Laser. Nanoparticles. Ignition. Functionalized fullerenes molecules. “It caused stress in the cells, and then after 10 seconds we just see the cells pop …”

March 18, 2010 – 7:11 pm

Researchers from University of Florida, in Gainesville, Florida, have indicated that ‘… they can ignite certain nanoparticles using a low-power laser, a development they say opens the door to a wave of new technologies in health care, computing and automotive design.’

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Gold colloid-labelled proteins. Nanoparticles. “… ensure the sensitivity, quality and reproducibility of batches of nanoparticle bio-conjugates.”

March 17, 2010 – 8:52 pm
  • “Colloidal metal particles, in particular gold, have found many biological applications often as probes in light and electron microscopy, and more recently since the 1980s in membrane-based rapid immunoaffinity tests.”1
  • “The surface plasmon resonance absorbance properties in the visible spectroscopy region of gold colloids make them useful tools in medical devices, as the colloids are directly visible to the naked eye.”

Researchers from Biotechnology, Analytical Science, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom; have presented an article titled: “Bioconjugation and characterisation of gold colloid-labelled proteins.”

The researchers from Teddington have also noted:

  • “Despite the relative ease with which gold-protein conjugates can be prepared a major issue is the manufacture of poor-quality and poorly characterised bioconjugates that can result in the under performance of subsequent diagnostic tests.”
  • “This paper describes the preparation of good-quality conjugates for use in immunoassays by optimising the adsorption of antibodies onto the surface of gold colloids, followed by their subsequent characterisation.”
  • “The conjugates were characterized for size, aggregation and quality using a range of techniques: UV-visible (UV/Vis) absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS).”
  • “The biological activities of the conjugated products were also assessed using an immunoassay format and electrochemical measurements.”
  • “By utilising a number of measurement techniques we aimed to gain a better understanding of the extent of particle aggregation, and the resulting stability and activity of the biological molecule on the surfaces of nanoparticles.”
  • “The tools developed will enable researchers and companies to ensure the sensitivity, quality and reproducibility of batches of nanoparticle bio-conjugates.”
(1) Thobhani S, Attree S, Boyd R, Kumarswami N, Noble J, Szymanski M, Porter RA: Bioconjugation and characterisation of gold colloid-labelled proteins. J Immunol Methods. 2010 Feb 24; (Article in Press)
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Biosensors. “… nucleic acid sensors using functional biomolecules, such as DNAzymes, peptide aptamers and engineered proteins, and nanomaterials of different sizes …”

March 17, 2010 – 8:33 pm
  • “Interest in the development of sensitive, selective, rapid, and cost-effective biosensors for biomedical analysis, environmental monitoring, and the detection of bioterrorism agents is rapidly increasing.”1
  • “A classic biosensor directly transduces ligand-target binding events into a measurable physical readout.”

Researchers from Laboratory of Physical Biology, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; have presented an article titled: “Target-Responsive Structural Switching for Nucleic Acid-Based Sensors.”

The researchers from Laboratory of Physical Biology, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China; have also noted:

  • “More recently, researchers have proposed novel biosensing strategies that couple ligand-induced structural switching of biomolecules with advanced optical and electronic transducers.”
  • “This approach has proven to be a highly general platform for the development of new biosensors.”
  • “In this Account, we describe a series of electrochemical and optical nucleic acid sensors that use target-responsive DNA structures.”
  • “By employing surface-confined DNA structures with appropriate redox labels, we can monitor target-induced structural switching of DNA or aptamer-specific small molecule probes by measuring electrochemical currents that are directly associated with the distance between the redox label and the electrode surface.”
  • “We have also demonstrated significant improvements in sensing performance through optimization of the DNA self-assembly process at electrode surfaces or the introduction of nanomaterial-based signal amplification.”
  • “Alternatively, gold nanoparticles interact differently with folded and unfolded DNA structures, which provides a visual method for detecting target-induced structural switching based on the plasmonic change of gold nanoparticles.”
  • “This novel method using gold nanoparticles has proven particularly suitable for the detection of a range of small-molecule targets (e.g., cocaine) and environmentally toxic metal ions (e.g., Hg(2+)).”
  • “Rational sequence design of DNA aptamers improves the sensitivity and increases the reaction kinetics.”
  • “Recently, we have also designed microfluidic devices that allow rapid and portable mercury detection with the naked eye.”
  • “This Account focuses on the use of bulk and nanoscale gold and DNA/aptamer molecules.”
  • “We expect that researchers will further expand the analyte spectrum and improve the sensitivity and selectivity of nucleic acid sensors using functional biomolecules, such as DNAzymes, peptide aptamers and engineered proteins, and nanomaterials of different sizes, dimensions and compositions, such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, silicon nanowires, and metal nanoparticles or nanorods.”
(1) Li D, Song S, Fan C: Target-Responsive Structural Switching for Nucleic Acid-Based Sensors. Acc Chem Res. 2010 Mar 11; (Article in Press)
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Light twists. Nanoparticle ribbons. “Matter readily bends and twists light. That’s the mechanism behind optical lenses and polarizing 3-D movie glasses.”

March 17, 2010 – 2:59 pm

Nicholas Kotov, Professor in the departments of Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, from University of Michigan, has said:

  • “I didn’t believe it at the beginning …”
  • “To be honest, it took us three and a half years to really figure out how photons of light can lead to such a remarkable change in rigid structures a thousand times bigger than molecules.”

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Antimicrobial peptides. Naturally occurring proteins.

March 14, 2010 – 10:57 pm

Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology have informed that “… MIT scientists have recorded the first microscopic images showing the deadly effects of AMPs, most of which kill by poking holes in bacterial cell membranes.”

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Nanocages. Photothermal therapy. “… bathed in laser light, the surrounding tissue is barely warmed, but the nanocages convert light to heat, killing the malignant cells.”

March 12, 2010 – 10:09 pm

Younan Xia PhD, the James M. McKelvey Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Washington University in St Louis, has said:

  • “The key to photothermal therapy …”
  • “… is the cages’ ability to efficiently absorb light and convert it to heat. “
  • “If we put bare nanoparticles into your body …”
  • “… proteins would deposit on the particles, and they would be captured by the immune system and dragged out of the bloodstream into the liver or spleen.”

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Cyanine doped silica nanoparticles. “… points out an important hysteresis effect for quantum dots that was not detected for cyanine molecules and was only slightly detected for cyanine doped silica nanoparticles.”

March 11, 2010 – 12:04 am
  • “Fluorescence techniques are widely used as detection methods in a wide range of biological imaging and analytical applications.”1

Researchers from Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Department of Thermodynamics, Optical Molecular Spectroscopy Group, Torino, Italy; Department of Inorganic, Physics and Material Chemistry and NIS Centre of Excellence, University of Torino, Torino, Italy; Cyanine Technologies S.p.A., Torino, Italy; have presented an article titled: “Behaviour of Fluorescence Emission of Cyanine Dyes, Cyanine Based Fluorescent Nanoparticles and CdSe/ZnS Quantum Dots in Water Solution Upon Specific Thermal Treatments.”

The researchers from Torino, Italy, have also noted:

  • “The purpose of this work is to determine a measurement method which leads to a comparison between different classes of fluorophores in term of stability of the fluorescence signal upon thermal treatment cycles.”
  • “This kind of investigation can determine whether the fluorophore performance is affected by heating/cooling cycles and to what extent.”
  • “The fluorophores considered in this work were organic fluorophores belonging to the family of indocyanine dyes (IRIS3 by Cyanine Technologies S.p.A.) in their molecular form or encapsulated within silica nanoparticles, and CdSe/ZnS carboxyl quantum dots (Qdots 565 ITK by Invitrogen).”
  • “The NIST Standard Reference Material(R) SRM 1932 fluorescein solution was used in the certified concentration as reference material in order to evaluate the repeatability of the used spectrofluorimeter.”
  • “The proposed measurement protocol allows to characterize all kind of fluorophores upon thermal treatments.”
  • “This allows direct comparison of their performance under temperature changes, giving useful guidelines for the selection of the most suitable fluorophore for the envisaged application.”
  • “Moreover the method appears to be a promising tool for the characterisation of reference fluorescent materials.”
  • “The experimental results demonstrate that each fluorophore class shows a specific behaviour.”
  • “The experimental data analysis points out an important hysteresis effect for quantum dots that was not detected for cyanine molecules and was only slightly detected for cyanine doped silica nanoparticles.”
(1) Mortati L, Miletto I, Alberto G, Caputo G, Sassi MP: Behaviour of Fluorescence Emission of Cyanine Dyes, Cyanine Based Fluorescent Nanoparticles and CdSe/ZnS Quantum Dots in Water Solution Upon Specific Thermal Treatments. J Fluoresc. 2010 Mar 6; (Article in Press)
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Femtosecond laser. Space-selective precipitation. Xerogel suspension. “… precipitation of semiconducting nanoparticles inside a transparent silica xerogel …”

March 9, 2010 – 10:26 pm
  • “A simple method, suitable for direct space-selective precipitation of semiconducting nanoparticles inside a transparent silica xerogel, is presented.”1

Researchers from Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molécules (CNRS, UMR 8523), Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Lasers et Applications (CERLA), Université de Lille 1, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France; and Laboratoire des Multimatériaux et Interfaces (CNRS, UMR 5615), Université de Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France; have presented an article titled: “Laser-induced direct space-selective precipitation of CdS nanoparticles embedded in a transparent silica xerogel.”

The researchers from France have also noted:

  • “The porous silica monoliths, prepared by the sol-gel method, are first loaded with specific CdS precursors.”
  • “Then, the samples can be irradiated using either a femtosecond laser to generate the nanoparticles inside the deep volume of the silica matrix or a continuous visible laser to yield a nanocrystal growth under the surface.”
  • “The resulting CdS nanoparticles are characterized using absorption and Raman spectroscopies, x-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy.”
(1) Hamzaoui HE, Bernard R, Chahadih A, Chassagneux F, Bois L, Jegouso D, Hay L, Capoen B, Bouazaoui M: Laser-induced direct space-selective precipitation of CdS nanoparticles embedded in a transparent silica xerogel. Nanotechnology. 2010 Mar 8;21(13):134002; (Article in Press)
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Smart nanoparticles. “To be a smart therapy, it should be targeted, and it should have some ability to be activated only when it’s there and then kills just the cancer cells.”

March 8, 2010 – 9:34 pm

Biomedical graduate student Dickson Kirui, from Cornell University, has said:

  • “If, down the line, you could clinically just target the cancer cells, you could then spare the health surrounding cells from being harmed – that is the critical thing …”

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Single molecules detection. “The sensor consists of a film of carbon nanotubes embedded in collagen.”

March 7, 2010 – 6:56 pm

Chemical engineers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology have reported the production of “… a sensor array that, for the first time, can detect single molecules of hydrogen peroxide emanating from a single living cell.”

Michael Strano, leader of the research team, has said:

  • “You could envision a small handheld device, for example, which your doctor could point at some tissue in a minimally invasive manner and tell if this pathway is corrupted …”
  • “The list of biomolecules that we can now detect very specifically and selectively is growing rapidly …”

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