NanoBiology

Nanofibers to accelerate Angiogenesis

CALIFORNIA:At the 229th American Chemical Society Meeting, researchers from Northwestern University in Evanston have told that self assembling nanofibers can promote angiogenesis.

Sam Stupp and his colleagues believe that the nanofibers work so well because they possess a very high density of sites that can bind heparin and the other compounds, and they may also slowly release these proteins to stimulate nearby cells as they break down.

SOURCE:Science Magazine http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/308/5718/44b

Gold Nanoparticles can be used as colorometric sensor for protein conformational changes

In the cureent issue of Chemistry & Biology (March, 2005: 12 (3))Zare et.al. from Stanford University has reported that they have found that yeast’s protein iso-1-cytochrome c (Cyt c), when covalently attached to Spherical gold nanoparticles and flat gold films show measurable shifts in the color according to conformational changes.

Let the Nanotech Wars Begin

The debate over whether molecular manufacturing and nanoassemblers are feasible has turned into a PR war. With billions of dollars of research funding and industrial profits at stake, both sides are taking their ideological clash to the public. So far, Eric Drexler and the Foresight Institute own the moral and scientific high ground. But his critics at the National Nanotechnology Initiative hold the purse strings. And they don’t play by the same rules.

Dr. K. Eric Drexler has his game face on. I’m in Palo Alto, watching him sit on a panel discussion of “Nanotechnology: The Money, Science and Politics of the Next Big Thing,” sponsored by the Cato Institute, a national anti-regulatory watchdog group. Drexler is defending his vision of molecular nanotechnology (MNT).