Wednesday, April 13, 2011

"Micro-Rockets" Aim at Cancer Diagnostics / Video


In a new study in the journal Angewandte Chemie, NanoEngineers from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering describe an immuno-micromachine-based approach for in vitro isolation of cancer cells that holds promise for direct circulating tumor cell (CTC) detection without sample preprocessing.

The work was led by two NanoEngineering professors: Joseph Wang and Liangfang Zhang.

Read the news story in Chemistry World by Kate McAlpine.

Related videos are here.

Professor Liangfang Zhang is one of the faculty speakers tomorrow at Research Expo here at the Jacobs School of Engineering.

Video Caption (see below): In the first section of the video,  you can see the microrocket (black) selectively collect a pancreatic cancer cell. (The cell has a specific outside surface marker that the microrocket attaches to.) In the following three sections of the video, the microrocket is unable to collect the cancer cell, either because the rocket has not been modified, or because the cells do not express the right outside surface marker. 




Video Caption (see below): In this 8-second video, a microrocket transports a pancreatic cancer cell in buffer solution and in human serum.



Update #1: New caption for the first video.
Update #2: Dan Kagan says this paper is going on the cover of an upcoming print issue.

Research Expo is Tomorrow / April 14


Research Expo is tomorrow, April 14. It's not too late to register, and get access to more than 250 graduate students and their research projects at the poster session. Below are snapshots of three of the projects that the graduate students will present tomorrow.

UC San Diego Engineers Test and Predict Impact Damage to Commercial Aircraft

 Future Computer Vision Tools to Aid Medical Research and Healthcare

 Improving Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer Through Advanced Optical Imaging