Gold nanostars targeted to a protein over-expressed in most cancer cells are shuttled by that protein directly to the cancer cell nucleus where illumination with a laser light releases a drug that deforms the nucleus and kills the cell.

Clinical trials in patients with advanced or metastatic tumors using targeted nanoparticles to deliver a standard chemotherapeutic drug showed tumor shrinkage, even in the case of cancers for which that drug is not normally effective.

A combination of a molecular motor protein and a nanopore protein has been harnessed for rapidly sequencing single DNA molecules.

In a rat model of ischemic damage, nanoparticle delivery of a growth factor and a coreceptor promotes regrowth of damaged blood vessels in seven days.

New protein repellent coating enhances the speed of carbon nanotube-based biosensors, pointing the way to faster, cheaper medical diagnostics.

Functioning DNA nanorobots to deliver specific molecular signals to cells were designed by combining DNA origami, DNA aptamers, and DNA logic gates.

A talk at TEDxBerkeley includes nanotechnology among the options for digital fabrication, one of five new rules of innovation.

Artist’s conception of a nanopore drilled into a layer of graphene to speed up DNA sequencing. One of the greatest promises of near-term nanotechnoloogy is cheaper DNA sequencing to speed the development of personalized medicine. There are not only genetic differences between different patients, but also genetic differences between, for example, different cancers of the [...]

Human life after advanced nanotechnology has been developed will be fundamentally different from life up until that point.

The first Master’s of Science in Nanomedicine degree program in US is announced. As an example of the rapidly developing potential of nanomedicine, a novel type of nanoparticle succeeded in two different mouse models in destroying a type of brain cancer that had previously been completely resistant to all treatment attempts.

When can we expect advanced nanomachinery to be commercialized? Will any technologies not be affected in some way by advanced nanotechnology?

A new polymer that disintegrates in response to harmless radiation that can penetrate several inches into human tissue may lead to nanoparticles that release their drug cargo only at a desired time and place.

To counter the threat of evolved or engineered resistance of pathogenic bacteria to antibiotics, Darpa proposes to use nanotechnology to develop “Rapidly Adaptable Nanotherapeutics”.

Small DNA molecules fluoresce in the presence of specific transcription factors, sensing which genes are being expressed in that cell, potentially allowing cancer treatments to be personalized, and the quality of stem cells to be monitored.

This contribution has been forwarded by Ivo Rivetta. The primary forces on the nanometer scale are scaled versions of what we experience on a day to day basis. Instead of gravity, surface forces such as water tension and electric charge dominate. As an example, compare wet basketballs and wet sand. The weight of the basketballs [...]

Yarn woven from carbon nanotubes provides a thousand times more rotation than is obtained from other artificial muscles, and could be made into motors to provide propulsion for micrometer-sized medical nanorobots.

This contribution has been forwarded by Ivo Rivetta. Researchers at UC Berkeley have taken a bioinspired approach to control the nanostructure of deposited thin films. In living organisms, the orientation of collagen in tissue determines its properties: For instance, a number of blue-skinned animals, including the mandrill monkey, derive their coloring not from pigment, but [...]

A complex piece of DNA that acts as a biological computer when it is inserted into cells determines whether or not the cell is a specific type of cancer cell, and if so, initiates the suicide of that cell.

Nanotechnology has been applied to produce various types of nanoparticles that can deliver toxic agents specifically to the cancer cells. Many of these approaches have shown promise in animal studies. One approach using magnetic nanoparticles has now gone into trials in patients. From “Nano-therapy that cooks deadly brain tumors advances in Germany,” by Ryan McBride: [...]

Growing heart cells in a scaffold containing gold nanowires produces a tissue patch that is thicker and in which the cells beat synchronously as they do in healthy heart tissue.