Nanotube Scaffolds for Neural Implants

Friday, September 22, 2006
Tiny carbon fibers are helping stem cells to grow in stroke-damaged brains.

By Jennifer Chu
Stem cells are a promising therapy for stroke and other brain injuries–they can sprout into healthy neurons and may be able to re-establish brain activity in brain-injured patients. While preliminary animal research shows promise, there’s often a common hurdle: adult stem cells have a hard time growing in damaged areas and tend to migrate to healthier regions of the brain.

That makes sense, says Thomas Webster, associate professor of engineering at Brown University, because healthy neurons emit proteins that attract stem cells away from diseased, inactive areas. What’s needed is an “anchor” to keep stem cells fixed to the damaged areas, where they can then differentiate into working neurons, he says.

Webster and his collaborators in South Korea found a possible anchor in carbon nanotubes: tiny, highly conductive carbon fibers that not only act as scaffolds, helping stem cells stay rooted to diseased areas, but also seem to play an active role in turning stem cells into neurons.

Just how this works isn’t clear, but the researchers say their initial results could someday be engineered into a stem cell delivery device for stroke therapy. Webster presented the team’s findings at the American Chemical Society meeting this month in San Francisco.

Prior to this experiment, Webster had been experimenting with the properties of carbon nanotubes as possible neural implant material. Since nanotubes are highly conductive, they’re an ideal template for transmitting electrical signals to neurons. In 2004, Webster was able to stimulate neurons to grow multiple nerve endings along carbon nanotubes. The study attracted the attention of South Korean stroke researchers, who proposed a collaboration: Why not use carbon nanotubes as a template for adult stem cells to grow into neurons? Taking it one step further, the team injected this nano-cocktail directly into the stroke-damaged brain regions of rats.

In order to determine how well the two therapies work together, the team compared the effects of injections of both stem cells and nanotubes with control groups injected with only adult stem cells or carbon nanotubes. After one and three weeks, researchers sacrificed the rats and examined the diseased areas of their brains. In rats who had received only adult stem cells, the cells tended to stray to healthier regions of the brain. But rats given both nanotubes and cells showed new neural growth in stroke-damaged brain regions in as little as a week…….
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Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology established

Gift will support the exploration of life and biology at the nanoscale level

The Kavli Foundation and Harvard University have agreed to establish the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology (KIBST). The endowment from the Kavli Foundation will help to boost the University’s research efforts at the interfaces of biology, engineering, and nanoscale science. In particular, the gift will fund postdoctoral research fellows and support a lectureship series dedicated to “nano-” or small-scale science.

A “nanometer” is one-billionth of a meter, about a 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of the average human hair. Nanoscience offers scientists a way to get a close-up view of life’s building blocks – near-atomic-resolution images that help to determine the structure and function of proteins and even to follow the dynamics of individual molecules. Likewise, advances in manipulating nanoscale matter and materials are likely to lead to tiny machines that could deliver medicine or detect viruses.

“Fred Kavli’s gift on behalf of his foundation is a wonderful commitment to both the basic and applied sciences,” said Harvard’s interim President Derek Bok. “It will allow Harvard to build an even stronger presence in this exciting and emerging field.”

“Some of the most fascinating scientific research today is being done at the nanoscale, the realm of atoms and molecules,” said business leader and philanthropist Fred Kavli, founder of the Kavli Foundation. “I expect that the Harvard institute will contribute significantly to our knowledge of nanoscale processes, and help to harness them for the benefit of humanity.”

George Whitesides, Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, and David Weitz, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics, will serve as the founding directors for the KIBST. The institute, which is expected to reside in either the future Laboratory for Integrated Sciences and Engineering or Northwest buildings, will complement Harvard’s existing hubs dedicated to small-scale science: the Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS), the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), and the newly formed Initiative in Quantum Science and Engineering (IQSE).

“The KIBST will seek to develop a deeper understanding of the functioning of life and biology at the nanoscale level by developing new tools and probes that marry microfabrication and microfluidics with high-resolution imaging,” said Whitesides. “Our goals are to use such new techniques to probe the behavior of single molecules, cells, tissue, and organs; to gain a deeper understanding of the essential relationship between structure and function that controls all biology; and to combine structural and functional studies from the scale of single molecules to the scale of tissues and whole organs.”

The Harvard Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS), with almost half of its faculty having some interest in biology-related questions and with its increasingly strong ties to the Harvard Medical School, will play a large role in shaping the direction of the institute. In addition, participants in the KIBST will span various departments in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences – such as Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Physics, and Statistics – and include researchers from broader science initiatives such as those in neuroscience, genomics, and the Rowland Institute.

“While there are a number of faculty already engaged in research on various aspects of bionano science and technology, the establishment of the Kavli Institute will help to further integrate these activities by providing an umbrella institution,” said Venkatesh “Venky” Narayanamurti, dean of engineering and applied sciences. “Investing at the interfaces of fields is critical for sustaining continued advances across areas in science and engineering. Future innovations might range from new types of imaging devices to smart drug delivery systems to novel materials.”

Co-directors Whitesides and Weitz expect the KIBST’s initial efforts to be focused on applying advances from the physical sciences, particularly at the nanoscale level, to the study of important questions in the life sciences. One area of considerable interest involves using microfluidic techniques (the precise control and manipulation of extremely small volumes of fluids) to better understand biological problems at the level of cells and below.

“The Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology is an important addition to the expanding network of Kavli institutes,” said David Auston, president of the Kavli Foundation. “We expect it will play a key role in advancing the frontiers of science in this emerging field where biology, physics, chemistry, and materials science intersect.”

About the Kavli Foundation

Dedicated to the advancement of science for the benefit of humanity, the Kavli Foundation supports scientific research, honors scientific achievement, and promotes public understanding of scientists and their work through an international program of research institutes, prizes, professorships, and symposia in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience. Established in 2000, its headquarters are in Oxnard, Calif.
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Dip-pen nanolithography

Friday, September 29, 2006
How To Pin Down 55,000 Virus Particles

Nanotechnology gets a speed boost with a new tool made of thousands of pens.

By Kevin Bullis
Researchers have developed a device that uses 55,000 perfectly aligned, microscopic pens to write patterns with features the size of viruses. The tool could allow researchers to study the behavior of cells at a new rate of speed and level of detail, potentially leading to better diagnostics and treatments for diseases such as cancer.

The device builds on a technique called dip-pen nanolithography, which was first developed in 1999 by Chad Mirkin, professor of chemistry, medicine, and materials science and engineering at Northwestern University. In that system, the tip of a single atomic force microscope (AFM) probe is dipped in selected molecules, much as a quill pen would be dipped in ink. Then the molecules slip from the tip of the probe onto a surface, forming lines or dots less than 100 nanometers wide. Their size is controlled by the speed of the pen.

Because it operates at room temperature, the dip-pen tool is particularly useful for working with biological materials, such as proteins and segments of DNA that would be damaged by high-energy methods like electron beam lithography. Also, the patterns it makes can be easily programmed, making it “probably the best rapid-prototyping system for nanostructures out there,” Mirkin says.

The method addresses “one of the biggest problems in nanoscience,” according to Mirkin. “How do I get fingers small enough to manipulate something so small I can only see it with an electron microscope?” Because the tool can work at that scale “routinely,” he says, “I think it’s going to turn everything upside-down.”

So far, applications of the single-pen device, which is already being sold through NanoInk, a company based in Chicago, have been limited because of the speed of the process. “The drawback of [dip-pen nanolithography] in its early years was that it was slow if you wanted to prepare substrates that were patterned over large areas,” on the scale of a square centimeter, says Milan Mrksich, professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago (who was not involved with the work).

Mirkin and colleagues have overcome this problem by creating a massive array of pens using conventional photolithography. “The 55,000-pen array greatly accelerates the patterning rate,” Mrksich says, “increasing the throughput by orders of magnitude.” Mirkin says the pens can now write “hundreds of millions of features on a minute time-scale.”

In a paper appearing online now in the journal Angewandte Chemie, Mirkin described test runs with the array that show the complexity of the patterns that are possible. For example, he simultaneously printed 55,000 identical microscopic nickels in an area smaller than a dime. The dots outlining Jefferson’s face are each only 80 nanometers wide……
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China closing gap with US on nanotechnology – report

09.26.2006, 11:14 PM
BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) – China is making rapid advances in the field of nanotechnology and the US should monitor China’s progress in order to maintain a competitive edge in the cutting-edge scientific research sector, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a visiting US commerce official. China is one of the players that is gaining on us. We are wise to take a look at what they are doing that’s been successful, and see how it might apply to improve our system,’ the newspaper said, citing Robert Cresanti, undersecretary for technology at the US Department of Commerce.

Cresanti, who is in Beijing to meet with Chinese policymakers, said China’s gains were obvious.

‘We saw labs today full to the rafters with scientists and machinery. There has also been a dramatic increase in the quality and quantity of papers on nanotechnology published by Chinese scientists,’ he said.

andrew.pasek@xinhuafinance.com
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Nanofibers for disease detection

Sept. 11, 2006
CU biodegradable wipe would quickly detect biohazards, from avian flu to E. coli
By Susan Lang

Detecting bacteria, viruses and other dangerous substances in hospitals, airplanes and other commonly contaminated places could soon be as easy as wiping a napkin or paper towel across a surface.
Margaret Frey and Jamie Mullally examine a nanofiber fabric
University Photography
Jamie Mullally ’07, right, a Cornell Presidential Research Scholar, and Margaret Frey, assistant professor of textiles and apparel, examine a nonwoven nanofiber fabric on aluminum foil backing. Mullally will complete an honors thesis on the biorecognition fabrics in spring ’07. Copyright © Cornell University

“It’s very inexpensive, it wouldn’t require that someone be highly trained to use it, and it could be activated for whatever you want to find,” said Margaret Frey, the Lois and Mel Tukman Assistant Professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design at Cornell University. “So if you’re working in a meat-packing plant, for instance, you could swipe it across some hamburger and quickly and easily detect E. coli bacteria.” She reported on the research Sept. 11 at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting.

Once fully developed, the biodegradable absorbent wipe would contain nanofibers containing antibodies to numerous biohazards and chemicals and would signal by changing color or through another effect when the antibodies attached to their targets. Users would simply wipe the napkin across a surface; if a biohazard were detected, the surface could be disinfected and retested with another napkin to be sure it was no longer contaminated…..
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Powerful Batteries That Assemble Themselves

Thursday, September 28, 2006
MIT researchers are developing low-cost manufacturing methods based on the rapid reproduction of viruses. Angela Belcher, a panelist at the Emerging Technology Conference, explains.

By Kevin Bullis

Biology may be the key to producing light-weight, inexpensive, and high-performance batteries that could transform military uniforms into power sources and, eventually, improve electric and hybrid vehicles. …

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UK launches nanotechnology reporting scheme to “assess risks”

UK launches nanotechnology reporting scheme to “assess risks”

By Ahmed ElAmin and Kirsty Barnes

27/09/2006 – UK research organisations, biopharmaceutical and food manufacturers, along with those in other industries are been asked to voluntarily provide any information on nanotechnologies they are working on, under a programme launched this week.

The new two-year scheme is part of the UK government’s bid to assess the risks that nanotechnology may pose to the public and could eventually lead to regulations restricting applications in certain sectors.

Nanotechnology has been touted as the next revolution in many industries, including food and drug manufacturing and packaging. However, concerns are being raised over the unknown consequences of digesting or injecting nano-scale particles designed to behave in specific way in the body.

In launching the voluntary reporting scheme, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it wanted to work toward assessing any potential risks posed by the products of nanotechnologies.

“There is currently very little information available on the potential risks that these materials may pose to the environment and human health,” Defra stated. “The scheme is designed, together with a programme of government research, to address this knowledge deficit.”

Michael Pitkethly, chairman of the UK’s Nanotechnologies Industry Association (NIA), said the scheme is important to ensuring that industry has appropriate controls in place for engineered materials at the nanoscale.

“The safety of these materials is of paramount importance to the NIA and the scheme aligns with the NIA’s advocacy of a measured and responsible approach and has our full support,” he stated.

Nanotechnology refers to the application of properties materials have at the atomic, molecular and macromolecular scale. A human hair is 80,000 nanometres (nm) wide, a red blood cell 7,000 nm wide, and a water molecule 0.3 nm wide.

Earlier this year the UK’s Council for Science and Technology (CST) – the UK government’s advisory body on science and technology policy issues – launched an independent review of its nanotechnology policy over concerns about the health and environmental risks.

The review will cover the government’s actions in the two years since their policy response to a study by the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering that considered the possible health, social, ethical, safety and environmental questions that could be raised by nanotechnologies.

The CST said it plans to publish its report in spring 2007. The deadline for submissions is 2 October 2006.

The CST review also follows a report in May by the country’s Food Standards Agency (FSA), which said gaps existed in EU legislation in regulating the future uses of nanotechnology.

The gaps include those relating to particle size, the use of nano versions of already approved ingredients, and to packaging, according to the FSA’s legislative review of the food sector.

In addition Defra on 23 June completed a consultation on a proposed voluntary reporting scheme for engineered nanoscale materials.

Other regulators worldwide are also in the process of reviewing policy and regulations relating to the technology. This year Germany’s food safety risk assessment agency commissioned a study on on the risks of nanotechnological applications in food, cosmetics and other everyday items.

Incidentally, a public survey taken last year by the European Commission across the EU found widespread support for medical and industrial biotechnologies. While there is opposition in most European countries to agricultural biotechnologes, such as genetically-modified (GM) food, the European public mainly supports the development of nanotechnologies, pharmacogenetics and gene therapy, the survey found.

All three technologies “are perceived as useful to society and morally acceptable”, the Eurobarometer survey found. “Neither nanotechnology nor pharmcogenetics are perceived to be risky.”

Link to Source Drug Researcher.Com

Stealth nanoparticles for long term in vivo drug treatment

(Nanowerk Spotlight) Phagocytosis is a cellular phenomena that describes the process in which phagocytes (specialized cells such as macrophages) destroy viruses and foreign particles in blood. Phagocytes are an important part of the immune system. Unfortunately, phagocytes are also a major limitation for the intravenous delivery of polymeric nanoparticles. The use of such nanoparticles to deliver therapeutic agents is currently being studied as a promising method by which drugs can be effectively targeted to specific cells in the body, such as cancerous cells. Researchers at Penn State are trying to trick the body’s immune system, and increase the circulation time of nano drug carriers in the blood, with stealth drug nanoparticles that could be fabricated by self-assembling a shell on the surface of a solid drug core. This research could lead to the possibility of long term drug treatment in vivo.
Nanoparticles become recognizable to the cells of the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS), and are subsequently cleared from circulation by phagocytosis, through a process called opsonization. An opsonin is a proteinaceous molecule that acts as a binding enhancer for the process of phagocytosis. Phagocytic cells express receptors that bind opsonin molecules.

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Nanoflowers blossom

(Nanowerk News) University of Arkansas researchers have examined the mechanisms underlying the synthesis of three-dimensional nanocrystals in solution and have created a systematic method for the directed synthesis of such nanocrystals.

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Should We Make Cyborg Soldiers?

TEchnology Review
Tuesday, September 26, 2006

A group of ethicists is getting $250,000 to ask how much we should use nanotechnology to enhance humans.

By Kevin Bullis

Should we implant future nanotech-enabled computers and actuators into soldiers to make them more effective? If nanotech can help kids do better in school, are parents obligated to provide them with it? Does it make a difference if these enhancements are implanted, rather than just worn outside the body?

Patrick Lin, director of The Nanoethics Group, James Moor at Dartmouth University, and Fritz Allhoff at Western Michigan University have been given a quarter-million dollars, in the form of a pair of grants from the National Science Foundation, to try sorting out the answers to these kinds of questions.

In a press release, Lin said, “Today, human enhancement may mean steroids or Viagra or cosmetic surgeries. But with the accelerating pace of technology, some of the more fantastic scenarios may arrive sooner than people think.”

The Nanoethics Group has previously considered subjects such as the potential environmental and health impacts of nanotech.

I’m personally looking forward to the report, especially its list of cool, hypothetical human-enhancement technologies. (U.S. cyclists are probably looking forward to it, too.)

Designer babies’growing popular

Designer babies’growing popular
Many couples choose embryo based on sex

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE and LINDSEY TANNER
The Associated Presss
September 24. 2006 10:00AM

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Internet everywhere by 2020, but at what cost?

September 27, 2006
Internet everywhere by 2020, but at what cost? (Yahoo! India News)
September 27, 2006 01:18 AM Read more…
San Francisco, Sep 27 (DPA) A survey of technologists has found almost unanimous agreement that a low-cost Internet will be available to the majority of the world’s population by 2020, but also uncovered disagreement about the impact of the pervasive technology.
Permalink | Filed under society

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Nanotube and stem cell cocktail heals damaged brain tissue

Filed in archive Research by george elvin on September 17, 2006
If the thought of carbon nanotubes coursing through the bloodstream makes you nervous, you may want to leave the room now. Researchers at Brown University have injected a cocktail of carbon nanofibers and stem cells directly into the brains of rats. And as if that wasn’t enough, the rats had already suffered strokes. The result? The nanotube and stem cell cocktail healed neural tissue damaged by the stroke.

Here’s how it worked, as reported by Chemical & Engineering News:

Working in collaboration with researchers at Yonsei University, Seoul, Brown Professor Thomas J. Webster combined neural stem cells with either hydrophobic or hydrophilic carbon nanofibers and injected the cocktail into damaged regions of the brains of rats that had suffered a simulated stroke. After a few weeks, both types of nanofibers with stem cells promoted the growth of new neural tissue. On their own, neither nanofibers nor stem cells triggered neural tissue regeneration.

Webster attributes the mixture’s regenerative power to the fibers’ favorable interaction with laminin, a key protein for promoting stem cell differentiation into neurons. Webster also thinks the nanofibers’ ability to conduct electricity could help wire the neurons to one another.
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Live webcast on public views of nanotechnology

Tune in to the live webcast from the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at Woodrow Wilson Center on Sept. 19, 2006 — either TODAY or TOMORROW for most readers — at 12:30 PM Eastern time (9:30 AM Pacific): “Public Awareness of Nanotechnology: What do Americans know? Who do they trust? Major Poll Findings to be Released“.

Always a scary topic — to ask what Americans know — but the Wilson Center nanotech folks have done a new study to find out:
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Live webcast on public views of nanotechnology

Tune in to the live webcast from the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at Woodrow Wilson Center on Sept. 19, 2006 — either TODAY or TOMORROW for most readers — at 12:30 PM Eastern time (9:30 AM Pacific): “Public Awareness of Nanotechnology: What do Americans know? Who do they trust? Major Poll Findings to be Released“.

Always a scary topic — to ask what Americans know — but the Wilson Center nanotech folks have done a new study to find out:
Link to Source

NBICS and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

My new biweekly column
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Report:Nanotech Rx Medical applications of Nano-scale technologies: What Impact on Marginalized communities?

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Issue: Medical applications of nano-scale technologies have the potential to revolutionize healthcare by delivering powerful tools for diagnosing and treating disease at the molecular level. But the current zeal for nano-enabled
medicines could divert scarce medical R&D funds away from essential health services and direct resources away from non-medical aspects of community health and wellbeing. Although nanomedicine is being touted as a solution to pressing health needs in the global South, it is being driven from the North and is designed primarily for wealthy markets. Using nano-scale technologies, the pharmaceutical industry’s ultimate goal is to make every person a patient and every patient a paying customer by “medicating” social ills with human performance enhancement (HyPE) drugs and devices. Nanoenabled HyPEs could usher in an era of two-tiered humans – Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens 2.0.

Market: As of mid-2006, 130 nanotech-based drugs and delivery systems and 125 devices or diagnostic tests are in preclinical, clinical or commercial
development. The combined market for nanoenabled medicine (drug delivery, therapeutics and diagnostics) will jump from just over $1 billion in 2005 to almost $10 billion in 2010 and the US National Science Foundation predicts
that nanotechnology will produce half of the pharmaceutical industry product line by 2015. Nanomedicine will help big pharma extend its exclusive monopoly patents on existing drug compounds and on older, under-performing drugs. Analysts suggest that nanotech-enabled medicine will increase profitability and discourage competition.

Impact: Nanomedicine may have its greatest impact in the realm of “human performance enhancement” (HyPE). Nanomedicine in combination with other new technologies will make it theoretically possible to alter the structure,
function and capabilities of human bodies and brains. In the near future, nano-enabled HyPE technologies will erase distinctions between “therapy” and “enhancement” and could change, quite literally, the definition of what it means to be healthy or human.

Reality check: Ironically, crucial questions remain about the health and environmental impacts of nanomaterials that are being used to develop nanomedicines. The nascent field of “nanotoxicology” is awash with uncertainty. Despite the fact that nano-scale products have already been commercialized (including nanomedicines), no government in the world has
developed regulations that address basic nanoscale safety issues.

Policy: Can OECD donors who have failed to deliver promised mosquito netting to malariastricken countries and who have managed to provide only one condom per adult male per annum to combat HIV/AIDS in the global
South really claim that hefty investment in new nanomedicines will pay off for poor countries? Governments urgently need broad, participatory societal and scientific, ethical, cultural, socioeconomic and environmental risk assessment to evaluate nanomedicine. Policies must be guided by the concerns of civil society and social movements, including disability rights and women’s organizations. To keep pace with technological change, an intergovernmental
framework is needed to monitor and assess the introduction of new technologies. At its next meeting in 2007, the World Health Assembly should undertake a full analysis of nanomedicine within this wider social health context.

Bioactive glass nanofibers as a next-generation biomaterial

11. Sept. (Nanowerk Spotlight) Bioactive glass is currently regarded as the most biocompatible material in the bone regeneration field because of its bioactivity, osteoconductivity (a scaffold’s ability to support cell attachment and subsequent bone matrix deposition and formation) and even osteoinductivity (a scaffold that encourages osteogenic precursor cells to differentiate into mature bone-forming cells). However, the formulation of bioactive glass has been limited to bulk, crushed powders and micronscale fibers. Now, researchers in South Korea and the UK have for the first time fabricated bioactive glass in nanofibrous form. This material, which shows excellent bioactivity, is likely to open the door to the development of new nano-structured bone regeneration materials for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.
Materials for biomedical applications have been exploited to augment and regenerate human tissues that have been subjected to damage and diseases. Over the last decade the demands on synthetic biomaterials have increased significantly and considerable effort has been devoted to the area of biomaterials and tissue engineering.
Specifically for hard-tissue applications, such as the regeneration and repair of bones and teeth, several bioactive or bioinert materials have been used clinically. Silica-based bioglasses constitute the essential part of such bioactive materials, having already been utilized in numerous orthopedic and dental applications.
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Nanotechnology in cosmetics – 2000 years ago…?

Nanowerk Spotlight) These days we are debating if nanoparticles in sunblock and toothpaste are safe. The ancient Greeks and Romans didn’t know about such things – but they already used nanotechnology in their cosmetics. A group of researchers in France showed that lead-based chemistry, which was initiated in Egypt more than 4000 years ago, could result in the synthesis of lead sulfide (PbS, galena) nanocrystals. With a diameter of about 5 nm, the appearance of these crystals is quite similar to PbS quantum dots synthesized by modern materials science techniques.
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Nanomaterial Database

A powerful, free tool for the nanotechnology community to research and buy nanomaterials from many suppliers worldwide. The Nanomaterial Database™ currently contains 1,321 nanoparticles from 91 suppliers.

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