Deep Nanometry (DNM) is an innovative technique combining high-speed optical detection with AI-driven noise reduction, allowing researchers to find rare nanoparticles like extracellular vesicles (EVs).
Since EVs play a role in disease detection, DNM could revolutionize early cancer diagnosis. Its applications stretch beyond healthcare, promising advances in vaccine research, and environmental science.
A Breakthrough in Nanoparticle Detection
Researchers from the University of Tokyo and beyond have developed Deep Nanometry, a cutting-edge technique that combines advanced optical technology with an AI-driven noise removal algorithm. This approach, powered by unsupervised deep learning, allows for the rapid and highly accurate detection of nanoparticles in medical samples. By identifying even trace amounts of rare particles, Deep Nanometry has demonstrated its potential for detecting extracellular vesicles — tiny biological markers that may signal early signs of colon cancer. Researchers hope this breakthrough will extend to other medical and industrial applications.
Extracellular Vesicles: Tiny Clues to Big Diseases
Your body is filled with microscopic particles even smaller than cells, including extracellular vesicles (EVs). These tiny particles play a crucial role in early disease detection and drug delivery. However, because EVs are so rare, identifying them among millions of other particles has traditionally required costly and time-consuming pre-enrichment processes. To overcome this challenge, Yuichiro Iwamoto, a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, and his team have developed a faster, more reliable way to detect EVs — bringing us one step closer to more efficient and accessible disease diagnostics.
The Challenge of Detecting Rare Particles
"Conventional measurement techniques often have limited throughput, making it difficult to reliably detect rare particles in a short space of time," said Iwamoto. "To address this, we developed Deep Nanometry (DNM), a new nanoparticle detection device and an unsupervised deep learning noise-reduction method to boost its sensitivity. This allows for high throughput, making it possible to detect rare particles such as EVs."
At the heart of DNM is its ability to detect particles as small as 30 nanometers (billionths of a meter) in size, while also being able to detect more than 100,000 particles per second. With conventional high-speed detection tools, strong signals are detected but weak signals may be missed, while DNM is capable of catching them. This might be analogous to searching for a small boat on a turbulent ocean amidst crashing waves — it becomes much easier if the waves would dissipate leaving a calm ocean to scout for the boat. The artificial intelligence (AI) component helps in this regard, by learning the characteristics of, and thus helping filter out, the behavior of the waves.
Future Applications Beyond Medicine
This technology can be expanded to a wide range of clinical diagnoses that rely on particle detection, and it also has potential in fields such as vaccine development and environmental monitoring. Additionally, the AI-based signal denoising could be applied to electrical signals, amongst others.
"The development of DNM has been a very personal journey for me," said Iwamoto. "It is not only a scientific advancement, but also a tribute to my late mother, who inspired me to research the early detection of cancer. Our dream is to make life-saving diagnostics faster and more accessible to everyone."
Reference: "High throughput analysis of rare nanoparticles with deep-enhanced sensitivity via unsupervised denoising" by Yuichiro Iwamoto, Benjamin Salmon, Yusuke Yoshioka, Ryosuke Kojima, Alexander Krull and Sadao Ota, 20 February 2025, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56812-y
News
Cancer’s Hidden Antioxidant Shield Helps It Escape the Immune System
Blocking an antioxidant protein that tumors use to suppress immune attacks improved cancer immunotherapy responses in mice. Cancer cells can release antioxidants that interfere with the immune cells trying to kill them. Researchers have [...]
Scientists Find a Berry Compound That Helps Muscle Cells Burn Fat
Pterostilbene, a compound found naturally in some foods, affects how skeletal muscles process fats by stabilizing a protein called PPARδ and increasing its signaling activity. Pterostilbene, a natural compound found in blueberries, grapes, and [...]
Two Hidden Forces Help Build the Human Brain Before Birth
Scientists have uncovered two surprising forces that help guide how the human brain forms before birth. Before birth, the human brain is shaped in large part by an unusual class of stem cells known [...]
Researchers Uncover a Hidden Trigger Behind Chronic Inflammation
The findings offer new insights that could help guide the development of future therapies. A protein called human resistin may help flip on one of the immune system’s most powerful inflammatory switches. Researchers at [...]
Scientists Have Uncovered Previously Hidden Microbial Activity on Human Skin
The most abundant microbes on your skin may not be the ones doing most of the work. Human skin supports vast communities of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that can influence its protective barrier, immune [...]
Brazilian Tree Compounds Fight COVID-19 on Multiple Fronts
Scientists found compounds in a Brazilian tree that hit SARS-CoV-2 on multiple fronts, revealing a promising new lead in the search for COVID-19 treatments. Researchers have found that galloylquinic acids extracted from the leaves [...]
Cutting Two Amino Acids Slowed Prostate Cancer in Mice
A newly identified link between amino acid metabolism and cholesterol production may help prostate tumors adapt to hormone therapy. Prostate cancer can find ways around treatments designed to deprive tumors of the hormones they [...]
Largest-Ever Physics Survey Raises New Doubts About Our Model of the Universe
Physicists around the world remain deeply divided on key mysteries of the universe, from dark matter to quantum gravity. The standard cosmological model failed to gain majority support, and no leading theory dominated the [...]
Scientists Just Overturned a 100-Year-Old Belief About Bacteria in the Lungs
New findings raise questions about the role of microbes living in the lungs. More than 35 trillion bacteria live throughout the human body, forming microbiomes in the gut, mouth, lungs, skin, and urogenital tract. [...]
GHCE Concept
From the preface of the book Global Health Care Equivalency in the Age of Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine and Artificial Intelligence, Edited by Frank Boehm: Since the publication of my first book (Nanomedical Device and Systems [...]
Novartis, Ionis drug failure spurs questions
Pelacarsen didn’t protect heart health despite lowering levels of a protein particle, “Lp(a),” in a large clinical trial — a result with important implications for cardiovascular drug research. Dive Brief: An RNA drug from [...]
New injectable treatment helps the brain rebuild after stroke
Biomedical engineers at Duke University have created an injectable biomaterial that may help the brain recover from damage left behind by an ischemic stroke. In experiments with mice, the material transformed the cavity created [...]
Scientists Discover a Hidden “Immune Organ” Inside the Skull
Researchers discovered lymph node-like immune hubs inside skull bone marrow that appear to act as rapid-response centers for the brain. For decades, the brain was thought to operate largely apart from the immune system. [...]
Engineered tRNAs and lipid nanoparticles target nonsense mutation cystic fibrosis
Researchers have developed a potential new approach for treating a form of cystic fibrosis caused by so-called nonsense mutations, combining chemically modified transfer RNAs with lipid nanoparticles designed to deliver the therapy directly to [...]
New pancreatic cancer drug carries a $39,800 monthly list price
A groundbreaking treatment for one of the most common forms of pancreatic cancer has been approved in pill form by the FDA. Revolution Medicines’ oral tablet daraxonrasib, branded as Rasonque, reduced the risk of [...]
Researchers Have Discovered a New Way To Reduce Chronic Nerve Pain
A cancer-linked protein called BRAF may help drive chronic nerve pain, and existing cancer drugs targeting it reduced pain sensitivity in preclinical models. Chronic nerve pain can persist long after an injury and often [...]
