Twin nanoparticle shown effective at targeting, killing breast cancer cells

12-Mar-2009 - Breast cancer patients face many horrors, including those that arise when fighting the cancer itself. Medications given during chemotherapy can have wicked side effects, including vomiting, dizziness, anemia and hair loss. These side effects occur because medications released into the body target ...

Magnetic nanoparticles navigate therapeutic genes through the body

PTB measures the pinpointed transport of therapeutics for cardiovascular diseases

09-Mar-2009 - Health professionals send genes and healthy cells on their way through the bloodstream so that they can, for example, repair tissue damage to arteries. But do they reach their destination in sufficient quantities? Scientists of the PTB have developed a highly sensitive measuring method with which ...

Buckyballs could keep water systems flowing

06-Mar-2009 - Microscopic particles of carbon known as buckyballs may be able to keep water pipes clear in the same way clot-busting drugs prevent arteries from clogging up. Engineers at Duke University have found that buckyballs hinder the ability of bacteria and other microorganisms to accumulate on the ...

Raman’s narrower fingerprint set to broaden utility of flow cytometry

27-Feb-2009 - Andor Technology plc announced that researchers have successfully tested the first proof-of-concept of a Raman Spectral Flow Cytometer (SFC), thanks to its Electron Multiplying CCD (EMCCD) camera NewtonEM. Raman Spectral Flow Cytometry promises to revolutionise cell characterisation by allowing ...

Gold-palladium nanoparticles achieve greener, smarter production of hydrogen peroxide

Processing in smaller quantities and more useful concentrations is seen

24-Feb-2009 - Despite its importance hydrogen peroxide has eluded the best efforts of the chemists seeking a more direct, efficient and environmentally friendly means of producing it. "Hydrogen peroxide has for decades been made by an indirect energy-intensive process," says Christopher J. Kiely, a professor ...

Sophisticated nano-structures assembled with magnets

What do Saturn and flowers have in common?

20-Feb-2009 - What do Saturn and flowers have in common? As shapes, both possess certain symmetries that are easily recognizable in the natural world. Now, at an extremely small level, researchers from Duke University and the University of Massachusetts have created a unique set of conditions in which tiny ...

Self-assembled spherical nanostructures

26-Jan-2009 - Nicola Armaroli and co-workers from CNR-ISOF, Bologna, Italy, and Davide Bonifazi and colleagues from the Università di Trieste, Italy, and the University of Namur, Belgium, have shown that π-conjugated molecules bearing complementary hydrogen bonding sites can self-organise into complex ...

Super sensitive gas detector goes down the nanotubes

15-Jan-2009 - When cells are under stress, they blow off steam by releasing minute amounts of nitrogen oxides and other toxic gases. In a recent paper, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) described a new method for creating gas detectors so sensitive that some day they may ...

The gold standard: Biodesign Institute researchers use nanoparticles to make 3-D DNA nanotubes

DNA nanotubes may soon find their way into a new generation of ultra-tiny electronic and biomedical innovations

07-Jan-2009 - Arizona State University researchers Hao Yan and Yan Liu imagine and assemble intricate structures on a scale almost unfathomably small. Their medium is the double-helical DNA molecule, a versatile building material offering near limitless construction potential. In "Science", Yan and Liu, ...

New uses for imidazolium salts in medicine and alternative energy

Powerful antioxidant properties to fight diseases, efficient catalyst for converting biofuels

04-Dec-2008 - Scientists at Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have uncovered new properties of imidazolium salts (IMSs), which suggest that they could play a vital role in disease prevention and treatment. The report on the redox properties of IMSs was published in the Journal of ...