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nanotimes News in Brief

Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technolo- gy (TU/e) have for the first time succeeded in mimi- cking the process of bone formation in the labora- tory, and in visualizing the process in great detail. The team of Dr. Nico Sommerdijk (Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry) consisting of researchers from TU/e and the University of Illi- nois, USA, was able, in the laboratory, to mimic the growth of calcium phosphate inside the collagen, just as it happens in the human body.

For a long time it was thought that collagen was only a template for the deposition of calcium phosphate, and that bone formation was controlled by specialized biomolecules. However, the images taken by the Eindhoven researchers show that the collagen fibers themselves control the mineral for- mation process and thereby direct bone formation. The biomolecules have proved to have a different role in the mineralization process: they keep the calcium phosphate in solution until mineral growth starts.

The team visualized this process using a unique electron microscope, the cryoTitan. This microscope allowed the researchers to investigate samples that were very rapidly frozen, so that the process could be arrested and viewed in steps. The cryoTitan has an extremely high resolution, and can even distin- guish single atoms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEOyF0C24xA

Fabio Nudelman, Koen Pieterse, Anne George, Paul H. H. Bomans, Heiner Friedrich, Laura J. Brylka, Peter A. J. Hilbers, Gijsbertus de With, & Nico A. J. M. Sommer- dijk: The role of collagen in bone apatite formation in

h t t p : / / w w w . n a n o . b i u . a c . i l / i n d e x . aspx?id=3400&itemID=2339

the presence of hydroxyapatite nucleation inhibitors, In: Nature Materials AOP, October 24, 2010, DOI:10.1038/ nmat2875:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat2875

Israeli Prof. Aharon Gedanken‘s success with antibacterial socks, a product intended for Israeli soldiers that never made it to market, may hold the key to addressing what is actually a global health- care concern. A multinational consortium headed by Gedanken recently won a 12 million-euro grant from the European Union (EU) for manufacturing machines in Europe that will more quickly roll out fabric impregnated with zinc oxide nanoparticles to make antibacterial hospital sheets, curtains, gowns, towels – anything that is made of textiles for hospital use. http://israel21c.org/201009028286/technology/anti- bacterial-textiles-to-save-lives

10-10/11 :: October/November 2010