Lights In Cells might be tiny, but the advent of nanotechnology is making them ever more accessible to science. Researchers have designed a minute light-emitting device, or nanobeam, which can be inserted into live cells, rather like a radiotransmitter implanted under an animal’s skin. This human cell has been pierced by the nanobeam on the left; the grid-like structure outside the cell is the handle to which the probe is attached. The beam can also be fully injected inside a cell, which then continues to grow and divide as normal, with one daughter cell inheriting the nanobeam at each division. By following the light it emits, scientists can track the cell’s movements and identify its descendants. The beam can also be modified to detect the presence of specific molecules. With a host of potential applications, this technology is opening up a whole new world of cellular exploration. Written by Emmanuelle Briolat — Jelena Vučković Stanford University, USA Copyright 2013 American Chemical Society Reprinted with permission from Nano Letters
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Lights In

Cells might be tiny, but the advent of nanotechnology is making them ever more accessible to science. Researchers have designed a minute light-emitting device, or nanobeam, which can be inserted into live cells, rather like a radiotransmitter implanted under an animal’s skin. This human cell has been pierced by the nanobeam on the left; the grid-like structure outside the cell is the handle to which the probe is attached. The beam can also be fully injected inside a cell, which then continues to grow and divide as normal, with one daughter cell inheriting the nanobeam at each division. By following the light it emits, scientists can track the cell’s movements and identify its descendants. The beam can also be modified to detect the presence of specific molecules. With a host of potential applications, this technology is opening up a whole new world of cellular exploration.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk

Spheres of Influence Although the idea of curing diseases by replacing faulty genes with healthy ones is decades old, the revolutionary potential of genetic therapy has yet to be unlocked. Any practical therapy would have to overcome the multiple challenges of inserting healthy genes into the correct tissue and targeting only malfunctioning cells, while ensuring that no harmful immune response follows. Present-day treatments tested in trials consist of injecting patients with a harmless virus loaded with the replacement gene, which the virus then splices into the host cells’ DNA. But with our immune systems honed to kill viruses, the procedure can be risky. Researchers working on alternatives have produced protein-based pellets (pictured) loaded with genetic material for delivery inside diseased cells. The nanoscale-sized pellets should be friendlier to the immune system than viruses, and could potentially also be shaped into rods, spheres or coils, to help them enter only targeted tissue. Written by Tristan Farrow — Angela Pannier University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA Originally published under Creative Commons (CC-BY 2.0) Published in Journal of Nanobiotechnology 10:44
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Spheres of Influence

Although the idea of curing diseases by replacing faulty genes with healthy ones is decades old, the revolutionary potential of genetic therapy has yet to be unlocked. Any practical therapy would have to overcome the multiple challenges of inserting healthy genes into the correct tissue and targeting only malfunctioning cells, while ensuring that no harmful immune response follows. Present-day treatments tested in trials consist of injecting patients with a harmless virus loaded with the replacement gene, which the virus then splices into the host cells’ DNA. But with our immune systems honed to kill viruses, the procedure can be risky. Researchers working on alternatives have produced protein-based pellets (pictured) loaded with genetic material for delivery inside diseased cells. The nanoscale-sized pellets should be friendlier to the immune system than viruses, and could potentially also be shaped into rods, spheres or coils, to help them enter only targeted tissue.

Written by Tristan Farrow

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk

Neglected Siege Tactics Sieges are a tried and tested tactic in war: if you can stop supplies passing through a city’s gates, it won’t be long before it surrenders. This principle also works on a microscopic scale, and could be important in the fight against sleeping sickness. The parasite that causes the disease has only one pathway to absorb and excrete chemicals, located in an area called the flagellar pocket. Using a nanoparticle, which attaches itself to the parasite’s surface, scientists can disrupt this vital gateway and stop the free movement of substances. The pocket (stained brighter green) of parasites exposed to this nanoparticle (third and forth columns) becomes swollen and distended, compared to those covered in a similar, but inert molecule (first and second column). With its supply line cut, the parasite quickly dies, offering hope to 30,000 sufferers across Africa at risk of coma and death from the disease. Written by Jan Piotrowski — Benoît Stijlemans VIB, Belgium Originally published under a Creative Commons Attribution license Published in PLOS Pathogens 7(6): e1002072
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Neglected Siege Tactics

Sieges are a tried and tested tactic in war: if you can stop supplies passing through a city’s gates, it won’t be long before it surrenders. This principle also works on a microscopic scale, and could be important in the fight against sleeping sickness. The parasite that causes the disease has only one pathway to absorb and excrete chemicals, located in an area called the flagellar pocket. Using a nanoparticle, which attaches itself to the parasite’s surface, scientists can disrupt this vital gateway and stop the free movement of substances. The pocket (stained brighter green) of parasites exposed to this nanoparticle (third and forth columns) becomes swollen and distended, compared to those covered in a similar, but inert molecule (first and second column). With its supply line cut, the parasite quickly dies, offering hope to 30,000 sufferers across Africa at risk of coma and death from the disease.

Written by Jan Piotrowski

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk

Power Up DNA might sound like a surprising choice for a building material. Yet by folding it up in different ways, DNA origami has produced tiny nanostructures designed to deliver drugs inside our bodies or to act as scaffolding beside a repairing tissue. Pictured here, a new DNA device is being developed to bore tiny tunnels into living cells. The diagram on the left shows lengths of DNA (in red) forming a hollow tube that can pierce through a cell’s membrane, producing a man-made gateway or pore. Other fragments of DNA are assembled into a honeycomb-shaped cap, forming a ‘seal’ which locks the pore to the surface of the cell. This man-made channel (shown from three different perspectives in the microscope pictures on the right) might one day be used to conduct electrical impulses into our cells, possibly supplying power to other man-made devices working hard on the inside. Written by John Ankers — Friedrich Simmel Technische Universität München, Germany Reprinted with permission from AAAS. Published in Science 338(6109): 932-936
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Power Up

DNA might sound like a surprising choice for a building material. Yet by folding it up in different ways, DNA origami has produced tiny nanostructures designed to deliver drugs inside our bodies or to act as scaffolding beside a repairing tissue. Pictured here, a new DNA device is being developed to bore tiny tunnels into living cells. The diagram on the left shows lengths of DNA (in red) forming a hollow tube that can pierce through a cell’s membrane, producing a man-made gateway or pore. Other fragments of DNA are assembled into a honeycomb-shaped cap, forming a ‘seal’ which locks the pore to the surface of the cell. This man-made channel (shown from three different perspectives in the microscope pictures on the right) might one day be used to conduct electrical impulses into our cells, possibly supplying power to other man-made devices working hard on the inside.

Written by John Ankers

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk

Leuk-alike Delivering drugs right to the heart of cancerous tumours is a challenging task. They must reach their dangerous target – which may be deep within tissues –without alerting immune cells that police the body for foreign invaders. Scientists are now tackling this predicament by camouflaging drugs in nanoparticles coated with membranes from leukocytes [white blood cells]. Unlike naked nanoparticles, these tiny disguised pouches raise no suspicion. And what’s more they behave like white blood cells, using their borrowed membranes en route to wriggle through barriers, such as blood vessels, as they home in on their target. Such coated particles, known as ‘leukolike vectors’ bring the prospect of more effective treatment for previously inaccessible cancers. Written by Georgina Askeland — Ennio Tasciotti The Methodist Hospital System Research Institute, USA Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Nanotechnology Copyright 2013 Published in Nature Nanotechnology 8, 61-68
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Leuk-alike

Delivering drugs right to the heart of cancerous tumours is a challenging task. They must reach their dangerous target – which may be deep within tissues –without alerting immune cells that police the body for foreign invaders. Scientists are now tackling this predicament by camouflaging drugs in nanoparticles coated with membranes from leukocytes [white blood cells]. Unlike naked nanoparticles, these tiny disguised pouches raise no suspicion. And what’s more they behave like white blood cells, using their borrowed membranes en route to wriggle through barriers, such as blood vessels, as they home in on their target. Such coated particles, known as ‘leukolike vectors’ bring the prospect of more effective treatment for previously inaccessible cancers.

Written by Georgina Askeland

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk

Penetrating Particles An important weapon in the fight against cancer is inside our own bodies, but we don’t know how to fully unleash it. For many years researchers have been trying to harness our immune system’s ability to kill cancer cells, but although there have been some promising results, progress has been slow. Researchers are now turning to nanoparticles to directly target tumours with molecules that attract the attention of the immune system. Just half an hour after being injected into a mouse, tiny nanoparticles (coloured green) can be seen coursing through the blood vessels in a melanomatumour. Once in place, the nanoparticles deliver their deadly payload – one drug that triggers immune cells to attack the cancer, and another that switches off signals that normally damps down the immune response. Together they make a potent combination that could translate into an important future treatment for patients. Written by Kat Arney — Tarek Fahmy Yale University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, USA Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Materials Copyright 2012 Published in Nature Materials 11: 895-905
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Penetrating Particles

An important weapon in the fight against cancer is inside our own bodies, but we don’t know how to fully unleash it. For many years researchers have been trying to harness our immune system’s ability to kill cancer cells, but although there have been some promising results, progress has been slow. Researchers are now turning to nanoparticles to directly target tumours with molecules that attract the attention of the immune system. Just half an hour after being injected into a mouse, tiny nanoparticles (coloured green) can be seen coursing through the blood vessels in a melanomatumour. Once in place, the nanoparticles deliver their deadly payload – one drug that triggers immune cells to attack the cancer, and another that switches off signals that normally damps down the immune response. Together they make a potent combination that could translate into an important future treatment for patients.

Written by Kat Arney

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk

New Departures Life depends on deliveries. Inside us, chemical messages are sent around inside our cells, between cells in tissues and among distant organs, millions of times per day. Disruption or delay to these vital communications can lead to all sorts of illnesses. Pictured is a fleet of tiny man-made messengers, called nanotrains, designed to one day carry chemicals back and forth inside our bodies, assisting our natural transport networks with the burden. Built from a carbon nanotube 100,000,000 times smaller than a train carriage, each nanotrain is pulled along by an electric current. The thousands of nanotrains pictured (emitting dots of green light seen through a microscope high above) are on a test run – carrying a cargo of chemical ‘mail bags’, or liposomes, around a man-made track. In the future, nanotrains might be scheduled to offload liposomes into a diseased cell or tissue – truly a first-class delivery. Written by John Ankers — Eijiro Miyako Health Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan Originally published under Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-SA) Published in Nature Communications 3: 1226
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New Departures

Life depends on deliveries. Inside us, chemical messages are sent around inside our cells, between cells in tissues and among distant organs, millions of times per day. Disruption or delay to these vital communications can lead to all sorts of illnesses. Pictured is a fleet of tiny man-made messengers, called nanotrains, designed to one day carry chemicals back and forth inside our bodies, assisting our natural transport networks with the burden. Built from a carbon nanotube 100,000,000 times smaller than a train carriage, each nanotrain is pulled along by an electric current. The thousands of nanotrains pictured (emitting dots of green light seen through a microscope high above) are on a test run – carrying a cargo of chemical ‘mail bags’, or liposomes, around a man-made track. In the future, nanotrains might be scheduled to offload liposomes into a diseased cell or tissue – truly a first-class delivery.

Written by John Ankers

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk

Targeting Malaria Malaria is a major global problem, causing suffering and death for millions. The parasite Plasmodium vivax causes around half of all cases, infecting up to 390 million people around the world every year. Researchers are trying a new approach in the fight – a nanoparticle loaded with vaccine that triggers the immune system to attack the parasite. In tests in mice, the tiny nano-vaccine particles (coloured blue in this fluorescence microscope image) are seen travelling into the lymph nodes (dyed red) – the ‘factories’ where the immune response is generated. The nano-vaccine activates specialised immune cells (fluorescing green) to pump out antibodies which lock on to the malaria parasite and help to destroy it. Although it’s still at an early stage, an effective vaccine could make a big difference to children and adults around the world living in areas where malaria is rife. Written by Kat Arney — James Moon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Darrell Irvine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Published in PNAS 109(4)1080-1085
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Targeting Malaria

Malaria is a major global problem, causing suffering and death for millions. The parasite Plasmodium vivax causes around half of all cases, infecting up to 390 million people around the world every year. Researchers are trying a new approach in the fight – a nanoparticle loaded with vaccine that triggers the immune system to attack the parasite. In tests in mice, the tiny nano-vaccine particles (coloured blue in this fluorescence microscope image) are seen travelling into the lymph nodes (dyed red) – the ‘factories’ where the immune response is generated. The nano-vaccine activates specialised immune cells (fluorescing green) to pump out antibodies which lock on to the malaria parasite and help to destroy it. Although it’s still at an early stage, an effective vaccine could make a big difference to children and adults around the world living in areas where malaria is rife.

Written by Kat Arney

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk

Petrified Cells Technology is making everything smaller, from mobile phones to microchips. But design on a microscopic scale presents additional challenges – how do you shape objects that you can’t see or touch? Nanotechnology bioengineers have come up with a technique that forces cells to grow into premeditated shapes before rendering them rock hard. Tinkering with internal and external conditions can mold cells into a broad range of shapes. Then, as if pouring cement into a jelly mould, researchers can bathe cells in silicic acid. Silica – a rigid inorganic material – seeps into the cells, coating all their structures and forming a miniature rigid statue of each cell, as pictured here using scanning electron microscopy. This new method of silification, and the creative freedom it brings, could enhance the design of everything from biosensors to fuel cells. Written by Anthony Lewis — Bryan Kaehr Advanced Materials Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories Published in PNAS 109(43): 17336-17341 
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Petrified Cells

Technology is making everything smaller, from mobile phones to microchips. But design on a microscopic scale presents additional challenges – how do you shape objects that you can’t see or touch? Nanotechnology bioengineers have come up with a technique that forces cells to grow into premeditated shapes before rendering them rock hard. Tinkering with internal and external conditions can mold cells into a broad range of shapes. Then, as if pouring cement into a jelly mould, researchers can bathe cells in silicic acid. Silica – a rigid inorganic material – seeps into the cells, coating all their structures and forming a miniature rigid statue of each cell, as pictured here using scanning electron microscopy. This new method of silification, and the creative freedom it brings, could enhance the design of everything from biosensors to fuel cells.

Written by Anthony Lewis

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk

Techno-Topiary Wire frames guide the construction of everything from ornamental hedges to colossal skyscrapers. And on a microscopic scale, scientists have developed their own ‘smart’ scaffolds for biological tissue engineering. Cells sprinkled across a 3D mesh of nanowires (coloured brown) use the structure as a stage for growth. Like a high-tech topiary template that knows which parts of the hedge need pruning, the scaffold can sense the cells’ growth. Sensors embedded within the silicon wires provide information about the electrical and chemical conditions deep inside the growing tissue – a step up from the flat growth platforms available previously. The result is a sort of cyborg tissue, sculpted around a man-made scaffold that constantly monitors its development. The scaffold, far from a passive observer, stimulates growth with nano-scale precision. This technology paves the way for an automatic drug delivery system that can specifically target relevant cells and tissues. Written by Anthony Lewis — Daniel Kohane Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Materials Copyright 2012 Published in Nature Materials 11: 986–994
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Techno-Topiary

Wire frames guide the construction of everything from ornamental hedges to colossal skyscrapers. And on a microscopic scale, scientists have developed their own ‘smart’ scaffolds for biological tissue engineering. Cells sprinkled across a 3D mesh of nanowires (coloured brown) use the structure as a stage for growth. Like a high-tech topiary template that knows which parts of the hedge need pruning, the scaffold can sense the cells’ growth. Sensors embedded within the silicon wires provide information about the electrical and chemical conditions deep inside the growing tissue – a step up from the flat growth platforms available previously. The result is a sort of cyborg tissue, sculpted around a man-made scaffold that constantly monitors its development. The scaffold, far from a passive observer, stimulates growth with nano-scale precision. This technology paves the way for an automatic drug delivery system that can specifically target relevant cells and tissues.

Written by Anthony Lewis

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Source: bpod.mrc.ac.uk