A small clinical trial using gold nanoparticles that act as tumor-seeking missiles on a mission to remove prostate cancer has begun at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). It is the first trial of its kind in the world. The nanoparticles, or nanoshells, are made of small layers of silica [...]
Scientists from Jülich together with colleagues from Aachen and Turin have produced a memristive element made from nanowires that functions in much the same way as a biological nerve cell. The component is able to both save and process information, as well as receive numerous signals in parallel. The resistive switching cell made from [...]
How many nanometers should catalyst nanoparticles be to optimize the course of the reaction? Researchers usually look for the answer through laborious, repetitive tests. At the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, a qualitatively new technique was developed to improve the process of such optimization in microfluidic systems. [...]
A new development in the testing of one of Australia's biggest cancer killers, prostate cancer, could help avoid unncessary chemotherapy and improve the treatment of patients. Sydney researchers have developed a blood test which can track a patient's progress to avoid them being exposed to long stints of chemotherapy which can carry side-effects such [...]
Moving around, sensing the extracellular environment, and signaling to other cells are important for a cell to function properly. Responsible for those tasks are cilia, antenna-like structures protruding from most vertebrate cells. Whenever cilia fail to assemble correctly, their malfunctions can cause numerous human diseases. The assembly and maintenance of cilia requires a bidirectional [...]
In January 2009, the life of engineer Michel Meunier, a professor at Polytechnique Montréal, changed dramatically. Like others, he had observed that the extremely short pulse of a femtosecond laser (0.000000000000001 second) could make nanometre-sized holes appear in silicon when it was covered by gold nanoparticles. But this researcher, recognized internationally for his skills [...]
Almost 83,000 people have died around the world, including 170 in Australia in the past decade, due to potentially dangerous medical devices, an international investigation into the global device industry has found. In a world-first investigation, journalists from 36 countries have combined safety data, including more than 5 million "adverse event" reports, to create [...]
The invisible is made visible by the microscopes. Moreover, in comparison with the traditional light microscopes, transmission X-ray microscopes (TXM) can view through samples with considerably higher resolution, exhibiting extraordinary details. TXM is used by scientists across an extensive range of scientific domains to view the structural and chemical makeup of their samples ranging [...]
An Australian innovation in 3D printing could soon help in the fight against cancer. Sydney based start-up Inventia has built a new 3D bio-printer that it says removes the need for time-consuming manual labour by medical lab workers. Known as Rastrum, the pink printer emulates ink-jet technology to print human cells at a rapid [...]
A mechanism tries to stop our T cells from causing autoimmune disorders, and it's like a tight handshake that kills overly aggressive T cells. A person reaches out for a handshake; the other person takes their hand with two hands and tugs then dies as a consequence. That’s a rough description of newly discovered [...]
