Nanoparticles

Cancer drugs are getting more effective at killing tumors, but there’s one big problem: many work like a shotgun blast and harm healthy cells as well. Researchers from Georgia Tech have now developed a new way to deliver drugs only to where they need to be, using nanoscale “glass” bottles.

A nano-vaccine is showing promising results in treating skin cancer in mouse models. The vaccine encases two new cancer drugs inside a nanoparticle, with initial experiments revealing it can stimulate the immune system to kill melanoma, and act as a preventative vaccine.

​Commonly known as Paneer dodi, the herb Withania coagulans has been used in traditional Indian medicine for many years now – among other things, it is claimed to help control diabetes. A new study shows that it indeed may do so, particularly when it's ingested within special capsules.

​When a spinal cord injury occurs, sometimes it's the body's own immune system that causes the subsequent paralysis. In the not-too-distant future, however, it's possible that an injection of nanoparticles at the injury site may be able to rein in the well-meaning but destructive immune cells.

Using magnetism to heat up nanoparticles inside a tumor to destroy nearby cancer cells certainly falls among the more experimental forms of cancer treatment, but scientists are now reporting an exciting advance in this area with some promising early results on mice.

New Australian research is raising questions over the safety of a common food additive after mouse studies found titanium dioxide can induce gut microbiome changes associated with the development of several diseases, including colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.

The latest SpaceX Dragon cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) included an experiment that could help to combat aging here on Earth, as well as chronic illness and space-related stresses for astronauts on prolonged space missions.

Nanothermometers, while not a brand new idea, are still at the cutting edge of science. We've seen impressive results to date, but accuracy and resolution can always improve, and this is what researchers from the University of Technology Sydney in Australia believe they've achieved.

Goggles, glasses and windshield can fog up if there’s a difference in temperature or humidity. Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a new anti-fog coating that warms up the surface without needing electricity.

​Sci-fi aficionados will likely be familiar with the 2000 film Pitch Black, in which Vin Diesel plays a character with predator-like night vision. Well, such a scenario has come a step closer to reality, as scientists have enabled mice to temporarily see near-infrared (NIR) light.

Chemotherapy drugs are effective at killing cancer cells – but they’re also pretty good at killing healthy cells. Making these drugs more selective for tumors is a key area of research, and now a team at ETH Zurich has found a way to keep a common treatment – platinum nanoparticles – on target.

The first step in many cancer treatments is to surgically remove the tumor, however this often isn’t enough. As long as a few cancer cells remain the tumors often grow back, but a new innovative spray gel, administered onto a cancerous site during surgery, may help prevent the tumors recurring.