-winning finding holds tantalizing promise for medical science, but so far it has been difficult to apply the technique, known as RNA interference, in living cells.

Now scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle and Emory University in Atlanta have succeeded in using nanotechnology known as quantum dots to address this problem. Their technique is 10 to 20 times more effective than existing methods for injecting the gene-silencing tools, known as siRNA, into cells.

“We believe this is going to make a very important impact to the field of siRNA delivery,” said Xiaohu Gao, a UW assistant professor of bioengineering and co-author of a study published online this week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society [abstract].

“This work helps to overcome the longstanding barrier in the siRNA field: How to achieve high silencing efficiency with low toxicity,” said co-author Shuming Nie, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, jointly affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University.

…This paper describes one of the first applications of quantum dots to drug delivery.

Each quantum dot was surrounded by a proton sponge that carried a positive charge. Without any quantum dots attached, the siRNA’s negative charge would prevent it from penetrating a cell’s wall. With the quantum-dot chaperone, the more weakly charged siRNA complex crosses the cellular wall, escapes from the endosome (a fatty bubble that surrounds incoming material) and accumulates in the cellular fluid, where it can do its work disrupting protein manufacture.

Key to the newly published approach is that researchers can adjust the chemical makeup of the quantum dot’s proton-sponge coating, allowing the scientists to precisely control how tightly the dots attach to the siRNA.

—Jim

2008/06/30 - Report Provides Analysis, Information and Key Players in Nanotechnology

Nanomaterials and Markets report provides detailed market analysis, commercial information and key players in nanotechnology. This report presents a clear picture of the scale of opportunity in ...
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2008/06/27 - Hybrid nanowires show promise as nanotechnology building blocks

A very brief but intriguing article on ScienceDaily reports that millimeter-scale nanotech structures self-assembled from hybrid nanowires can sense and respond to external stimuli, like magnetic fields and light. From “Building Giant ‘Nanoassemblies’ That Sense Their Environment“:

Researchers in Texas are reporting the design, construction, and assembly of nano-size building blocks into the first giant structures that can sense and respond to changes in environmental conditions.

The study, scheduled for the July 9 issue of ACS’s Nano Letters [abstract]… terms those structures “giant” because they are about the size of a grain of rice — millions of times larger than anything in the submicroscopic realm of the nanoworld.

In the new study, Pulickel M. Ajayan and colleagues point out that such structures are a step toward the development of futuristic nanomachines with practical applications in delivering medicines to patients, labs-on-a-chip, and other products. Until now, scientists have had difficulty in using nanomaterials to build more complex, multifunctional objects needed for those applications.

—Jim

2008/06/26 - Call for Regulation of Nanotechnology and the Use of Nanomaterials in Food Packaging

Engineered nanoscale materials (ENMs), which contain novel properties that offer potential benefits for use in food packaging, raise new safety evaluation challenges for regulators and industry, accor...
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2008/06/26 - Outstanding Thermal Transfer Thanks to Ceramic Nanoparticles

Coolink today released its new Chillaramic thermal compound. Thanks to ceramic nano particles, Chillaramic achieves outstanding thermal transfer while not being electrically conductive. Ch...
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2008/06/26 - Potential Harm from Nanomaterials

Potential risks from the use of nanomaterials will be explored by three Arizona State University engineering faculty in a project supported by a $400,000 grant from the U.S.Department of Energ...
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2008/06/25 - Nanoparticle Characterization Crucial for Developers of Drug Delivery Systems

Nanoparticle characterization using the Zetasizer Nano from Malvern Instruments is providing essential information for researchers working on drug delivery systems at the UK’s newest School of Pharmac...
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2008/06/25 - Optical tweezers for nanotechnology

A nanotech version of the optical tweezers traditionally used to manipulate micrometer-scale objects manipulates objects at the 200-nm scale. From nanotechweb.org, written by Belle Dumé (requires free registration) “Nanotweezers trap tiny objects“

Researchers have made the first nano-optical tweezers. The devices, which are based on “nanopillars”, offer many advantages over traditional optical tweezers and can trap and move objects on the nanoscale. The breakthrough result opens the way to manipulating fragile biological cells and making structures from nanoscale building blocks.

Traditional optical tweezers, which have been around for decades, are one of the most important modern-day tools in biology, physics and chemistry. They work by trapping micron-scale objects near the focus of a laser beam. The technique allows objects to be picked up and moved to another place using just light.

Although scientists have used optical tweezers to trap nanoscale objects before, this required high laser powers, which can damage or even destroy the object in question. Now, Alexander Grigorenko and colleagues at the University of Manchester in the UK have made nanoscale optical tweezers that overcome this problem. The new devices have a much bigger trapping force and provide significantly smaller trapping volumes for much less laser power than employed in ordinary optical tweezers.

Nanotweezers

The secret behind the new device is that it exploits “virtual” photons to squeeze the trapping volume beyond the diffraction limit of the light being used. It also quenches Brownian motion of trapped nanoparticles by almost an order of magnitude compared to conventional optical tweezers operating under the same trapping conditions. Brownian motion is a common problem as particles get smaller, which makes them difficult to catch.

The nanotweezers are based on a nanostructured substrate comprising a regular array of nanopillar pairs. These are relatively easy to make using conventional electron-beam lithography. The gaps between the nanopillars effectively act as the tweezer traps.

The research was published in Nature Photonics [abstract].
—Jim

2008/06/25 - Striped nanoparticles enter cells with ease

Modified materials could come in handy for drug delivery
read more [Nanotechweb.org News]

2008/06/24 - Gold Nanoparticles Discovered in Nature

The search for these natural but 'invisible' nanoparticles is important. If they can be proved to exist, the knowledge will help give us a deeper understanding of how gold can be transported ...
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2008/06/24 - New Tool Could Help Advance the Field of Nanoparticles-Cell Interactions

Scientists can study the biological impacts of engineered nanomaterials on cells within the body with greater resolution than ever because of a procedure developed by researchers at the Depar...
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2008/06/20 - JumpStart Investing in Nanomaterial-Based Coil for Magnetic Resonance Scanners

JumpStart Inc., the Northeast Ohio venture development organization that accelerates the growth of innovative early-stage businesses and ideas, has announced an investment commitment of $3...
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2008/06/20 - NEI Receives Eight Phase I SBIR Awards from DoE for Solutions in Clean Energy

NEI Corporation, a proven provider of engineered nanomaterials, announced the award of eight Phase I SBIR awards from the DoE today. These contracts will run concurrently and span the range fro...
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2008/06/19 - Improving the Performance of Nanomaterials for Military Applications

Luna Innovations Incorporated has been awarded a $3.9 million subcontract, from General Dynamics Information Technology in support of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to continue w...
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2008/06/19 - Risk Evaluation for Small and Medium Sized Companies

Companies which produce, use, process or market nanomaterials are confronted with specific unknown risks inherent to these substances. A new tool by the Innovation Society and TV SD now al...
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2008/06/18 - Commission starts public dialogue on nanotechnologies – tapping economic and environmental potential through safe products

Europa.eu: Nanotechnologies have enormous potential benefits for manufacturers, consumers, employees, patients and the environment. They will bring more energy and resource efficient processes, improve computer memories and processors and could usher in a new age of customized pharmaceuticals and medical procedures. While current EU legislation covers in principle the challenges for health, safety and environment with regards to nanomaterials, there is further need for research and international cooperation. As more and more products involving nanomaterials are reaching the market, the European Commission will start a consultation with stakeholders and Member States in order to increase knowledge and awareness about the potential of nanotechnologies and to continue to ensure an adequate protection of nature, environment and health.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/06/17 - A promising step towards more effective hydrogen storage

Alpha Galileo: An international research team led by Swedish Professor Rajeev Ahuja, Uppsala University, has demonstrated an atomistic mechanism of hydrogen release in magnesium nanoparticles – a potential hydrogen storage material. The findings have been published in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/06/17 - Nanotechnology offers nanowire ‘towels’ and designer ‘nanobatons’ to clean up oil spills

Two different types of nanostructures have been reported as nanotech methods to clean up oil spills and other organic pollutants. Researchers at MIT have developed a nanowire mesh that can reversibly absorb 20 times it weigh in oil. Researchers at Rice have shown how specially designed “nanobatons” can trap oil droplets by spontaneously assembling into sacs. From MIT News, written by Elizabeth A. Thomson “MIT develops a ‘paper towel’ for oil spills” (via PhysOrg.com):

Nanowire mesh can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil

A mat of nanowires with the touch and feel of paper could be an important new tool in the cleanup of oil and other organic pollutants, MIT researchers and colleagues report in the May 30 online issue of Nature Nanotechnology [abstract].

The scientists say they have created a membrane that can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil, and can be recycled many times for future use. The oil itself can also be recovered. Some 200,000 tons of oil have already been spilled at sea since the start of the decade.

“What we found is that we can make ‘paper’ from an interwoven mesh of nanowires that is able to selectively absorb hydrophobic liquids—oil-like liquids—from water,” said Francesco Stellacci, an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and leader of the work.

In addition to its environmental applications, the nanowire paper could also impact filtering and the purification of water, said Jing Kong, an assistant professor of electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and one of Stellacci’s colleagues on the work. She noted that it could also be inexpensive to produce because the nanowires of which it is composed can be fabricated in larger quantities than other nanomaterials.

From Rice University, via AAAS EurekAlert “Nanoparticles assemble by millions to encase oil drops“

Designer ‘nanobatons’ could be used to trap oil, deliver drugs

In a development that could lead to new technologies for cleaning up oil spills and polluted groundwater, scientists at Rice University have shown how tiny, stick-shaped particles of metal and carbon can trap oil droplets in water by spontaneously assembling into bag-like sacs.

The tiny particles were found to assemble spontaneously by the tens of millions into spherical sacs as large as BB pellets around droplets of oil in water. In addition, the scientists found that ultraviolet light and magnetic fields could be used to flip the nanoparticles, causing the bags to instantly turn inside out and release their cargo — a feature that could ultimately be handy for delivering drugs.

“The core of the nanotechnology revolution lies in designing inorganic nanoparticles that can self-assemble into larger structures like a ’smart dust’ that performs different functions in the world — for example, cleaning up pollution,” said lead research Pulickel Ajayan, Rice’s Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. “Our approach brings the concept of self-assembling, functional nanomaterials one step closer to reality.”

The research was published online today by the American Chemical Society’s journal Nano Letters [abstract].

The multisegmented nanowires, akin to “nanoscale batons,” were made by connecting two nanomaterials with different properties, much like an eraser is attached to the end of a wooden pencil. In the study, the researchers started with carbon nanotubes — hollow tubes of pure carbon. Atop the nanotubes, they added short segments of gold. Ajayan said that by adding various other segments — like sections of nickel or other materials — the researchers can create truly multifunctional nanostructures.

—Jim

2008/06/17 - The Effects of Synthetic Nanoparticles on the Environment

Recently over a hundred scientists from all over the world met at Empa's invitation on the Mountain of Truth - Monte Verit near Ascona - to discuss the effects of synthetic nanoparticles on th...
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2008/06/17 - New Methods for Measuring Biological Activity of Nanomaterials

As researchers develop an ever-expanding toolkit of nanoparticles for use as drug and imaging agent delivery vehicles, there is a growing need to understand how a given nanoparticle's physica...
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2008/06/16 - A Potential Hydrogen Storage Material

An international research team led by Swedish Professor Rajeev Ahuja, Uppsala University, has demonstrated an atomistic mechanism of hydrogen release in magnesium nanoparticles - a potential h...
read more [Azonano]

2008/06/16 - Nanoparticles Made from Pieces of Tumor Cells

Using nanoparticles made from pieces of tumor cells, investigators from Aix-Marseille University in Marseille, France, have developed a new type of anticancer agent that appears to stop tumor ...
read more [Azonano]

2008/06/16 - Growing Use of Nanotechnology Spurs Research into Nanomaterials and Nanoparticle Risks

Potential risks from the use of nanomaterials will be explored by three Arizona State University engineering faculty in a project supported by a $400,000 grant from the U.S.Department of Energy Office...
read more [Azonano]

2008/06/13 - Stripes improve drug delivery using nanotechnology

For nanotech drug delivery methods to work properly, the nanoparticles must enter the cells without damaging the cell membrane, and then end up in the right compartment of the cell. MIT scientists are discovering what controls the proper movement of nanoparticles into cells—the right kinds of molecules must be arranged in the right patterns. From MIT News: “Stripes key to nanoparticle drug delivery”, written by Elizabeth A. Thomson, via KurzweilAI.net

In work that could at the same time impact the delivery of drugs and explain a biological mystery, MIT engineers have created the first synthetic nanoparticles that can penetrate a cell without poking a hole in its protective membrane and killing it.

The key to their approach? Stripes.

The team found that gold nanoparticles coated with alternating bands of two different kinds of molecules can quickly pass into cells without harming them, while those randomly coated with the same materials cannot. The research was reported in a recent advance online publication of Nature Materials [abstract].

“We’ve created the first fully synthetic material that can pass through a cell membrane without rupturing it, and we’ve found that order on the nanometer scale is necessary to provide this property,” said Francesco Stellacci, an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and co-leader of the work with Darrell Irvine, the Eugene Bell Career Development Associate Professor of Tissue Engineering.

In addition to the practical applications of such nanoparticles for drug delivery and more—the MIT team used them to deliver fluorescent imaging agents to cells—the tiny spheres could help explain how some biological materials such as peptides are able to enter cells.

“No one understands how these biologically derived cell-penetrating materials work,” said Irvine. “So we could use the new particles to learn more about their biological counterparts. Could they be analogues of the biological system?”

When a cell membrane recognizes a foreign object such as a nanoparticle, it normally wraps around or “eats” it, encasing the object in a smaller bubble inside the cell that can eventually be excreted. Any drugs or other agents attached to the nanoparticle therefore never reach the main fluid section of the cell, or cytosol, where they could have an effect.

Such nanoparticles can also be “chaperoned” by biological molecules into the cytosol, but this too has drawbacks. Chaperones can work in some cells but not others, and carry one cargo but not another.

Hence the importance of the MIT work in developing nanoparticles that can directly penetrate the cell membrane, deliver their cargo to the cytosol, and do so without killing the cell.

—Jim

2008/06/13 - Microwave Synthesis Connects With the (Quantum) Dots

NIST: Materials researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a simplified, low-cost process for producing high-quality, water-soluble "quantum dots" for biological research. By using a laboratory microwave reactor to promote the synthesis of the widely used nanomaterials, the recently published* NIST process avoids a problematic step in the conventional approach to making quantum dots, resulting in brighter, more stable dots.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/06/13 - Microwave Synthesis Connects With the (Quantum) Dots

NIST: Materials researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a simplified, low-cost process for producing high-quality, water-soluble "quantum dots" for biological research. By using a laboratory microwave reactor to promote the synthesis of the widely used nanomaterials, the recently published* NIST process avoids a problematic step in the conventional approach to making quantum dots, resulting in brighter, more stable dots.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/06/13 - Microwave Synthesis Connects With the (Quantum) Dots

NIST: Materials researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a simplified, low-cost process for producing high-quality, water-soluble "quantum dots" for biological research. By using a laboratory microwave reactor to promote the synthesis of the widely used nanomaterials, the recently published* NIST process avoids a problematic step in the conventional approach to making quantum dots, resulting in brighter, more stable dots.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/06/11 - Robert Langer wins 2008 Millennium Technology Prize

Millenium Prize / Spinverse: The 2008 Millennium Technology Prize was presented to Professor Robert Langer today in Helsinki for developing innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release. The current work of Langer‘s lab at MIT includes a number of nanotechnology-related developments, such as nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/06/11 - Rapid, Standard Assessment Tool For Evaluating Toxicity of Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials

Due to their unique properties, nanoparticles have shown promise in biological and biomedical applications, including as diagnostic agents and in therapeutic applications. However, the toxicity of ...
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2008/06/10 - Mass-Producing Tunable Magnetic Nanoparticles

NCI: Taking a cue from the semiconductor industry, a team of investigators at Stanford University has developed a method of producing unlimited quantities of highly magnetic nanoparticles suitable for use as magnetic resonance tumor imaging agents.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/06/10 - Stripes key to nanoparticle drug delivery

MIT: In work that could at the same time impact the delivery of drugs and explain a biological mystery, MIT engineers have created the first synthetic nanoparticles that can penetrate a cell without poking a hole in its protective membrane and killing it.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/06/10 - Striped Nanoparticles Can Enter Cells Without Rupturing Them and are Key to Nanoparticle Drug Delivery

In work that could at the same time impact the delivery of drugs and explain a biological mystery, MIT engineers have created the first synthetic nanoparticles that can penetrate a cell without poki...
read more [Azonano]

2008/06/06 - Testing the Toxicity of Nanomaterials

Technology Review: A fast screening method could help separate the good from the bad.
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/06/06 - Synthetic chaperones lead to protein reform

Janet Crombie, RSC: US chemists are going for gold to fold unravelled proteins. A team at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has demonstrated that anionic gold nanoparticles can be used to reorganise these biopolymers. <br /> <br />
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/06/06 - Argonne research unveiling the secrets of nanoparticle haloing

Argonne National Laboratory: A glass of milk, a gallon of paint and a bottle of salad dressing all look to the naked eye like liquids. But when viewed under a microscope these everyday liquids, called "colloids," actually contain small globules or particles that stay suspended in solution. <br />
read more [Nanoforum]

2008/06/06 - Nanoparticle Haloing Secrets Revealed by Characterizing Colloidal Stabilization Method

A glass of milk, a gallon of paint, and a bottle of salad dressing all look to the naked eye like liquids. But when viewed under a microscope these everyday liquids, called "colloids," actually con...
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2008/06/04 - Nanotechnology combines multiple molecules of drug to prevent HIV infection

A major advantage of nanotech drug delivery is that multiple drug molecules can be combined on one nanoparticle so that one nanoparticle binds more strongly to the drug target than would the isolated drug molecules. Attaching 12 molecules of an HIV drug to a 2.0 nm diameter gold nanoparticle enabled the drug to prevent HIV infection in cultured patient cells. From a North Caroline State University News Release (via PhysOrg.com)
“Failed HIV Drug Gets Second Chance with Addition of Gold Nanoparticles“:

Researchers at North Carolina State University have discovered that adding tiny bits of gold to a failed HIV drug rekindle the drug’s ability to stop the virus from invading the body’s immune system.

The addition of gold nanoparticles to a modified version of a drug designed in the 1990s to combat HIV — but discarded due to its harmful side effects — creates a compound that prevents the virus from gaining a cellular foothold, say Dr. Christian Melander, assistant professor of chemistry at NC State, and doctoral student T. Eric Ballard.

Their findings appear online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society [abstract].

The drug, a compound known as TAK-779, was originally found to bind to a specific location on human T-cells, which blocks the HIV virus’ entry to the body’s immune system. Unfortunately, the portion of the drug’s molecule that made binding possible had unpleasant side effects. When that portion of the molecule — an ammonium salt — was removed, the drug lost its binding ability.

That’s when Melander and colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Colorado at Boulder turned to gold as the answer. The element is non-reactive in the human body, and would be the perfect “scaffold” to attach molecules of the drug to in the absence of the ammonium salt, holding the drug molecules together and concentrating their effect.

“The idea is that by attaching these individual molecules of the drug with a weak binding ability to the gold nanoparticle, you can magnify their ability to bind,” Melander says.

The researchers’ theory proved correct. They started with a modified version of TAK-779, which didn’t include the harmful ammonium salt. After testing, they found that attaching 12 molecules of the modified drug (SDC-1721) to one nanoparticle of gold restored the drug’s ability to prevent HIV infection in primary cultured patient cells. When only one molecule of the drug was attached to the gold nanoparticle, the compound was unable to prevent HIV infection, indicating that the multivalency of the drug was important for its activity.

“We’ve discovered a non-harmful way to improve the strength and efficacy of an important drug,” Melander says. “There’s no reason to think that this same process can’t be used with similar effect on other existing drugs.”

—Jim

2008/06/03 - longated Nanoparticles Called Nanobatons Self Assemble Around Oil Droplets for Cleaning Oils Spills and Polluted Water

In a development that could lead to new technologies for cleaning up oil spills and polluted groundwater, scientists at Rice University have shown how tiny, stick-shaped particles of metal and carb...
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2008/06/03 - Soil Nanoparticles Being Used to Assess Soil Viability and Diversity for Appropriate Farming Practice

Soil variation occurs across multiple geographic scales ranging from vast climatic regions of the Earth to a 50 acre farm field to the molecular world of soil nano-particles in a pinch of soil. For...
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2008/06/03 - Kavli prize honors nanotechnology researchers

Two researchers were rewarded with the 2008 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience for their pioneering discoveries of quantum dots and carbon nanotubes, two of the most exciting and promising nanotech materials. As described by R. Colin Johnson at EE Times in “Nanotech pioneers win Kavli Prize“:

Two nanotechnology pioneers were honored this week with the Kavli Prize, a $3 million award shared among seven recipients. The winners were announced … during the World Science Summit at Columbia University in New York.

The Kavli Prize, worth $1 million each in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience, are awarded every other year.

The nanotechnology prizes went to: Louis Brus, who discovered semiconductor nanocrystals know as quantum dots in the 1980s while at Bell Laboratories; and Sumio Iijima, who discovered nanotubes in 1991 while working at NEC Corp. Brus is now a professor at Columbia University and Iijima is a professor at Meijo University.

Brus was collaborating with researchers at the Yoffe Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, when he discovered nanocrystal semiconductors in colloidal suspensions. His observation of how different semiconducting nanoparticles—now called quantum dots—glowed different colors when excited led to the discovery that quantum confinement explains the correlation between