Nanobots and Nanoparticles

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wjfox
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Nanobots and Nanoparticles

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A thread for tiny devices typically used in medical research/applications within the body.

Let's define "nanobots" as machine-like devices that have some form of locomotion and/or limited functionality (e.g. sensing), while "nanoparticles" are generally static objects that carry a drug compound or other cargo.

Objects larger than 1,000 nanometres (nm) are probably considered microbots or microparticles.


Nanobot

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Nanoparticle

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Re: Nanobots and Nanoparticles

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Maharashtra: MIMER develops nano robot for rapid cancer diagnosis

Updated: December 5, 2021 11:17:43 am

Maharashtra Institute of Medical Education and Research (MIMER), Pune has developed a nano robot that is programmed to capture and isolate circulating tumor cells. The tool is expected to lead to a new rapid and accurate diagnostic method for cancer, said Dr Shashwat Banerjee, Scientist at MIMER Medical College at Talegaon Dabhade in Pune.

“In search of better cancer diagnostics, scientists from MIMER, Pune, synthesized multifunctional nanorobot using magnesium-iron oxide Janus nanoparticles. The reported nano robot tested on blood containing a low number of cancer cells exhibited ~100% capture efficiency in less than five minutes. The nano robot was further clinically validated by testing it on a cancer patient’s blood samples and it exhibited rapid and efficient circulating tumour cells (CTC) capture ability,” Dr Banerjee said in a statement.

The findings were published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Communications Chemistry under the title ‘Water-Powered Self-Propelled Magnetic Nanobot for Rapid and Highly Efficient Capture of Circulating Tumor Cells’.

This new nano robot-based diagnostic tool may help in improving cancer treatments, allow for better treatment control, enable early interventions and change decision-making from reactive actions towards more predictive early interventions, he added.

https://indianexpress.com/article/citie ... s-7655710/

Link to paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42004-021-00598-9


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Credit: Wavhale, et al. / Nature (2021)
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Re: Nanobots and Nanoparticles

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TikTok Is Terrified Of These Cell-Sized Robots

March 1, 2022 12:38 pm EST

We've witnessed the potential perils of microscopic robots – or nanobots – in sci-fi stories for the past several decades at least. It is only recently that the technology has turned from science fiction into science fact as researchers at MIT have proven with projects that include cell-sized robots. Although the technology has been in real world development since 2018 (or before), a new viral TikTok video has just introduced these microscopic robots from MIT (and a few other research teams and sources) to a wider audience. This audience appears to have been thoroughly freaked out by what they have seen. The cell-sized robots are still in development and have yet to be deployed in any major way in the wild, but already the minds of conspiracy theorists are hard at work, brainstorming ways this technology could be abused.

[...]

Reading the comments section of the video makes for some entertaining reading, as is often the case. One particularly dystopian viewer suggests that nanobots could be injected into people to control them, citing a hypothetical example of an insurer using bots to remotely stop a customer's kidney from functioning due to a late payment. Others expressed concerns about what the government might do with this sort of tech. Most simply say that they wouldn't want to go anywhere near a nanobot or have them in their body. That view might change one day, however, if the technology fulfils its potential to treat previously untreatable illnesses.

https://www.slashgear.com/783976/tiktok ... ed-robots/


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Re: Nanobots and Nanoparticles

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weatheriscool
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Re: Nanobots and Nanoparticles

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Autonomous nanomachines inspired by nature
https://phys.org/news/2022-03-autonomou ... ature.html
by University of New South Wales
Inspired by the way molecules interact in nature, UNSW medical researchers engineer versatile nanoscale machines to enable greater functional range.

To withstand the challenging conditions within living organisms, molecular machines need to be durably constructed for continuous operation over long periods. At the same time, they need to adapt to different needs and to their changing environment by quickly swapping out molecular components to reconfigure the machinery.

A team, led by A/Prof. Lawrence Lee of UNSW Medicine & Health's EMBL Australia Node in Single Molecule Science, reports how they designed and built rapid exchange molecular machines with stability in the journal ACS Nano.
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Re: Nanobots and Nanoparticles

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Blast from the past, a news story that triggered the first Yuli Banularity 8 years ago

[2014] Engineers build world's smallest, fastest nanomotor
Researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have built the smallest, fastest and longest-running tiny synthetic motor to date. The team's nanomotor is an important step toward developing miniature machines that could one day move through the body to administer insulin for diabetics when needed, or target and treat cancer cells without harming good cells.

With the goal of powering these yet-to-be invented devices, UT Austin engineers focused on building a reliable, ultra-high-speed nanomotor that can convert electrical energy into mechanical motion on a scale 500 times smaller than a grain of salt.

With all its dimensions under 1 micrometer in size, the nanomotor could fit inside a human cell and is capable of rotating for 15 continuous hours at a speed of 18,000 RPMs, the speed of a motor in a jet airplane engine. Comparable nanomotors run significantly more slowly, from 14 RPMs to 500 RPMs, and have only rotated for a few seconds up to a few minutes.
Unfortunately, not much seems to have come of this in the time ever since. But here's to hoping!
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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Re: Nanobots and Nanoparticles

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Nanoparticle technology provides healthy trans, saturated fat alternative
https://phys.org/news/2022-06-nanoparti ... rated.html
by Anna Zarra Aldrich, University of Connecticut
The old adage that oil and water don't mix isn't entirely accurate. While it's true that the two compounds don't naturally combine, turning them into one final product can be done. You just need an emulsifier, an ingredient commonly used in the food industry.

Yangchao Luo, an associate professor in UConn's College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, is using an innovative emulsification process for the development of a healthier shelf-stable fat for food manufacturing.

Luo is working with something known as high internal phase Pickering emulsions (HIPEs). High internal phase means the mixture is at least 75% oil. Pickering emulsions are those that are stabilized by solid particles.

Previous research in Pickering emulsions has focused on non-edible particles, but Luo is interested in bringing HIPEs to the food industry as an alternative to trans and saturated fats.

This new approach could have a major impact on how food is produced and could make it easier for food manufacturers to include healthier fats.

Many processed foods are loaded with saturated and trans fats for flavor and to extend a product's shelf life. Consuming these fats can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and LDL cholesterol.
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Re: Nanobots and Nanoparticles

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Researchers Provide New Insight into Binding Configuration and Mobility of Molecules on Nanoparticle Surfaces
Reviewed by Bethan Davies
Jun 16 2022

https://www.azonano.com/news.aspx?newsID=39276
The ability to analyze binding configurations in isolated nanosystems is of tremendous interest because how molecules attach to a surface is crucial in chemical processes. Dr. Lukas Bruder and Prof. Dr. Frank Stienkemeier from the University of Freiburg have succeeded in researching the binding configurations and mobility of organic molecules on ultracold noble gas particles.
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Re: Nanobots and Nanoparticles

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Nanoparticle 'backpacks' restore damaged stem cells
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-nanoparti ... cells.html
by Brett Beasley, University of Notre Dame
Within a newborn's umbilical cord lie potentially life-saving stem cells that can be used to fight diseases like lymphoma and leukemia. That is why many new parents elect to store ("bank") their infant's stem cell-rich umbilical cord blood. But in the 6–15% of pregnancies affected by gestational diabetes, parents lack this option because the condition damages the stem cells and renders them useless.

Now, in a study forthcoming in Communications Biology, bioengineers at the University of Notre Dame have shown that a new strategy can restore the damaged stem cells and enable them to grow new tissues again.

At the heart of this new approach are specially engineered nanoparticles. At just 150 nanometers in diameter—about a quarter of the size of a red blood cell—each spherical nanoparticle is able to store medicine and deliver it just to the stem cells themselves by attaching directly onto the stem cells' surface. Due to their special formulation or "tuning," the particles release the medicine slowly, making it highly effective even at very low doses.

Donny Hanjaya-Putra, an assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering in the bioengineering graduate program at Notre Dame who directs the lab where the study was conducted, described the process using an analogy. "Each stem cell is like a soldier. It is smart and effective; it knows where to go and what to do. But the 'soldiers' we are working with are injured and weak. By providing them with this nanoparticle 'backpack,' we are giving them what they need to work effectively again."
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Re: Nanobots and Nanoparticles

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Microstructured fiber measures the size of nanoparticles
https://phys.org/news/2022-12-microstru ... icles.html
by Stefanie Miethbauer, Leibniz-Institut für Photonische Technologien e. V.


Researchers at Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) developed a new glass fiber design that enables exceptionally long observations of a large number of individual, freely moving nanoparticles in a liquid. This allows the size distribution of nano-objects in a sample to be determined with even higher precision. The scientists are thus laying the foundation for even better research into environmental and bioanalytical issues in the future.

Whether water analysis, vaccine production or the examination of biological samples—mixtures of minute particles occur in almost all areas of everyday life and are composed of a variety of different tiny objects in liquid environments.

The accurate determination of individual components of such a fine particle mixture within a liquid (dispersion) poses challenges to science—especially with regard to the width of their size distribution and the presence of various particle species that differ only slightly in size. A new microstructured glass fiber (single antiresonant element fiber) developed at Leibniz IPHT offers the potential to significantly enhance the measurement accuracy of nano-object size characterization.

New optical fiber for high-precision analysis

With the special optical fiber realized at the Jena institute, nano-objects in aqueous solution with a diameter smaller than 20 nanometers can be confined, individually tracked and their size precisely determined. This allows researchers to precisely analyze size distributions of nanoparticles in mixtures. For this purpose, the glass fiber has a thin-walled and therefore light-conducting microchannel that's 17 micrometers in diameter.

To examine a sample, the particle fluid is brought into contact with the hollow-core fiber, which fills with the fluid sample as a result of capillary force. The coupled light is guided along the fiber's integrated fluid channel. The glass wall, which is only 756 nanometers thick, allows intense and uniform illumination of the sample to be examined and the contained nano-objects.
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