Lifeboat Foundation

The cancer is a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells, and in most of the cases develop into malignant masses of tissues called tumors, and it is the leading causes of mortality and a major public health challenge worldwide. In normal body, genes in the cell nucleus, containing long strings of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) regulate the controlled division and function of cells and any damage to DNA causes the mutation of genes, which in turn triggers the uncontrolled division of abnormal cells, leading to the damage of vital organs. Cancer cells can detach from the original mass of tumor and migrate to new locations through blood and lymphatic system and also cancer cells produce enzymes that are capable of breaking the normal cells. For cancer diagnostics, the conventional histopathological and radiological examinations are still used for evaluating the clinical and pathologic staging, needed for cancer treatments. Depends on the stage of cancer development, different treatment options like chemotherapy, radiation therapy, stem cell transplant, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted drug therapy and surgery are advised. The major disadvantages of the available advanced treatment options include non localized invasion to other body parts, intolerable cytotoxicity, unsystematic distribution of antitumor agents, immune to chemical agents, low bioavailability and limited option to evaluate the tumor cell response to therapies^4,5. In spite of the drawbacks of these advanced treatment options, cancer is curable if it is diagnosed at an early stage.

Phototherapy has been used for the treatment of jaundice, cancer, dermatological conditions, and ophthalmological disorders by simply using the light of certain selected wavelength. Photodynamic therapy, on the other hand is a method of photosensitizing the action of drugs to kill cancer cells, but the major drawback of this treatment is that most of the drugs used for photodynamic therapy remain activated for a long time, leading to overdose to damage non cancer cells. In the photo-catalytic process, no drug is used, instead the nontoxic semiconductor photo-catalyst like WO₃ generates electron hole pairs, when it is exposed to the light of appropriate wavelength and these photo-generated charge carriers mediate oxidation and reduction reactions in the cancer cell to eliminate them.

A peroxide scavenger nanoparticle reduces systemic inflammation in mouse models.

With 19 million cases per year worldwide, sepsis is one of the most life-threatening conditions in the intensive care unit. However, to date, there is no specific and effective treatment. Oxidative stress has been shown to play a major role in sepsis pathogenesis by altering the systemic immune response to infections, which, in turn, may lead to multiorgan dysfunction and cognitive impairment. Here, Rajendrakumar et al. developed a nanoparticle-based peroxide scavenger treatment for reducing oxidative stress during sepsis.

To produce the nanoassembly, the authors first developed a water-soluble nanoparticle core containing an active peroxide scavenger and a protein that stabilizes the scavenger and improves its biocompatibility. The nanoparticle core was then coated with a polymer material conjugated with mannose to help the final nanoassembly target inflammatory immune cells through the mannose receptor on the immune cell surfaces. The authors first confirmed in cell cultures that the nanoassembly can selectively reduce hydrogen peroxide–mediated free radical production with minimal toxicity. In cultures, immune cells demonstrated enhanced intracellular uptake of the particles and reduced production of inflammatory markers during activation. To demonstrate the therapeutic efficacy in vivo, the authors carried out three sets of animal studies. In the first set, the nanoassembly was shown to reduce locally induced tissue inflammation and prevent inflammatory immune cell infiltration.

Superconducting quantum microwave circuits can function as qubits, the building blocks of a future quantum computer. A critical component of these circuits, the Josephson junction, is typically made using aluminium oxide. Researchers in the Quantum Nanoscience department at the Delft University of Technology have now successfully incorporated a graphene Josephson junction into a superconducting microwave circuit. Their work provides new insight into the interaction of superconductivity and graphene and its possibilities as a material for quantum technologies.

The essential building block of a quantum computer is the quantum bit, or qubit. Unlike regular bits, which can either be one or zero, qubits can be one, zero or a superposition of both these states. This last possibility, that bits can be in a superposition of two states at the same time, allows quantum computers to work in ways not possible with classical computers. The implications are profound: Quantum computers will be able to solve problems that will take a regular computer longer than the age of the universe to solve.

There are many ways to create qubits. One of the tried and tested methods is by using superconducting microwave circuits. These circuits can be engineered in such a way that they behave as harmonic oscillators “If we put a charge on one side, it will go through the inductor and oscillate back and forth,” said Professor Gary Steele. “We make our qubits out of the different states of this charge bouncing back and forth.”

Continue reading “Ballistic graphene Josephson junctions enter microwave circuits” »

The new nanomaterial-based hydrogel, which gets certain stem cells to grow into liver cells, could help people with a range of liver conditions.

A better understanding of how nanoparticles move from the bloodstream into a tumor could eventually lead to more effective cancer treatment.

When it comes to venomous snake bites, time is tissue. Even non-fatal snake bites still rapidly kill skin and muscle in a gruesome process called necrosis, often leaving victims permanently disfigured. In an effort to help reduce the global health burden of these bites, a team of scientists has developed an antivenom cocktail that saves tissue after a snake bite, sparing survivors a lifetime of disability.

In a paper published Thursday in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, researchers demonstrate that their formula, when injected into mice that had been exposed to venom from a black-necked spitting cobra (Naja nigricollis), protected against any tissue-killing effects. What’s unique about their new treatment is that it’s not made up of any one substance but a mixture of nanoparticles, which can target the individual compounds that make up a snake’s poison.

“If this is achieved, then the progression of this local necrosis would be halted, and then the person can be transported to a health facility to receive the antivenom, but the local tissue damage would have been controlled and the frequency of permanent tissue damage and sequelae would be reduced,” José María Gutiérrez, Ph.D.. a senior professor of microbiology at Instituto Clodomiro Picado (the University of Costa Rica) and one of the paper’s authors, tells Inverse.

Continue reading “New Weapon Against Gruesome Venomous Snakebites Is Invisible to the Eye” »

Only time will tell what new forms life will take.

Joyce seeks to understand life by trying to generate simple living systems in the lab. In doing so, he and other synthetic biologists bring new kinds of life into being. Every attempt to synthesize novel life forms points to the fact that there are still more, perhaps infinite, possibilities for how life could be. Synthetic biologists could change the way life evolves, or its capacity to evolve at all. Their work raises new questions about a definition of life based on evolution. How to categorize life that is redesigned, the product of a break in the chain of evolutionary descent?

An origin story for synthetic biology goes like this: in 1997, Drew Endy, one of the founders of synthetic biology and now a professor of bioengineering at Stanford University in California, was trying to create a computational model of the simplest life form he could find: the bacteriophage T7, a virus that infects E coli bacteria. A crystalline head atop spindly legs, it looks like a landing capsule touching down on the Moon as it grabs onto its bacterial host. The bacteriophage is so simple that by some definitions it is not even alive. (Like all viruses, it depends on the molecular machinery of its host cell to replicate.) Bacteriophage T7 has only 56 genes, and Endy thought it might be possible to create a model that accounted for every part of the phage and how those parts worked together: a perfect representation that would predict how the phage would change if any one of its genes were moved or deleted.

Continue reading “If We Made Life in a Lab, Would We Understand It Differently?” »

Semiconductor nanoparticles under the influence of an electric field are directed by the intensity of light.

Australian researchers have designed a rapid nano-filter that can clean dirty water over 100 times faster than current technology.

Simple to make and simple to scale up, the technology harnesses naturally occurring nano-structures that grow on liquid metals.

The RMIT University and University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers behind the innovation have shown it can filter both heavy metals and oils from water at extraordinary speed.

Continue reading “Quick and not-so-dirty: A rapid nano-filter for clean water” »