Nanotechnology in Good Health?
Chemistry International (01/01/2009) Vol. 31 , No. 1 , Coulsey, Hilda ; Smith, Alan

Healthcare stands to become nanotechnology's greatest use, where it can impact all stages of medicine and target society's most burdensome diseases. A report by NanoMarkets estimates that $65 billion in annual drug revenues come from active agents with low bio-availability that can cause inefficient treatment, higher cost, and riskier side effects. Ireland-based Elan Corp. has developed proprietary NanoCrystal technology for drugs with poor water solubility by reducing particle size and increasing the surface area of drugs, which increases the dissolution rate and improves drug delivery. The University of Manchester reported the development of gas sensors that use graphene to detect single gas molecules. This may lead to disease diagnosis at the molecular level, early enough to limit the need for more expensive therapy. While many hospitals already use lab-on-a-chip devices, similar technology may be achieved that can distinguish different narcotics in the bloodstream. Nanotechnology may also be used in tissue engineering and cell therapy, such as with NanOss, an osteoconductive biomaterial from Angstrom Medica that gradually remodels into human bone.
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Microswimmers Make a Big Splash for Improved Drug Delivery
Nanowerk.com (01/07/2009)

Scientists in Spain and the United Kingdom have developed magnetically controlled particles, called "microswimmers," that could be used to deliver drugs to specific tissue. The microswimmers are made up of plastic and magnetic beads about 1/25,000 of an inch in diameter. The particles spin when exposed to a magnetic field and can be directed through narrow channels of liquids inside a glass plate. By varying the strength of the magnetic field, the researchers were able to control the microswimmers' speed. The study was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B.
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Nanobot Lets DNA Legs Do the Walking
New Scientist (01/06/09) Griggs, Jessica

Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed a molecular nanobot that can walk along strands of DNA without moving back and forth, falling off-track, or destroying the track as it walks. Two connected "feet," composed of short sequences of DNA bases, make up the walker and attach to a complementary sequence on the DNA track. Competing for a foothold, one foot must lift off as the other steps down, and the walker cannot take a backward step, ensuring that it is always attached to the track. This process is powered by nearby floating molecules that react together with a catalyst to release energy, the DNA feet themselves serving as the catalyst when they lift off the track. Lead researcher, physicist Andrew Turberfield, said that one challenge to the project is an easily tangled DNA track, which prevents walker movement. In the future, the researchers hope the nanobot will be able to move cargo around nanofactories and use signals to interact with other walkers.
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Now, Robot to Help Police Fight Terrorism
Times of India (01/02/09)

Police in India's Rajasthan state are purchasing a number of new technologies that will help them fight terrorism. Among the technologies being purchased is a robot that will be able to detect hidden explosives and help police defuse bombs. An officer with the state police said the robot will be able to locate bombs faster than metal detectors and sniffer dogs, and will help reduce the number of police officer deaths since officers will not have to be so close to bombs in order to defuse them. In addition to the robot, police are also buying special suits that police officers will wear while defusing bombs, as well as hand-held and door-frame metal detectors, portable bomb jammers, and baskets for storing defused bombs and explosive detonators.
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Researchers Develop Rapid Assembly Process in Nanoscale
Science Centric (12/25/2008)

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Northeastern University have developed an effective nanoscale assembly process. The nanoscale polymer assembly method only takes 30 seconds to complete and does not require annealing. "The techniques demonstrated in this work can be used in high-rate nanomanufacturing of polymer-based products, from flexible electronics to materials for medical applications," says Joey Mead, Ph.D., deputy director of UMass Lowell's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN). Binary-component polymer arrays could be fabricated at high rates because little time is needed for assembly. The researchers directed the assembly of each single polymer component in a specific location using nanotemplates, and assembled polymer blends to desired sites with high specificity and selectivity in a one-step process. "This approach for preparation of chemically functionalized substrates has the potential for a wide variety of applications, including biosensors, biochips, photonics, nanolithography and electronics," adds Ahmed Busnaina, Ph.D., director of the CHN at Northeastern. The research appears online in the journal Advanced Materials, and was funded by the National Science Foundation.
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Imaging Advances Provide Immune-Cell Breakthroughs
Nature (12/25/08) Vol. 456 , No. 7224 , P. 850 ; Hayden, Erika Check

The use of multiphoton microscopy has spread to immunologists throughout the country. Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have used the technology to discover how one gene mutation causes a human immunodeficiency disease. The findings, led by Ronald Germain, were reported at the American Society for Cell Biology annual meeting in mid-December. Jeffrey Segall of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York said the college's biophotonics center used multiphoton microscopy to track cells in a mouse's body. Scientists surgically grafted a tiny glass window inside the mouse and used a laser light to follow the fluorescently labeled cells through the window. Bojana Gligorijevic, research associate at Einstein, was part of a study that used the same technique to trace cancerous cells in a breast cancer model, using a real-time view of events that cause metastasis. NIAID's Jackson Egen has also used multiphoton microscopy to watch how certain immune cells help transmit the parasite that causes leishmaniasis. With multiphoton intravital microscopy, Ulrich von Andrian of Harvard Medical School was able to find which specific cells recognize infections to the lymph nodes and present them to cells that combat the virus.
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US Guideline Increases Sampling in Process Validation
International Pharmaceutical Regulatory Monitor (12/23/08) Vol. 36 , No. 12 ,

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued new process validation guidance that emphasizes increased sampling, additional testing, and greater scrutiny of process performance during the initial stages of commercial manufacture. The new guidelines, which replace the process validation guidance the FDA issued in 1987, will apply to pharmaceuticals, biologics, and active pharmaceutical ingredients. In addition to requiring more testing upfront, the guidelines stipulate that products made during the process qualification stage of process validation--when manufacturers confirm that process design can be reproduced on a commercial scale--can be released onto the market once qualification activities are complete. The guidelines also recommend that performance qualification protocols include several items, such as manufacturing conditions, the data to be collected and information on when and how they are evaluated, and the in-process, release, and characterization tests to be performed. The protocols should also include the acceptance criteria for each significant step. The FDA is accepting comments on the new guidelines until Jan. 19.
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High-Sensitivity Imaging
Chemical & Engineering News (12/22/08) Vol. 86 , No. 51 , P. 6 ; Arnaud, Celia

Researchers at Harvard University have used Raman microscopy in a way that could lead to a new method of biomedical imaging. A team led by chemistry professor X. Sunney Xie has used the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) phenomenon to map lipids in living cells and the delivery of topically applied drugs through the skin. Bulky labels are not required for SRS microscopy, as is the case with fluorescence microscopy methods. The reduced background signal helps make SRS microscopy highly sensitive and allows the method to provide images in the region of the Raman spectrum where peaks are crowded together. SRS microscopy works well in a wider range of molecules than coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy. "Stimulated Raman microscopy allows background-free imaging on a relatively simple platform," says Ji-Xin Cheng, a CARS specialist at Purdue University. According to Xie: "We can have all the advantages of Raman, but with much higher sensitivity, acquisition speed, and no damage to biological samples." Only one frequency is recorded at a time, so generating Raman images with complete spectra will not be easy, but the development moves us a step closer to a non-laser lab application, adds Wolfgang Zinth, head of the Center for Biomolecular Optics at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.
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Robot Venture Announces Car Robotics R&D Platform
Tech-On! (12/19/08) Michimoto, Kenji

Japanese robotics firm ZMP will work with Tokyo Metropolitan University professor Toru Yamaguchi to develop a car robotics platform as well as conduct research and development into new robotics applications for humans and automobiles. The platform will consist of a 1/10-scale car robot model and software applications and include CCD stereo cameras, an image processing board, a Wi-Fi module, a gyro sensor, an acceleration sensor, an odometry internal sensor, a laser range finder, and an infrared external sensor for ranging. The software will support Linux as well as code for an image processor. Yamaguchi's research has focused on humatronics, which deals with technologies for exchanging and sharing information between humans and automobiles.
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Protein Chip Promises Cheaper Diagnostics
Science (12/19/08) Vol. 322 , No. 5909 , P. 1784 ; Service, Robert F.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a microfluidic chip that can detect and measure the concentrations of a dozen proteins in the blood. A test of proteins associated with cancer would need only a drop of blood, and the results could be obtained within 10 minutes. At the Materials Research Society's Fall Meeting in Boston in early December, the Caltech team showed how it used the new glass and plastic microfluidic chip to sort cancer patients into groups based on the proteins in their blood. According to Caltech chemistry professor James Heath, the microfluidic chip is inexpensive and easy to manufacture, which could lower clinical laboratory costs to as little as pennies per test. "If we can develop simple devices [for finding disease markers in plasma], that could be a big development for global health," said Samir Hanash, a proteomics specialist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. However, the device would have to show that it is reliable under a wide range of conditions, Hanash added.
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FDA Tests Computer Models
Wall Street Journal (12/17/08) P. B5A ; Winslow, Ron

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to use computer technology developed by California-based Entelos Inc. to simulate drugs in development and identify any links to cardiovascular events. Three drugs currently under study for heart-related conditions in human trials will be tested with the simulation technology as well. While drug companies and regulators have used computer simulation before, this project attempts to evaluate drug data by inserting it into a virtual disease model, according to Robert Powell, associate director in the office of translational sciences in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. The technology, called Cardiovascular PhysioLab, uses a mathematical model to simulate how cholesterol acts in the human body and how plaque develops in the arteries. If researchers enter certain drug characteristics into the model, they hope to predict if the compounds may cause cardiovascular problems, and in what types of patients. Scientists can use the computer technology to generate test results in days or weeks, rather than the years required by most major clinical trials. Powell said that the FDA would not refuse a drug's approval based only on the simulation results, but the findings could be used in discussions with drug companies and in the design of clinical trials.
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Nature, Nanotechnology Fuse in Electric Yarn That Detects Blood
Newswise (12/15/08)

Engineers at the University of Michigan have developed a cotton yarn coated with carbon nanotubes that could be woven into fabrics that detect blood and monitor health. After being dipped in the solution of carbon nanotubes and then a solution of sticky polymer in ethanol, 1.5-millimeter thick cotton yarn could conduct enough battery power to illuminate a diode device. The researchers added anti-albumin to the carbon nanotube solution to increase the conductivity. The clothing that might be made from this "smart yarn" could detect blood and be useful in high-risk professions, such as the military or police, and a communication device could theoretically send information from the clothing to a central command post. The findings were published online in Nano Letters.
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Nanotech Sensor Detects Toxic Compounds in Living Cells
Reuters (12/15/08) Steenhuysen, Julie

Researchers have developed a nanosensor that can detect cancer-causing molecules or therapeutic drugs inside a single living cell. Michael Strano of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who worked on the study, said the sensors are made of carbon nanotubes that are wrapped with DNA, offering a binding site for DNA-damaging agents inside the cells and making them safe for injection into living cells. The sensors give off a fluorescent light that can be detected in near-infrared light, standing out against human tissues. The light signal changes when the sensors meet with DNA inside the cells, allowing the scientists to identify certain molecules. The soonest use of this technology, Strano said, is to study the effects of small amounts of a chemical, but eventually it could be used to image the human body in a new way. The research team reported the technology in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
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Robotics Integrated With Human Body in Near Future?
Plataforma SINC (12/08/08)

Research by Spain's National Distance Learning University (UNED) and the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies on the potential impact of robots in society has concluded that the enormous automation capacity of robots and their ability to interact with humans will create a technological imbalance over the next 12 years between the "haves" and the "have nots." During the next 15 years, the hybridization of humans and robots will become just as prevalent as mobile phones and cars are today, says UNED professor Antonio Lopez Pelaez, a co-author of the study. The authors interviewed international experts working on developing and adapting advanced robotics for practical use, all of whom agreed that 2020 will be a technological inflection point because by then robots will be able to see, act, speak and process natural language, Pelaez says. The biggest change will be social robots, machines with artificial intelligence that have emotional and intimate interactions. "A robot might be a more effective partner and a better person than the humans we actually have in our immediate lives--just as you can see dog owners talking to their pets today, soon we will be talking to robots," Pelaez says. The study also examined the repercussions of incorporating robots into society, including a cultural distinction between those who can afford to buy the robots to help with activities and those who cannot. Another major concern is that unemployment could become a major problem as robots replace human labor, similar to how unemployment spread in the 19th century with the invention of textile machines.
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Robots Rush In: In Search-and-Rescue Operations Teamwork Is Everything
CITRIS Newsletter (12/08) Slack, Gordy

Researchers at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) are developing intelligent search-and-rescue robots that work cooperatively. University of California, Merced professor and robotics lab director Stefano Carpin says the robots, equipped with sensors and sonar, are designed to enter emergency situations and provide reconnaissance for first responders. "The idea is not to replace first responders with robots but to collect as much information as possible so that first responders can do their jobs better without being exposed to unnecessary risks," Carpin says. Carpin's lab has focused on developing multiple intelligent robots that can cooperate to complete a shared goal. The robots are overseen by a single operator, allowing them to work together and track each other's locations. Robots capable of coordinating movements and merging collected information will enable first responders to cover a far larger area. The robots could use each other as navigational points when not in contact with the human controller, enabling a single operator to deploy a team of robots. Coordinating the movements of multiple robots and creating a single geographical model from multiple moving sources are significant challenges that require complex mathematical algorithms, advanced engineering and subtle programming. "The user interface has to be simple enough for firefighters to use without too much training," Carpin says. "We have begun closing the link between the first responders and the scientists."
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Sweeping Changes Coming With Smart Dust
Investor's Business Daily (12/08/08) P. A1 ; Bonasia, J. ; Tsuruoka, Doug

Dozens of companies are engaged in the development of wireless, nanoscale sensor networks, also known as smart dust, in the hope of facilitating a wide range of radical applications, including climate monitoring. The sensors are being used to watch building controls, pipelines and factory equipment, says Dust Networks founder Kris Pister. He says smart dust can reliably track different industrial systems through their ability to communicate with each other via a mesh of wireless radio signals and this, along with their being small enough to be placed anywhere, gives them revolutionary potential. Smart dust is based on microelectromechanical systems that can measure temperatures, vibrations or surface pressures and transmit signals back to a command computer. Smart dust is finding use in industrial automation and factory applications, while building energy monitoring is another area generating great interest. "People see all kinds of potential value in trying new applications, but in many cases the wireless sensor technology is not quite mature enough yet," cautions ARC Advisory analyst Harry Forbes. More industry standards must be approved if wireless smart dust networks are to grow, because manufacturers need to align various sensors to a spectrum of wireless networks and software programs. Pister says the incorporation of encryption and other protective measures eliminates smart dust networks as a security risk.
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Genes to Gasoline
Chemical & Engineering News (12/08/08) Vol. 86 , No. 49 , P. 10 ; Ritter, Stephen K.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) calculates that approximately 1 billion dry tons of cellulosic biomass per year in the United States could be turned into biofuels, but obstructing this goal is the plant material's inability to break down lignocellulose rapidly and cost-effectively. Researchers at the DOE's BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) are working on a way to tackle the recalcitrance challenge, and they have made initial progress through the application of automated high-throughput screening technology and genomics tools refined by scientists working on decoding the human genome and by drug discovery researchers. "Our goals are to identify and characterize genes involved in cell-wall biosynthesis and structure and to establish which genes can have an impact on altering biomass recalcitrance," says BESC director Martin Keller. "That includes discovering microbes that efficiently degrade biomass and reengineering them to produce enzymes that can quickly deconstruct cell walls." The scientists' goals include the reduction or elimination of pretreatment, and the engineering of a versatile microbe that can take apart the plant cell wall and convert the resulting sugars into biofuel in one go. "Genetics and genomics can catalyze progress toward delivering--in the not-too-distant future--economically viable and more socially acceptable biofuels based on lignocellulose," says Joint Genome Institute director Edward M. Rubin.
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Hospital-on-a-Chip Targets Battlefield
EE Times (12/02/08) Johnson, R. Colin

Researchers are working to develop a hospital-on-a-chip device under a four-year, $1.6 million Office of Naval Research program. If successful, the device could monitor health and vital signs as well as diagnose and treat injuries to U.S. soldiers. This would be the first multipurpose microfluidic chip able to make complex diagnoses and administer various drugs. The device would obtain biomarkers of common battlefield injuries by monitoring fluids such as sweat and blood. Researcher Evgeny Katz of Clarkson University in New York is using custom-designed enzymes to measure biomarkers in body fluids and enable the chip to make a diagnosis on the battlefield. Researcher Joseph Wang of the University of California-San Diego will build the prototype chip that uses microfluidic channels to process enzymes, make a diagnosis, and apply the correct drug.
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An Internet of Senses
RFID Journal (12/01/08) Kim, Daeyoung ; Sung, Jongwoo

The Auto-ID Lab Korea expects to have a first prototype EPC sensor network for proof of concept by the end of 2009. An EPC sensor network would bring together the EPCglobal network and a sensor network in the form of a ubiquitous infrastructure with standardized architecture that operates on a global scale. An EPC sensor network also would allow information about physical environments, such as temperature, humidity, and pressure, to be collected, configured, filtered, accessed, and shared among heterogeneous sensing sources. Researchers at Auto-ID Lab Korea say the network for tracking goods in the supply chain could serve as the infrastructure for an integrated sensor network, and that radio frequency identification and wireless sensor network technology could complement each other. Since 2005, the researchers have been working to resolve the challenges of building an EPC sensor network, such as the EPCglobal network's lack of sensor support, the unique features of sensor networks, and the customized standards of the EPCglobal network. The researchers envision an EPC sensor network enabling end users with the appropriate authority to access sensor data using standard Internet interfaces.
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