Bio & Medicine news

Scientists Build Nanostructures out of Single DNA Strands

Sep 08, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 5

(PhysOrg.com) -- With its unique double-helical structure, DNA has the ability to be used as a programmable building material to construct designer nanoscale architectures. Complex DNA architectures could ...

Carbon Nanotube-Coated Electrodes Improve Brain Readouts

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Aug 12, 2008 | 4.3 / 5 (23) | 5

A research group has significantly improved the quality of brain-function measurements by coating metal neural electrodes with carbon nanotubes. Their work could potentially allow scientists to learn more ...

Carbon Nanotubes Compromise the Functions of Certain Protozoa, Study Shows

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Jun 18, 2008 | 4.7 / 5 (36) | 3

A new study by researchers from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, hints that carbon nanotubes may be toxic to microorganisms. When cultures of a certain key protozoan, a single-cell organism, ...

Nanobacteria – Are They Alive?

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Apr 23, 2008 | 4.6 / 5 (94) | 9

Tiny particles called nanobacteria have intrigued researchers in many ways since their discovery 20 years ago, but perhaps the most controversial question they pose is whether or not they are alive.

First Direct Images of Carbon Nanotubes Entering Cells

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Nov 15, 2007 | 4.5 / 5 (86) | 14

For the first time, scientists have directly imaged carbon nanotubes entering and migrating within human cells, determining as a result that whether the nanotubes cause cell death depends on the dose and exposure ...

Molecules autonomously propelled by polymerizing DNA strands

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Sep 06, 2007 | 4.4 / 5 (41) | 0

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology have fabricated a motor that runs autonomously, and is powered only by the free energy of DNA hybridization. The molecular motor was inspired by bacterial ...

Carbon nanotube injectors probe living cells without damage

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Jun 20, 2007 | 4.6 / 5 (56) | 0

In order to investigate the processes that go on inside a single human cell—or even specific subcellular compartments—researchers need a device that is small and controlled enough to pass through ...

Carbon-Nanotube Toxicity Test Tricks Scientists

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Sep 05, 2006 | 4.2 / 5 (48) | 0

Recent research has revealed that a standard cell-viability test may be causing carbon-nanotubes to “fake” toxicity. This work may explain why some studies have concluded that carbon nanotubes – which are being studied for ...

Nanowire arrays can detect signals along individual neurons

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Aug 24, 2006 | 4.4 / 5 (50) | 0

Opening a whole new interface between nanotechnology and neuroscience, scientists at Harvard University have used slender silicon nanowires to detect, stimulate, and inhibit nerve signals along the axons and dendrites of ...

Stretching DNA Yields Surprise

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Aug 08, 2006 | 4.2 / 5 (35) | 0

Most of us are familiar with the winding staircase image of DNA, the repository of a biological cell's genetic information. But few of us realize just how tightly that famous double helix is wound.

Sandia work shows live cells influence growth of nanostructures

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Jul 20, 2006 | 4.3 / 5 (7) | 0

Far above the heads of Earthlings, arrays of single-cell creatures are circling Earth in nanostructures. The sample devices are riding on the International Space Station (courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories ...

Frank Chen holds a bottle of quantum dots.

Quantum Dots Pose Minimal Impact to Cells

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Jul 18, 2006 | 4.2 / 5 (22) | 0

Nano-sized fluorescent probes that can slip inside living cells and elucidate life’s most fundamental processes, or track the effectiveness of cancer-fighting drugs, are barely noticed by the cells they enter, ...

Findings show nanomedicine promising for treating spinal cord injuries

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Nov 08, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Purdue University have discovered a new approach for repairing damaged nerve fibers in spinal cord injuries using nano-spheres that could be injected into the blood shortly ...

Nanoparticles for gene therapy improve

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Nov 06, 2009 | 5 / 5 (5) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- About five years ago, Professor Janet Sawicki at the Lankenau Institute in Pennsylvania read an article about nanoparticles developed by MIT's Robert Langer for gene therapy, the insertion ...

Nanoparticles may cause DNA damage across a cellular barrier

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Nov 05, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (9) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have shown in the laboratory that metal nanoparticles damaged the DNA in cells on the other side of a cellular barrier. The research, by the University of Bristol, is published ...