NanomedicineCenter.com

Israel diving into nanotechnology

During the past decade, nanotechnology has been rising constantly. Many countries’ governments and private investors have seen the potential it offers and invested large amounts of money in it. Before the economic crisis hit the world, many predicted that all industry branches will suffer, nanotechnology included. However, they were wrong, obviously.

In order to survive the current financial crisis, many countries’ governments are looking for ways to stabilize their economy and create something new that will boost their income. You’re guessing… they are turning to nanotechnology. Having in mind that predictions say that the global nanotechnology market will top $1 trillion by 2015, it seems that there is nothing to argue about investing in nanotech.

One of the countries that’s taken the path of nanotechnology is Israel. Israel is already known for many achievements in chemistry, physics, materials, medicine and many more fields of science — which makes it even easier for them to explore nanotechnology. There are already some implementations of nanotech, such as nano-based textile products with phase-change technology, the incorporation of nano-materials in metals to enhance performance while significantly reducing weight, the purification of water by nano-membranes, medical applications of tissue regeneration, nano-enabled drug delivery and other important implementations, etc.

On March 30th and 31st, a nanoconference will be held in Israel, in honor of Israel’s 60th anniversary. It will provide its visitors with an opportunity to see all the nanotechnology research and development capabilities amassed in Israel, through the encouragement and support of governmental programs such as those of the Office of Chief Scientist and MAGNET, as well as through unique collaborations of academic and industrial research.

Adopted from materials found at globes.co.il

Nanoparticles guide genes through the bloodstream

Scientists from University of Bonn in Germany have designed a technique that allows them to repair damaged arteries’ tissue. The technique is based on sending genes and healthy cells through the bloodstream to the place that needs to be repaired.
Earlier, the “problem” was that it was unknown what quantity of healthy cells to send in order to repair the tissue. Small magnetic nanoparticles which are situated on the planted gene or on the planted cell can with the aid of an external magnetic field be specifically directed to the location of the damage.

German researchers have discovered that the gene-based transfer is way more successful than non-gene-based one. Magnetic nanoparticles can support or even enable gene transfer under clinically relevant experimental conditions.

Adopted from materials provided by ptb.de

New treatment for glioblastoma

Scientists from Bonn University from Germany, along with their colleagues from Switzerland, have shown that by combining two drugs the treatment of glioblastoma, the brain tumor, becomes extremely successful.

Glioblastoma is a deadly type of brain cancer, which caused death within a couple of weeks if it’s not treated. The researchers from Germany and Switzerland performed the research on 40 patients with their new therapy, and ended up with amazing results. The patients survived over 2 years. They then compared those results with the ones when regular treatment was used, and came to a conclusion that this therapy doubled the survival time (from 1 to 2 years, on average).

“This unusually manifest extension of the survival time has surprised even us. Our results offer the opportunity to improve our grip on this aggressive form of cancer. Now, further investigations involving a larger number of patients are needed to optimise this therapy. Planning for this is already in hand in Bonn,” said Dr. Ulrich Herrlinger, one of the researchers.

Glioblastoma was treated with both radio- and chemotherapy (agent temozolomide). What scientists did in this research is add lomustine to chemotherapy, and continued to use radiotherapy.

The details are published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Adopted from materials provided by uni-bonn.de