R&D INSIGHT
cancer cells is higher than it is outside. “In living organisms, these small pH changes typically occur in tiny areas measuring only few hundred nanometers,” says senior author Prof. Francesco Ricci. “Developing sensors or nanomachines that can measure pH changes at this scale should prove of utility for several applications in the fields of in-vivo imaging, clinical diagnostics and drug-delivery.” Senior author Prof. Vallée-Bélisle comments;
DNA tool may literally ‘shine light’ on cancer
B
ioengineers based at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and the University of Montreal have used DNA to develop a tool that detects and reacts
to chemical changes caused by cancer cells. One day this tool could be used to deliver drugs to tumour cells. The nanosensor measures pH variations at the nanoscale – determining how acidic (a higher pH
level) or alkaline (a lower pH level) it is. Many biomolecules, such as enzymes and proteins, are strongly regulated by small pH changes. These changes in turn affect biological activities such as enzyme catalysis, protein assembly, membrane function and cell death. There is also a strong relation between cancer and pH. Cancer cells often display a lower pH compared to normal cells: the pH level inside
“DNA represents an ideal material to build sensors or nanomachines at the nanometer scale. By taking advantage of a specific DNA sequences that form pH-sensitive triple helix, we have designed a versatile nanosensor that can be programmed to fluoresce only at specific pH values.” Fluorescence is
the emission of
radiation, including visible light, caused by an exchange of energy. “This programming ability represents a key feature for clinical applications – we can design a specific sensor to send a fluorescent signal only when the pH reaches a specific value which is, for example, characteristic of a specific disease,” adds first author Andrea Idili. In the future, this recently patented
nanotechnology may also find applications in the development of novel drug-delivery platforms that release chemio-therapeutic drugs only in the viscinity of tumor cells.
New marine research station for the island of Utö
A unique marine research station is near completion on the island of Utö, Finland. The station will produce year-round real time research information from the sea, the surface, and the air as a joint project of the Meteorological Institute and the Environment Institute.
The station will have a comprehensive
array of equipment, some new devices and many permanently installed in the sea in Finland for the first time. Head of Group at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Lauri Laakso comments: “The Baltic Sea is a small and shallow peripheral sea which functions differently from the oceans. There is seasonal and regional variation in the carbon dioxide content of the Baltic. Depending on the time and place, it can be either a sink or source of carbon dioxide. Factors affecting the carbon balance of the Baltic Sea include the sea’s biological processes, temperature, nutrients, and the ice cover. Understanding the whole requires a wide array of measurements.” Timo Tamminen, research professor at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, leads the
new Finnish marine research consortium FINMARI. He says, “The Utö station is a multidisciplinary flagship of Finnish marine research, which brings top-level knowledge of the key research institutes and universities to the same measuring platform.” He continues, “Detailed research on the interactions between the sea and atmosphere is necessary for the production of more precise climate change forecasts, because half of the binding of carbon takes place in the marine ecosystem.” Measurements are already being made at Utö of atmospheric particulates, greenhouse gas content, currents in the
lower atmosphere, as well as maritime weather characteristics such as wind, temperature, and visibility. The Finnish Meteorological Institute is building the station and infrastructure, and is responsible for the physics and the measuring equipment. The Finnish Environment Institute SYKE is responsible for biological measurements. Also taking part are the Defence Forces, the Universities of Turku and Helsinki, the Finnish Transport Agency, the Southwest Finland Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, and a number of maritime enterprises.
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Insight Publishers | Projects
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