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MIT scientists have demonstrated the usefulness of biological frameworks for combining distinct functional elements to make a device. Scientists have succeeded in coordinating the movements of the biped’s legs so that it can walk in one direction along a DNA track without the need of intervention at each step. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania used basic engineering principles derived from studying natural proteins to design from scratch a simple and small protein that performed the function of carrying oxygen that is performed by natural globin proteins. A piece in The Christian Science Monitor compares Nadrian Seeman, founder of the field of structural DNA nanotechnology and winner of the 1995 Foresight Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, with Henry Ford—implying that his recent accomplishment with his collaborators in creating a two-armed DNA nanorobot could point to a role for DNA nanorobots in future nanotech [...] A Newsdesk feature by Kelly Morris titled “Nanotechnology crucial in fighting infectious disease” in the April 2009 issue of Lancet Infectious Diseases surveys some highlights in developing nanotech efforts to prevent, diagnose, and treat infectious diseases. Examples include detecting disease through lab-on-a-chip technology featuring cantilevers that move upon binding antigens and nanowires that detect current [...] By joining an iron oxide nanoparticle bearing a tumor-specific antibody with a gold nanoparticle bearing an anti-cancer drug, scientists created a dumbbell-like nanotech vehicle that delivered the drug into breast cancer cells. Nanotech advances are leading toward bone implants that are are smart, multifunctional devices that will be capable of improved integration with surrounding bone tissue, and that will resist inflammation, bacterial growth, and the recurrence of bone cancer. The relevance of the ribosome to nanotech may be greatly increased by the announcement that synthetic ribosomes have been created and used to synthesize a complex protein named firefly luciferase. Another promising nanotech approach to harnessing the potential of siRNA molecules is to pack them on the surface of gold nanoparticles. Plant viruses are a new addition to the long list of types of nanoparticles being investigated as next generation nanotech cancer therapies. Two independently controlled nanomechanical devices can be positioned on a two-dimensional DNA grid so that they can cooperate to capture between them one of four DNA building blocks, determined by which of two possible states each device is set to. Nanotech may soon provide a solution for one of the more vexing problems in tissue engineering—how to control the differentiation of pluripotent or multipotent precursor cells into the specific cells needed to fix a specific problem. New computational results reveal how the proper hierarchical assembly of smaller protein domains optimizes mechanical properties. In new variation of ways to use nanotech to treat cancer, scientists have shown that using a scorpion toxin to target nanoparticles to brain cancer cells depletes the amount on the cancer cell surface of a protein required to make the cells invasive. From the National Cancer Institute’s Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer “Toxin-nanoparticle combo [...] In light of the call for open-source sensing arising from nanotech-based environmental monitoring, it is interesting to note this recent progress in building a nanotech-powered biosensor powered by molecular motors. An international team of investigators has demonstrated in mice a nanotech method of orally delivering an anticancer therapy that would normally have to be delivered by injection. Having demonstrated a year ago an effective nanotech method for shutting down specific gene expression in a mouse model of colitis, a team of researchers at Tel Aviv University is preparing to test this method in clinical trials for blood, pancreatic, breast and brain cancers. The January issue of Life Extension Magazine offers a report on the eventual promise of medical nanobots. The ribosome has a previously unsuspected method of error correction—in this case monitoring the fidelity of protein synthesis after the peptide bond is formed. Researchers have used slot waveguides to condense light energy to scales as small as 60 nm allowing them to trap 75-nm polystyrene nanoparticles and DNA molecules and transport them optically. |
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