Biomedical

Scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and Purdue University have created innovative soft robots equipped with electronic skins and artificial muscles, allowing them to sense their surroundings and adapt their movements in real-time. The robots are designed to mimic the way muscles and skin work together in animals, making them more effective and safer to use inside the body.

Researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso and Baylor College of Medicine are developing a new therapeutic approach that uses nanoparticles for the treatment of skin and lung fibrosis. Fibrosis is a condition in which the tissues in an organ become thicker and stiffer. For example, in the case of an autoimmune condition, the body kills cells called fibroblasts that help form connective tissue. The body then produces more collagen than it needs, which leads to fibrosis.

Researchers from the University of Michigan and Northwestern University have shown that two doses of allergen-encapsulating nanoparticles delivered intravenously prevented anaphylaxis – a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction – during a food allergy test in mice. "These characteristics of the nanoparticle make them appear like debris from dying cells, which are generally not viewed as dangerous," said Lonnie Shea, one of the researchers involved in this study.

Scientists from Southern Methodist University and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul have developed a device that detects the properties and interactions of individual proteins faster and more precisely. The device consists of solid-state nanopores made from 12-nanometer-thick silicon nitride membranes, with holes (the nanopores) of roughly 17 nanometers in diameter drilled through the membranes. The device could pave the way for innovative medical therapies and advancements to using gene therapy.

Researchers from Georgia Tech have developed a way to improve a type of immunotherapy, called adoptive T-cell therapy, that is used to fight infections or cancer. In adoptive T-cell therapy, a patient's T-cells – a type of white blood cell that is part of the body's immune system – are extracted and modified in a lab and then infused back into the body, so they can seek and destroy infection or cancer cells. The new approach involves using nanowires to deliver therapeutic microRNAs to T-cells.

A collaboration of Duke University engineers and immunologists have developed a method to test DNA bound to nanoparticles in the bloodstream. These complexes have been linked to autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus). The study found that DNA adsorbed on the surface of polystyrene nanoparticles was resistant to degradation. These findings advance understanding of the inflammatory response to DNA on particle surfaces in immune-mediated diseases.

Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a novel method for manufacturing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, specialized receptors that help T cells eliminate cancer cells. The researchers used lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to activate T cells and deliver the genetic instructions for CARs in a single step, simplifying the CAR T cell manufacturing process. LNPs are being used as delivery vehicles in vaccine and other biomedical developments.

Purdue University researchers have reported on their efforts to develop and validate poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid), or PLGA, nanoparticles modified with adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, to enhance immunotherapy effects against malignant tumors. They found that tumors grew slower in mice treated with paclitaxel ((a chemotherapy drug used to treat several types of cancers) ) enclosed within ATP-modified nanoparticles than in mice treated with paclitaxel in non-modified nanoparticles.

Researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz have created a lab-on-a-chip diagnostic system that combines optofluidics and nanopore technology. To run the test, a sample of biofluid is mixed in a container with magnetic microbeads. The microbeads are designed with a matching RNA sequence of the disease for which the test is designed to detect. The microbeads are put into a silicon microfluidics chip, where they are caught in a light beam that pushes them against a wall that contains a nanopore.

By analyzing the protein corona composition of gold nanoparticles, researchers from Michigan State University; the University of South Florida; Postnova Analytics Inc. in Salt Lake City, UT; and Clene Nanomedicine Inc. in Salt Lake City, UT, have explained how the protein corona helps to treat neurodegenerative diseases. The nanoparticles pass through the gastrointestinal tract and enter the body's circulatory system, where they interact with, and become coated by, blood proteins and other biomolecules. This forms the protein corona.