Source: University of South Carolina
Date: June 22, 2012
Summary:
A researcher at the University of South Carolina, has made significant progress toward reducing the time for broken bone to heal. A study published in Molecular Pharmaceutics found that surfaces coated with bionanoparticles could greatly accelerate the early phases of bone growth. Their coatings, based in part on genetically modified Tobacco mosaic virus, reduced the amount of time it took to convert stem cells into bone nodules -- from two weeks to just two days.
The conversion of these cells -- called stem cells -- is set into motion by external cues. In bone healing, the body senses the break at the cellular level and begins converting stem cells into new bone cells at the location of the break, bonding the fracture back into a single unit. The process is very slow, which is helpful in allowing a fracture to be properly set, but after that point the wait is at least an inconvenience, and in some cases highly detrimental. The researchers found that the coatings alone could reduce the amount of time to grow bone nodules from stem cells. Since then, theyhave refined their approach to better define just what it is that accelerates bone growth.
Showing posts with label nanotechnology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nanotechnology. Show all posts
Friday, June 22, 2012
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
Influencing Stem Cell Fate: New Screening Method Helps Scientists Identify Key Information Rapidly
Source: Northwestern University
Date: March 6, 2012
Summary:
Northwestern University scientists have developed a powerful analytical method that they have used to direct stem cell differentiation. Out of millions of possibilities, they rapidly identified the chemical and physical structures that can cue stem cells to become osteocytes, cells found in mature bone.
Researchers can use the method, called nanocombinatorics, to build enormous libraries of physical structures varying in size from a few nanometers to many micrometers for addressing problems within and outside biology. Those in the fields of chemistry, materials engineering and nanotechnology could use this invaluable tool to assess which chemical and physical structures -- including size, shape and composition -- work best for a desired process or function.
Nanocombinatorics holds promise for screening catalysts for energy conversion, understanding properties conferred by nanostructures, identifying active molecules for drug discovery or even optimizing materials for tissue regeneration, among other applications.
Details of the method and proof of concept is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Date: March 6, 2012
Summary:
Northwestern University scientists have developed a powerful analytical method that they have used to direct stem cell differentiation. Out of millions of possibilities, they rapidly identified the chemical and physical structures that can cue stem cells to become osteocytes, cells found in mature bone.
Researchers can use the method, called nanocombinatorics, to build enormous libraries of physical structures varying in size from a few nanometers to many micrometers for addressing problems within and outside biology. Those in the fields of chemistry, materials engineering and nanotechnology could use this invaluable tool to assess which chemical and physical structures -- including size, shape and composition -- work best for a desired process or function.
Nanocombinatorics holds promise for screening catalysts for energy conversion, understanding properties conferred by nanostructures, identifying active molecules for drug discovery or even optimizing materials for tissue regeneration, among other applications.
Details of the method and proof of concept is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Growing Replacement Bone: Study Shows that Delivering Stem Cells Improves Repair of Major Bone Injuries
Source: Georgia Institute of Technology
Date: January 11, 2010
A study published this week reinforces the potential value of stem cells in repairing major injuries involving the loss of bone structure. Georgia Tech mechanical engineering professor Robert Guldberg displays a histological image showing cellular bone and cartilage regeneration integrated with a scaffold that was implanted into a large bone defect. The study shows that delivering stem cells on a polymer scaffold to treat large areas of missing bone leads to improved bone formation and better mechanical properties compared to treatment with the scaffold alone. This type of therapeutic treatment could be a potential alternative to bone grafting operations. Details of the research were published in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on January 11, 2010.
Date: January 11, 2010
A study published this week reinforces the potential value of stem cells in repairing major injuries involving the loss of bone structure. Georgia Tech mechanical engineering professor Robert Guldberg displays a histological image showing cellular bone and cartilage regeneration integrated with a scaffold that was implanted into a large bone defect. The study shows that delivering stem cells on a polymer scaffold to treat large areas of missing bone leads to improved bone formation and better mechanical properties compared to treatment with the scaffold alone. This type of therapeutic treatment could be a potential alternative to bone grafting operations. Details of the research were published in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on January 11, 2010.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Findings show nanomedicine promising for treating spinal cord injuries
Source: Purdue University
Date: November 8, 2009
Summary:
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 after an accident. The synthetic "copolymer micelles" are drug-delivery spheres about 60 nanometers in diameter, or roughly 100 times smaller than the diameter of a red blood cell. Researchers have been studying how to deliver drugs for cancer treatment and other therapies using these spheres. Medications might be harbored in the cores and ferried to diseased or damaged tissue. Purdue researchers have now shown that the micelles themselves repair damaged axons, fibers that transmit electrical impulses in the spinal cord. Findings are detailed in a research paper appearing Sunday (Nov. 8) in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Date: November 8, 2009
Summary:
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 after an accident. The synthetic "copolymer micelles" are drug-delivery spheres about 60 nanometers in diameter, or roughly 100 times smaller than the diameter of a red blood cell. Researchers have been studying how to deliver drugs for cancer treatment and other therapies using these spheres. Medications might be harbored in the cores and ferried to diseased or damaged tissue. Purdue researchers have now shown that the micelles themselves repair damaged axons, fibers that transmit electrical impulses in the spinal cord. Findings are detailed in a research paper appearing Sunday (Nov. 8) in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Nanomagnets guide stem cells to damaged tissue
Source: University College London
Date: August 17, 2009
Summary:
Microscopic magnetic particles have been used to bring stem cells to sites of cardiovascular injury in a new method designed to increase the capacity of cells to repair damaged tissue, University College London scientists announced. The cross disciplinary research, published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions, demonstrates a technique where endothelial progenitor cells - a type of stem cell shown to be important in vascular healing processes - have been magnetically tagged with a tiny iron-containing clinical agent, then successfully targeted to a site of arterial injury using a magnet positioned outside the body. Following magnetic targeting, there was a five-fold increase in cell localisation at a site of vascular injury in rats. The team also demonstrated a six-fold increase in cell capture in an in vitro flow system (where microscopic particles are suspended in a stream of fluid and examined to see how they behave).
Date: August 17, 2009
Summary:
Microscopic magnetic particles have been used to bring stem cells to sites of cardiovascular injury in a new method designed to increase the capacity of cells to repair damaged tissue, University College London scientists announced. The cross disciplinary research, published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions, demonstrates a technique where endothelial progenitor cells - a type of stem cell shown to be important in vascular healing processes - have been magnetically tagged with a tiny iron-containing clinical agent, then successfully targeted to a site of arterial injury using a magnet positioned outside the body. Following magnetic targeting, there was a five-fold increase in cell localisation at a site of vascular injury in rats. The team also demonstrated a six-fold increase in cell capture in an in vitro flow system (where microscopic particles are suspended in a stream of fluid and examined to see how they behave).
Monday, September 29, 2008
Reversible 3-D cell culture gel invented
Source: Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
Date: September 28, 2008
Summary:
Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, has invented a unique user-friendly gel that can liquefy on demand, with the potential to revolutionize three-dimensional (3D) cell culture for medical research. As reported in Nature Nanotechnology (Y.S. Pek, A. C. A. Wan, A. Shekaran, L. Zhuo and J. Y. Ying, "A Thixotropic Nanocomposite Gel for Three-Dimensional Cell Culture"), IBN's novel gel media has the unique ability to liquefy when it is subjected to a moderate shear force and rapidly resolidifies into a gel within one minute upon removal of the force. This phenomenon of reverting between a gel and a liquid state is known as thixotropy.
Another key feature of IBN's gel is the ease with which researchers can transfer the cultured cells from the matrix by pipetting the required amount from the liquefied gel. Unlike conventional cell culture, trypsin is not required to detach the cultured cells from the solid media. As trypsin is an enzyme that is known to damage cells, especially in stem cell cultures, the long-term quality and viability of cells cultured using IBN's thixotropic gel would improve substantially without the exposure to this enzyme. Researchers are also able to control the gel's stiffness, thus facilitating the differentiation of stem cells into specific cell types.
Date: September 28, 2008
Summary:
Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, has invented a unique user-friendly gel that can liquefy on demand, with the potential to revolutionize three-dimensional (3D) cell culture for medical research. As reported in Nature Nanotechnology (Y.S. Pek, A. C. A. Wan, A. Shekaran, L. Zhuo and J. Y. Ying, "A Thixotropic Nanocomposite Gel for Three-Dimensional Cell Culture"), IBN's novel gel media has the unique ability to liquefy when it is subjected to a moderate shear force and rapidly resolidifies into a gel within one minute upon removal of the force. This phenomenon of reverting between a gel and a liquid state is known as thixotropy.
Another key feature of IBN's gel is the ease with which researchers can transfer the cultured cells from the matrix by pipetting the required amount from the liquefied gel. Unlike conventional cell culture, trypsin is not required to detach the cultured cells from the solid media. As trypsin is an enzyme that is known to damage cells, especially in stem cell cultures, the long-term quality and viability of cells cultured using IBN's thixotropic gel would improve substantially without the exposure to this enzyme. Researchers are also able to control the gel's stiffness, thus facilitating the differentiation of stem cells into specific cell types.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Promising new nanotechnology for spinal cord injury
Source: Northwestern University
Date: April 2, 2008
Summary:
A spinal cord injury often leads to permanent paralysis and loss of sensation below the site of the injury because the damaged nerve fibers can't regenerate. The nerve fibers or axons have the capacity to grow again, but don’t because they're blocked by scar tissue that develops around the injury. Northwestern University researchers have shown that a new nano-engineered gel inhibits the formation of scar tissue at the injury site and enables the severed spinal cord fibers to regenerate and grow. The gel is injected as a liquid into the spinal cord and self -assembles into a scaffold that supports the new nerve fibers as they grow up and down the spinal cord, penetrating the site of the injury. When the gel was injected into mice with a spinal cord injury, after six weeks the animals had a greatly enhanced ability to use their hind legs and walk. The research is published today in the April 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
Date: April 2, 2008
Summary:
A spinal cord injury often leads to permanent paralysis and loss of sensation below the site of the injury because the damaged nerve fibers can't regenerate. The nerve fibers or axons have the capacity to grow again, but don’t because they're blocked by scar tissue that develops around the injury. Northwestern University researchers have shown that a new nano-engineered gel inhibits the formation of scar tissue at the injury site and enables the severed spinal cord fibers to regenerate and grow. The gel is injected as a liquid into the spinal cord and self -assembles into a scaffold that supports the new nerve fibers as they grow up and down the spinal cord, penetrating the site of the injury. When the gel was injected into mice with a spinal cord injury, after six weeks the animals had a greatly enhanced ability to use their hind legs and walk. The research is published today in the April 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Self-Assembled Materials Form Mini Stem Cell Lab
Source: Northwestern University
Date: March 27, 2008
Summary:
Imagine having one polymer and one small molecule that instantly assemble into a flexible but strong sac in which you can grow human stem cells, creating a sort of miniature laboratory. And that sac, if used for cell therapy, could cloak the stem cells from the human body’s immune system and biodegrade upon arriving at its destination, releasing the stem cells to do their work.
Futuristic? Only in part. A research team from Northwestern University’s Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine has created such sacs and demonstrated that human stem cells will grow in them. The researchers also report that the sacs can survive for weeks in culture and that their membranes are permeable to proteins. Proteins, even large ones, can travel freely across the membrane.
Date: March 27, 2008
Summary:
Imagine having one polymer and one small molecule that instantly assemble into a flexible but strong sac in which you can grow human stem cells, creating a sort of miniature laboratory. And that sac, if used for cell therapy, could cloak the stem cells from the human body’s immune system and biodegrade upon arriving at its destination, releasing the stem cells to do their work.
Futuristic? Only in part. A research team from Northwestern University’s Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine has created such sacs and demonstrated that human stem cells will grow in them. The researchers also report that the sacs can survive for weeks in culture and that their membranes are permeable to proteins. Proteins, even large ones, can travel freely across the membrane.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Nanomedicine opens the way for nerve cell regeneration
Source: Elsevier Health Sciences
Date: May 21, 2007
Summary:
The ability to regenerate nerve cells in the body could reduce the effects of trauma and disease in a dramatic way. In two presentations at the NSTI Nanotech 2007 Conference, researchers describe the use of nanotechnology to enhance the regeneration of nerve cells. In the first method, developed at the University of Miami, researchers show how magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) may be used to create mechanical tension that stimulates the growth and elongation of axons of the central nervous system neurons. The second method from the University of California, Berkeley uses aligned nanofibers containing one or more growth factors to provide a bioactive matrix where nerve cells can regrow.
Date: May 21, 2007
Summary:
The ability to regenerate nerve cells in the body could reduce the effects of trauma and disease in a dramatic way. In two presentations at the NSTI Nanotech 2007 Conference, researchers describe the use of nanotechnology to enhance the regeneration of nerve cells. In the first method, developed at the University of Miami, researchers show how magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) may be used to create mechanical tension that stimulates the growth and elongation of axons of the central nervous system neurons. The second method from the University of California, Berkeley uses aligned nanofibers containing one or more growth factors to provide a bioactive matrix where nerve cells can regrow.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Paralyzed Mice Walk Again: Scientists Use Nanotechnology to Mend Broken Spinal Cords
Source: ABC News
Date: May 1, 2007
Summary:
Scientists are using nanotechnology to mend the broken spinal cords of mice. The results of their research could signal the end to diseases in humans, like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and enable paralyzed people to walk again, ushering in a new era of medicine -- regenerative medicine.
Date: May 1, 2007
Summary:
Scientists are using nanotechnology to mend the broken spinal cords of mice. The results of their research could signal the end to diseases in humans, like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and enable paralyzed people to walk again, ushering in a new era of medicine -- regenerative medicine.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Nanotechnology offers hope for treating spinal cord injuries, diabetes, and Parkinson's disease
Source: Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies
Date: April 24, 2007
Summary:
Scientists are combining nanotechnology and biology to enable the body to heal itself and mobilize the body’s own healing abilities to repair or regenerate damaged cells. The research could enable damaged organs—kidneys, liver, heart—to be stimulated to heal themselves and injured tissues to be repaired and completely and permanently relieve effects of neurodgenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease or Alzheimer’s Disease.
Date: April 24, 2007
Summary:
Scientists are combining nanotechnology and biology to enable the body to heal itself and mobilize the body’s own healing abilities to repair or regenerate damaged cells. The research could enable damaged organs—kidneys, liver, heart—to be stimulated to heal themselves and injured tissues to be repaired and completely and permanently relieve effects of neurodgenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease or Alzheimer’s Disease.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Nanotechnology could be basis of future cures
Source: Chicago Tribune
Date: April 23, 2007
Summary:
The Chicago Tribune examines the application of nanotechnology to regenerative medicine in order to grow new brain tissue to treat degenerative conditions such as Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease.
Date: April 23, 2007
Summary:
The Chicago Tribune examines the application of nanotechnology to regenerative medicine in order to grow new brain tissue to treat degenerative conditions such as Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Nanotechnology could fix nerve, brain damage
Source: Boston Globe / San Francisco Chronicle
Date: March 26, 2006
Summary:
The Boston Globe reports on an advance in nanotechnology that could heal brain damage:
"In work that might hold promise for victims of spinal cord and brain injuries, researchers report that they have managed to restore sight to blinded hamsters using a process they call nanoknitting. The work represents the first time that nanotechnology -- engineering on an ultra-tiny scale -- has been used to fix brain damage, said Rutledge Ellis-Behnke, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the lead researcher on the paper."
Date: March 26, 2006
Summary:
The Boston Globe reports on an advance in nanotechnology that could heal brain damage:
"In work that might hold promise for victims of spinal cord and brain injuries, researchers report that they have managed to restore sight to blinded hamsters using a process they call nanoknitting. The work represents the first time that nanotechnology -- engineering on an ultra-tiny scale -- has been used to fix brain damage, said Rutledge Ellis-Behnke, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the lead researcher on the paper."
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Brain-Healing Nanotechnology: A ground-breaking treatment could restore lost abilities to stroke victims and others.
Source: Technology Review
Date: March 14, 2006
Summary:
Although victims of stroke and traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries sometimes recover through rehabilitation, they often have permanent disabilities, in part, because scar tissue and regulatory chemicals in the brain slow nerve growth, preventing nerve tissue from repairing itself. Now a treatment that has restored lost vision in lab animals appears to overcome these obstacles, allowing a mass of nerve cells to regrow after being cut.
Date: March 14, 2006
Summary:
Although victims of stroke and traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries sometimes recover through rehabilitation, they often have permanent disabilities, in part, because scar tissue and regulatory chemicals in the brain slow nerve growth, preventing nerve tissue from repairing itself. Now a treatment that has restored lost vision in lab animals appears to overcome these obstacles, allowing a mass of nerve cells to regrow after being cut.
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