Nanotechwire.com reports on clever work at UCSD on detecting cancer using today’s early nanotechnology-based particles: There is a growing recognition among cancer researchers that the most accurate methods for detecting early-stage cancer will require the development of sensitive assays that can identify simultaneously multiple biomarkers ...

Here at Foresight we have members with paraplegia and at least one with quadraplegia — it would be great if nanotechnology could help. Advanced nanotech should have cell repair abilities, but what can be done sooner? Medical News Today reports on promising current research: The ability to regenerate nerve cells in the body could [...]

Aharia Nair brings to our attention the new term Nubot, for Nucleic Acid Robots. Wikipedia explains: Nubot is an abbreviation for “Nucleic Acid Robots.” Nubots are synthetic robotics devices at the nanoscale. Representative nubots include the several DNA walkers reported by Ned Seeman’s group at NYU, Niles Pierce’s group ...

Aharia Nair brings to our attention the new term Nubot, for Nucleic Acid Robots. Wikipedia explains: Nubot is an abbreviation for “Nucleic Acid Robots.” Nubots are synthetic robotics devices at the nanoscale. Representative nubots include the several DNA walkers reported by Ned Seeman’s group at NYU, Niles Pierce’s group ...

Lung cancer is a terrible disease, and anyone can get it. It’s hard to detect. Now a grad student is making progress at building a detector, reports Azonano.com: “With this technology, a future scenario might be that you go to the doctor every year for an annual checkup; he draws about 10 cc’s of [...]

For a visionary look at space applications of nanotech, see a new column over at Nanotechnology Now. An excerpt: Occasionally astronauts have to leave their spaceships, so researchers at Northeastern University and Rutgers University propose that we protect the astronauts by including layers of bio-nano robots in their spacesuits. The outer ...

The folks over at the Wilson Center’s Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies have been busy, as summarized on their NanoFrontiers page. First we have a report (2 MB pdf) from their NanoFrontiers Workshop, written up by Karen Schmidt. A couple of excerpts: It seems that the sky is the limit on what might one day be [...]

Oregon State researchers led by Pui Shing Ho, professor and chair of the OSU Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, have “re-discovered” and are now exploring the uses of the halogen bond for nanotechnology. From the PNAS abstract: The halogen bond, a noncovalent interaction involving polarizable chlorine, bromine, or iodine ...

Work at Purdue and The Catholic University of America has clarified how a natural nanotechnology motor works to “pump” DNA into the head of a virus. From Small Times: The virus consists of a head and tail portion. The DNA-packaging motor is located in the same place where the tail eventually connects to the head. [...]

Small Times reports that nanotechnology medical applications are expected to climb immensely: U.S. demand for nanotechnology medical products will increase over 17 percent per year to $53 billion in 2011, says The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry research firm. Afterwards, the increasing flow of new nanomedicines, ...