Researchers at Stony Brook University in New York have developed a breath analyzing device that can quickly identify a number of disease marker gases that could be signs of an underlying problem.  The technology utilizes single crystal nanowires that are created by electrospinning.  The configuration of metal and oxygen atoms in the nanowires defines which molecules are captured by the chip.

Here’s a video report from the National Science Foundation about the research:

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Bacteria have remarkable capacities to develop resistance to antibiotics. However, much higher doses than usual of these antibiotics can still be effective, but it is normally not feasible to administer such high doses to patients due to the side-effects these drugs have. To overcome this limitation, researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a nanoparticle that can deliver large doses of antibiotics right to the site of bacterial infection.

The nanoparticles are made out of a polymer capped with polyethylene glycol, an often used material which is nontoxic and helps in evading the immune system as long as the nanoparticles have not reached their target. The ingenious part is how the particles target bacteria: at first they have a slight negative charge, another mechanism to avoid being cleared by the immune system. At the site of infection, the environment is a bit more acidic than elsewhere, and this acidity causes the nanoparticles to switch their charge from negative to positive. Bacteria have negatively charged cell walls and thus the nanoparticles form a strong connection with the bacteria’s cell wall.

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Over at the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), researchers have developed a special scanning electron microscope (SEM) capable of generating high-resolution 3D images of the study subject. 3D SEM is actually not new technology, however, the JST SEM is the first device of its kind that can show 3D images in real-time. The secret is a special electromagnetic lens that slants an electron beam aimed at a specimen, which results in instant left and right parallax images needed to create a 3D effect. Normal 3D SEM imaging techniques require the left and right parallax images to be taken separately and at different angles.

If you have a pair of red/blue 3D glasses, be sure to take a look at the above anaglyph of a piece of metal, produced by the JST SEM.

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The nerves are one of the parts of the body that have the amazing ability to regrow if damaged. This property sometimes gives hope to patients who have suffered a loss of sensation and/or movement in limbs due to trauma. Such natural healing is usually preceded by surgery to suture or graft damaged nerve endings together. Often times, however, reconstructive surgery just isn’t enough for a full recovery.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. have designed an implant that helps  damaged nerves to regenerate. These microscopic devices, known as nerve guidance conduits, or NGC’s, work by providing physical and chemical cues to help nerves grow. Much in the way a garden trellis guides the growth of a vine, these NGC’s, which are made of a biodegradable synthetic polymer material based on polylactic acid, provide channels to promote and guide nerves to grow. Moreover, because of the shape of the NGC’s, the new nerves will form a structure very similar to an undamaged nerve, which researchers hope will also have the functionality of an undamaged nerve too.

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Here at Medgadget, we’ve covered the use of printers to do pretty much everything from fabricating human tissue, to punching holes in cells, to even creating life size replicas of a fetus in the womb. Over at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, chemists have succeeded in bringing the wonders of 3D printing into drug development with a new method that could one day bring the pharmacy to your home.

Using a commercial 3D printer and open-source CAD software, Professor Lee Cronin and his team have created “reactionware vessels”, essentially custom-designed polymer gels that aid in chemical reactions. While this process of drug production is actually common in large-scale chemical manufacturing, the use of 3D printing makes it possible for the first time to fabricate fully customized reactionware vessels, which gives chemists much better control over the reactions that take place within. According to Cronin, his team has already successfully synthesized three unique drug compounds by merely altering the design of the reactionware.

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Researchers at MIT have developed a new type of nanoparticle that can synthesize proteins on demand. Acting as a “protein-factory”, these particles can be activated once they reach their targets by shining ultraviolet light on them. The particles could be used to deliver small proteins including toxic drugs and eventually larger proteins such as antibodies.

The nanoparticles self-assemble from a mixture that includes lipids, ribosomes, amino acids and the enzymes needed for protein synthesis. Also included in the mixture are DNA sequences for the desired proteins. The DNA is trapped by a chemical compound called DMNPE, which reversibly binds to it. This compound releases the DNA when exposed to ultraviolet light, after which protein synthesis starts.

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Researchers from Boston University and Harvard Medical School have been testing a new microfluidic chip that performs nucleic acid extraction and reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) in one device and features easily adjustable thermal and fluidic control.

The team hopes that the new technology will speed up and make more available rapid testing and identification of influenza infections.

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Researchers from the University of Washington have developed a sensor capable of sequencing a single DNA molecule. The sensor is based around a genetically engineered protein nanopore and has an opening one billionth of a meter wide, just wide enough for a single DNA strand to pass through.

The nanopore is placed in a membrane surrounded by potassium-chloride, and by applying a small voltage across the membrane an ionic current flow is created through the nanopore. Each type of DNA nucleotide – cytosine, guanine, adenine and thymine – which makes up the DNA sequence, affects the ionic current flow in different ways, allowing for nucleotide identification using these electrical current signatures.

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Researchers at Brown University have developed a material that detracts the growth of breast cancer cells near it. The surface is made of poly-lactic-glycolic-acid nanotopographies that have been shown before to inhibit the activities of lung epithelial carcinoma cells.

The researchers believe this technology may help create all kinds of regenerative medicine products and hopefully reduce the amount of chemotherapeutics used in oncology

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A team of European researchers has developed technology of transporting and releasing therapeutic proteins into the cellular cytoplasm. The technique relies on inclusion bodies that are produced within recombinant bacteria.

Because they are fully biocompatible and can be engineered to carry specific functional proteins, the so-called “nanopills” may turn out to be effective delivery vehicles for future therapies.

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