Nanosceal Journal Volume 1 Issue 1

When you come across that paper that sounds like it was a joke but really contains some important points of note- it is worth sharing!

This week after noticing that most of my colleagues are sporting lovely beards for 2020 I decided to order some beard guards for our cleanroom. It was then I came across this gem of a paper from 1967 

Title: Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC547091/pdf/applmicro00234-0219.pdf

The investigation looked into whether men's beards could harbour bacteria or a virus and pass it along unwittingly to others.

The investigators cultured 2 bacterial 'noninfectious' strains  of S. marcescens and B. subtilis var. niger.  These cultures were sprayed on the beards of men for 30 minutes or 6 hours. After this time frame the men washed their beards- the technique for beard washing came with a handy reference  image:

But happily, this was not the only image in the paper- which also explained in detail the beard sampling method with a handy reference image:

The article reports investigating if disease could be transmitted (NDV) to a host (chickens) and also there was an experiment to check if disease could be caused by inhalation of a toxin (C.botulinum) to a host (guinea pig), for these experiments a very creepy looking bearded mannequin was used. 

What was the result - well after showing many tables of results of clean-shaven and bearded men's faces bacterial loads, the take-home message was that although both clean-shaven and bearded skin harbour bacteria even after washing, beards are more resistant to cleaning. So, if working with a high concentration of infectious bacteria in aerosol form out in the open (as you do!) - bearded or clean shaven - remember to wash your face! Also, some chicken contacted NVD (all were sacrificed) and a guinea pig died during exposure and I am not sure what became of the other 59 guinea pigs.

This week in Nano (Week 47 Nov 16th-22nd)

Nanotechnology and James Bond: Love it or hate it the new offering from Ian Fleming 'Spectre' has hit the screens and 007 is at it again! The globe-trotting, Martini drinking, misogynist spy is the topic of this blog - why? Well in Spectre, Q has a new trick up his sleeve, all thanks to the wonders of nanotechnology!!

At the start of the movie, Q injects James Bond with nanoparticles. Apparently these particles (Q refers to them as 'Smart Blood') allows Q to track Bonds every move indefinitely(!!) via a computer device. This happens at the start of the movie, so 007 has to deal with MI6 knowing his every whereabouts as he fights his way around the planet. But how likely is this scenario??

Well, it is not such a crazy suggestion! Injectables involving nanomaterials (NMs) are very interesting to researchers, and there are a host of researchers working on injectable NMs particularly in the medical diagnostics/device field. Companies such as MagForce have European regulatory approval for its Nano-Cancer^® therapy. They offer therapies that directly inject NMs into brain tumours to allow for tumour destruction.  Others companies such as Blaze Bioscience have drugs in trial that can be injected into the body and once circulating can “light up” cancer cells thus indicating them for destruction.

Researchers focus on: the types of NMs that are biocompatible or rendering nanocomposites biocompatible, using NMs as sensors (nanobiosensors), targeted drug delivery using NMs themselves or using the NMs as trojan horse style devices, nanomedical devices such as nanobots, chips or implants as well of course as researching nanotoxicology or nano remediation, which focuses on toxicity evaluations of NMs. 

Given the degree to which we are using NMs in the medical field and the promising development of this area, how long is it until we can have a nano RFID style tags/bots circulating in the body? Although smart blood may not be a reality (would we even want that?) science is not that far behind Q when it comes to injectable nanomaterials!

Now, what is the science behind shaken not stirred- that is a whole other debate.

This week in Nano (Week 43 October 19th-25th)

A study entitled 'Anthropogenic Carbon Nanotubes Found in the Airways of Parisian Children' hit the headlines this week after it was published via EBioMedicine

Here are some of the headlines:

• Are cars nanotube factories on wheels?
• Carbon nanotubes found in children’s lungs for the first time
• Are cars nanotube factories on wheels
• Carbon nanotubes found in human lungs for first time.
• Carbon nanotubes in cars finds their way to lungs of children
• Researchers detect carbon nanotubes in the lungs of French children

The article can be found here.  What does the paper actually report?

1. The study looked at bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) obtained from 64 asthmatic children living in Paris who underwent a  bronchoalveolar lavage treatment. During such a treatment sterile saline fluid is squirted into the lungs and then this fluid  from bronchioles and lung alveoli are removed for diagnosis. Healthy patients where not considered or this study due to ethical reasons - a bronchoaveolar lavage is invasive procedure.

2. The objective of the study was to characterise the particulate matter found in the samples (BAL, as well as dust samples and car exhaust)

3.  The samples were collected over a period from 2007-2011 and frozen until analysed (later 5 non frozen samples were also characterised).

4. The samples were unfrozen, centrifuged and the pellet was mixed with distilled water. This sample was then vortexed for 2 min, stirred for 12 hours, sonicated  and vortexed . The subsequent pellet was  re-dispersion in  purified water with sonication for 10 min. 3 μL of the resulting suspension was deposited onto the TEM grid

5. TEM pictures show fibre like structures ('aggregated PM and filament-like structures') subsequent analysis shows this to be carbonaceous in nature.

6. The authors concluded that carbon nanotubes (CNT) were present in all randomly selected samples, and the CNTs observed in the lungs of Parisian children are similar to those detected in dust and vehicle exhaust samples collected in the Parisian area. These CNTs are present in all examined samples.

Overall an interesting read.  It would be nice to see some more TEM samples from the study (perhaps as a supplement).  It would also be nice to see some comparisons of these TEM images with TEM images of other BAL, dust and car exhaust studies.

Kolosnjaj-Tabi et al., 2015

Kolosnjaj-Tabi et al., 2015

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This week in Nano (Week 42 12th-18th October)

This summer just gone the European Nano-Characterisation Laboratory (EU-NCL) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme was launched. The lab hopes to alleviate the bottleneck in research when it comes to nanomaterial characterisation by providing a wide range of NM characterisation options. Knowing more about NM helps researchers to better understand/predict the in vivo effects of their nanomaterials. Hopefully this lab will be fully operational by 2017-2020 (phase three f the programme). For more information on the participating research institutes see here.

For those with a subscription to nature this Q&A session with Ali Yetisen about research using nanotechnology and biosensors to make environmentally responsive materials for clothes, tattoos, accessories and contact lenses is an interesting read. It is pay walled but it can be found here. 

“The binding of serum proteins can profoundly change the behaviour of nanoparticles, at times leading to rapid clearance by the body and a diminished clinical outcome,” - Asst Prof Kah. The protein corona is a topic that is of growing interest in the nano field, and this study published in Small (Observing nano-bio interactions in real time) details a new technique to investigate the corona formation.  The nanoparticles where immobilised to the surface of a sensor chip. The chip was specially modified to prevented non-specific binding. They then used surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology to measure the protein corona. New techniques ans studies like this gives us a better understanding of how proteins in the bloodstream bind to nanoparticles. Ultimately this could lead to better nanomedicines.

This week in Nano: Week 40 (28th Sept-4th October)

NANO IN FOOD always makes headlines and I like this blog piece on 2020Science regarding the recent Friends of the Earth commissioned study (TEM pictures of food samples) which adds more dimension to the whole debate.

I recently discovered Experiment.com and wanted to share! Experiment.com is a platform for funding scientific discoveries. Want to fund a project investigating targeted drug delivery by using magnetic antiparticles or is investigating if toxins can incite Fungi to synthesize novel antibiotics more your thing? Either way you can help make these projects a reality via Experiment.com