A new miniature nanofiber device created by engineers at the University of California at San Diego is sensitive enough that it can feel bacteria swimming and can hear heart muscle cells beating. The device is 100 times thinner than a human hair and is made of optical fiber. It is designed to be able to detect forces […]
Nanotechnology
Report: Google’s working on a cancer-detecting pill
The light side of drug delivery
By Tom Ulrich
Getting drugs where they need to be, and at the right time, can be more challenging than you think. Tumors, for example, tend to have blood vessels that are tighter and twistier than normal ones, making it hard for drugs to penetrate them. Despite decades of research on antibodies, peptides and other guidance methods, drug makers struggle to target drugs to specific tissues or cell types.
Nanomedicine’s promise and challenges
Good things, including therapeutics, can come in small packages – and increasingly this means nano-sized packages. For a sense of the scale of these diminutive tools, a strand of human DNA is 2.5 nanometers in diameter.
Langer brainchild Bind Therapeutics launches $70.5M IPO
Serial entrepreneur and Massachusetts biotech super-star Dr. Robert Langer’s Bind Therapeutics last week launched an initial public offering aimed at raising $70.5 million from shares sold at $15 apiece.
The clinical-stage company, co-founded by Langer and Dr. Omid Farokhzad, is developing nanotech-based solutions for "programmable" therapeutics, starting a pair of cancer drugs.
FDA Voice interviews Paul C. Howard, Ph.D, on Nanotechnology
FDA Voice: Thank you for taking time to discuss the exciting field of Nanotechnology with us. We’ve heard so much about Nanotechnology – what is it exactly and why has it been tagged as the second industrial revolution?
Building cyborg tissues: Bioengineering meets nanoelectronics
By Tom Ulrich
At the start of the 2009 Star Trek reboot (this is relevant, trust me), the USS Kelvin’s captain meets the enemy on their ship to try to negotiate a cease-fire. His crew uses a kind of sensing technology to track his vital signs—like heart rate, breathing, body temperature—right up to the moment of his untimely demise.
Nanomedicine: Can islet-targeting drugs nip diabetes in the bud?
(Fangting/Wikimedia Commons)
Recent research on Type 1 diabetes has begun focusing on prevention: Studies indicate that children start developing diabetes-related autoantibodies sometimes years before they develop clinical diabetes requiring insulin shots.
Diabetes: Artificial pancreas stalled by safety debate | MassDevice.com On Call
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Safety concerns by the FDA have stalled the development of an artificial pancreas to treat Type I diabetes.
Advocates of the artificial pancreas have been calling for the federal watchdog agency to issue a clear guidance for months and they could get an answer as early as this afternoon.
Could nanotechnology improve treatment of heart attack and heart failure?
Gold nanowires studding the
pore walls of the scaffolding
material holding the cells.
Analysts: Will Infuse storm force Medtronic to jettison spine business?
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Sticks and stones may break Medtronic Inc.’s (NYSE:MDT) bone business, as analysts predict that the growing controversy over the company’s Infuse bone-growth product may lead the medical device giant to shed that arm entirely.
