An interesting study was recently reported
in Biosensors andBioelectronics in which yeast cells (S. cerevisiae) were engineered to
contain quantum dots (QDs). These cells where then monitored over generations
to see the fate of the QDs after. The fate was tracked using confocal microscopy and fluorescence
emission profiles. The researchers found the progeny cells lost their cell-bound QDs
during the third generation time (~360min). They also determined (via imaging
and cytotoxic tests that the cells were unaffected by the QDs and retained
their 'normal cellular growth, cell architecture and metabolic activities'. The
paper can be found here.
And in other news this week is the exciting
work from Linköping University and Technische Universität München (TUM) has
managed to follow and model the motion of a single molecule, trapped in a
nanoscale pore. In their paper published in Nature
this week they report a method to explore equilibrium thermodynamics of single
molecules by confining single molecules to a 2D nanopores using temperature-controlled
scanning tunnelling microscopy and carrying out extensive computational
modelling.
Articles about Silver Nano always make the
headlines in particular when it claims to cure a multitude of diseases from
Ebola to worms!The FDA has warnedcompanies and foundations (such as the Natural Solution Foundation) in the past about medical claims on commercial
colloidal silver.In the meantime the research
rages on. The latest research from the Max Planck Institute in Germany
published in the Journal of Bioonanotechnology is the study: ‘Carbohydratefunctionalization of silver nanoparticles modulates cytotoxicity and cellularuptake’Oxidative stress and
toxicity was investigated in cultures of liver cells and tumour cells from the
nervous system of mice using NP functionalised with 3 different monosaccharides.
They observed that it is only when silver nanoparticles enter inside the cells
that they produce serious harm, and that their toxicity is basically due to the
oxidative stress they create.They find
that carbohydrate coating on silver NP modulates both oxidative stress and
cellular uptake- for example the toxicity of the Ag-NP were discovered to be
greater when covered with glucose instead of galactose or mannose.
Nanodronesnonot these ones on kickstarter that can take a selfie or dronie of you but a
biological ‘nanodrones’ have been researched for their ability to stop strokes!
These ‘nanodrones’ are a type of FDA approved NP polymer loaded with
anti-inflammatory peptides.They can be injected into the bloodstream where they
find their way to the arterial plaque. It is also the first example of using
targeted nanomedicine to reduce atherosclerosis in animals and could someday e
used to treat those at high ricsk of stroke and heart attack.
The EU project PlasCarb was highlighted this week in The Guardians
much tweeted and blogged about article - ‘Turing our mountains of food waste into graphene’ . PlasCarbs work/researches
approaches to transform biogas generated by anaerobic digestion of food waste into
high value graphitic carbon and renewable hydrogen.
This is a marine snail - Patella
Vulgata (taken from http://news.sciencemag.org). This snail’s teeth were the subject
of an article in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. The teeth are made of a mixture of goethite nanofibers
encased in a protein matrix giving this material tensile strength that is the
highest recorded for a biological material. Micro images of the tooth can be seen in the article link above.
