Q-dots for nanotechnology robots in the bloodstream. Under research at the Jacobs School at UCSD. technologyreview.com
< LA JOLLA, Calif., Sept. 10 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at The Burnham Institute and UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering have developed hybrid organic/inorganic machines that home to cancerous tissues in live mice. They programmed miniature, nanocrystalline semiconductor particles, called quantum dots ("qdots"), and wrapped them with tiny pieces of protein that home to specific addresses inside living tissue ("homing peptides").
The homing peptides were developed by Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished Professor at The Burnham Institute. This accomplishment - the first successful targeting of an inorganic nanomachine into a cancerous tumor - will be published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), www.pnas.org, this week.
Sangeeta Bhatia, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the UCSD Jacobs School, says the work could lead to a revolution in the field of nanotechnology: "We are enthusiastic about these results because we showed that qdots could be successfully used inside the body without causing blood clotting, and because the homing peptides successfully directed the qdots to a specific type of cancer, in this case, breast cancer." Bhatia and her postdoctoral fellow Warren Chan developed the qdots used in the study.
Qdots are small nanocrystals, less than 10 nm, that are extremely luminous and relatively stable. It is possible to tune the qdot's light frequency across the light spectra by altering the crystal's particle size or composition. Qdots have a relatively large surface area-to-volume ratio, which makes them a feasible platform for building more complex nanodevices in the future.
Qdots programmed to emit red or green light were injected intravenously into live mice and delivered to three different tissues. The qdot's destination was determined by its peptide coating which coded for either normal lung tissue, the blood vessels feeding tumors, or the lymphatic vessels draining tumor tissue.
Researchers have been working for many years to find a way to use nanomachines to deliver drugs, diagnose disease, or provide images of tissues in the body. Dr. Bhatia finds Q-dots especially attractive candidates for such nanotechnology because they glow, making it easy to track and see the miniscule particles. For targeting, much research has focused on the use of antibodies to help locate and bind to specific tissues, such antibodies may make the nanodevices too large to travel freely to the tumor. Homing peptides developed by Ruoslahti's laboratory are much smaller than antibodies.... contd...>
These cute little Q-dots are like minuscule cellphones, emitting various wavelength photons.
The body as a cyberphone!
The Q-dots could directly stimulate nerve receptors when incoming radio signals stimulate particular Q-dot resonance frequencies.
I think the Jacobs School is named after Irwin and Joan Jacobs, thanks to generous donations. It's nice that they call these little crystals Q-dots.
Mqurice
PS: Thanks to Dwight Martin for finding this interesting item. |
