NanoBillboard.com

Nanoparticle Targets Brain Tumors

NanoBillboard.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:43:33 +0000

Scientists at Cedars-Sinai’s Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute found that a specific protein called laminin-411 plays a major role in the ability of an aggressive type of brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme, build new blood vessels to support its growth and spread. Employing nanoparticles as a drug delivery agent, the research team has created a “nanobioconjugate” drug that may be given by intravenous injection and carried in the blood to target the brain tumor. This work, which was led by Julia Ljubimova of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer – Nanotech News

In situ green synthesis of biocompatible ginseng capped gold nanoparticles with remarkable stability

NanoBillboard.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:43:32 +0000

This paper reports a one-step green synthesis of gold nanoparticles (G-AuNps), using naturally occurring Korean red ginseng root (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer) and investigates their in vitro stability in various buffers as well as determining toxicity through detailed cytotoxicity assays using WST-8 counting kit, performed on normal cervical cells lines.
Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, 82(2): 391-396 (February 2011)
International Council on Nanotechnology, Rice University – Virtual Journal

The Dean of Invention: Segway Mastermind Probes Sci-Tech’s Future [Video]

NanoBillboard.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:43:31 +0000

Ask a random person on the street to name his or her five favorite scientists, chances are you would hear a litany of familiar names–perhaps Marie Curie, Albert Einstein or Louis Pasteur–all of them instrumental in casting the world in which we live. Much less likely would be a recital of contemporary researchers hard at work shaping the work in which we will live. [More]

Scientific American Topic – Nanotechnology

Butterfly wings behind anti-counterfeiting nanotechnology

NanoBillboard.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:43:31 +0000

Imagine a hole so small that air can’t go through it, or a hole so small it can trap a single wavelength of light. Nanotech Security Corp., with the help of Simon Fraser University researchers, is using this type of nanotechnology to create unique anti-counterfeiting security features.
Nanowerk Nanotechnology News

Voluntary Initiatives, Regulation, and Nanotechnology Oversight

NanoBillboard.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:43:28 +0000

A new PEN report provides the first ever analysis of voluntary initiatives to regulate nanotechnology. As nanotechnologies move forward, along with other emerging technologies, voluntary programs will play an important role in the governance portfolio available to the federal government as well as states and municipalities.
Nanotechnology RSS Feed from the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies

U.S. Science & Engineering Festival culminates this weekend on the National Mall

NanoBillboard.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:43:27 +0000

It’s common knowledge that the U.S. no longer produces enough scientists and engineers to keep pace with the rest of the world. Now, the organizers of the USA Science & Engineering Festival are doing something about it, with a two-week, nationwide extravaganza for left-brain-leaning young people that culminates this weekend in Washington, D.C. A grand finale expo will feature hands-on exhibits, science-inspired songs and educational workshops. Scientific American is a media sponsor of the event. [More]

Scientific American Topic – Nanotechnology

Synthesis, characterization and cytotoxicity studies of chitosan-coated tea polyphenols nanoparticles

NanoBillboard.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:43:26 +0000

This study describes the preparation of chitosan-coated tea polyphenols nanoparticles (CS-TP NPs) by ionic gelation method using carboxymethyl chitosan and chitosan hydrochloride as carriers of tea polyphenols and investigates the antitumor of CS-TP NPs towards HepG2 cancer cells.
Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, 82(2): 297-301 (February 2011)
International Council on Nanotechnology, Rice University – Virtual Journal

Cat Lap: Engineers Unravel the Mystery of How Felines Drink

NanoBillboard.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:43:25 +0000

One morning a few years back Roman Stocker was watching his cat, Cutta Cutta, drink, and began to wonder about the mechanism by which cats lap fluid into their mouths. [More]

Scientific American Topic – Nanotechnology

World Changing Ideas 2010 (preview)

NanoBillboard.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:43:25 +0000

Technology is all around us, expanding the limits of what is possible. but every once in a while, some invention or insight has an outsize effect; it creates a large discontinuity, dividing history into “before” and “after.” The steam engine, the transistor, the World Wide Web–each of these ideas seemed to emerge from nowhere to change our world in fundamental ways. Which key technology will arise fromtoday’s vast cauldron of innovation to become tomorrow’s world changing idea? It’s impossible to know, of course, but we know it will come.

Here are 10 candidates–10 new ideas and technologies that could rewrite the rules. What if we could build robots that turn waste into fuel? Or harness the power of video games (yes, video games) to make ourselves do the right thing? What if the “junk” in our DNA is actually as important as our genes? What if insects hold the secret to fending off cyberattacks? Welcome to the World Changing Ideas 2010 edition. — The Editors

[More]

Scientific American Topic – Nanotechnology

Silicon-Nested Gadonanotubes Promise Big Advance for Medical Imaging

NanoBillboard.com — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:43:24 +0000

A porous, disk-shaped “nest” for nanotubes may help magnetic resonance imaging become better than ever at finding evidence of cancer if the results of research led by investigators at Rice University are any indication of future success. The researchers, whose work was published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, have developed a general method for trapping paramagnetic nanoparticles inside a silicon particle that, when injected into a patient’s bloodstream, would make the nanoparticles up to 50 times more effective at spotting tumors or other signs of disease.
NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer – Nanotech News