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Alliance in the News
ARRA Funding To Support Cancer Nanotechnology Research
Dr. Tayyaba Hasan (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School) is the recipient of a Challenge Grant to support a new approach to the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer using targeted photodynamic therapy. This research addresses an extremely important issue of therapy for residual or recurrent ovarian carcinoma following standard surgery and chemotherapy. Dr. Shuming Nie (Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University) received the Grant Opportunities grant, which supports his team research for the optimization and standardization of a new class of biocompatible and nontoxic nanoparticles probes based on pegylated colloidal gold (Au) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). This research has the potential to significantly impact cancer detection and surgical treatment. Learn more about ARRA funding awarded to NIH researchers.
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Research News
Magnetic Nanotags Spot Cancer in Mice Earlier Than Current Methods
Researchers at Stanford University have developed an innovative biosensor chip that is likely to make it easier to search for biomarkers that can warn of diseases such as cancer while they are still in their earliest stage.
Detecting the Undetectable in Prostate Cancer Testing
A team of Northwestern University researchers detected previously undetectable levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in patients who have undergone radical prostatectomy using a nanotechnology-based tool known as the biobardcode system, which is 300 times more sensitive than commercially available PSA tests.
A Tiny Cage of Gold Responds to Light, Opening to Empty Its Contents
Recent work by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis was published in the journal Nature Materials, highlighting the development of a polymer-coated gold nanocage that not only opens in response to light to release a small amount of a drug payload, but then closes when the light is turned off, leaving this nanodevice ready to deliver another dose of drug on command.
3-D Nanostructures Capture Rare Tumor Cells in Blood
In a report published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a research team at the California Institute of Technology's NanoSystems Biology Cancer Center, describes a device made of millions of nanoscale silicon pillars that gently captured over 40% of circulating tumor cells added to samples of human blood.
When It Comes to Drug Delivery, Size Matters
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a mathematical model that predicts the magnitude and specificity of tumor uptake of drug delivery vehicles ranging in size from small peptides to large liposomes. This work was published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
