A possible alternative to antibiotics

Scientists from the University of Bern have developed a novel substance for the treatment of severe bacterial infections without antibiotics, which would prevent the development of antibiotic resistance.

Chemists show life on Earth was not a fluke

How life came about from inanimate sets of chemicals is still a mystery. While we may never be certain which chemicals existed on prebiotic Earth, we can study the biomolecules we have today to give us clues about what happened ...

A step closer to artificial cell division—by blowing bubbles

By blowing extremely small bubbles, researchers from the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) have found an efficient way of producing so-called liposomes – very small bubble-like ...

Building a better liposome

Using computational modeling, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, the Colorado School of Mines and the University of California, Davis have come up with a design for a better liposome. Their findings, while theoretical, ...

X-ray triggered nano-bubbles to target cancer

Innovative drug filled nano-bubbles, able to be successfully triggered in the body by X-rays, have been developed by researchers, paving the way for a new range of cancer treatments for patients.

Synthetic Capsules Made of Natural Building Blocks

(PhysOrg.com) -- The basis of all life forms are vesicles: membrane-enclosed, liquid-filled “bubbles” made of lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates. Cells, which are separated from the surrounding medium by their cell membrane, ...

How to program DNA robots to poke and prod cell membranes

Scientists have worked out how to best get DNA to communicate with membranes in our body, paving the way for the creation of 'mini biological computers' in droplets that have potential uses in biosensing and mRNA vaccines.

Ingested nanoparticle toxicity

Ingestion of commonly encountered nanoparticles at typical environmental levels is unlikely to cause overt toxicity, according to US researchers. Nevertheless there is insufficient evidence to determine whether chronic exposures ...

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Liposome

Liposomes are artificially prepared vesicles made of lipid bilayer. Liposomes can be filled with drugs, and used to deliver drugs for cancer and other diseases. Liposomes are composite structures made of phospholipids and may contain small amounts of other molecules. Though liposomes can vary in size from low micrometer range to tens of micrometers, unilamellar liposomes, as pictured here, are typically in the lower size range with various targeting ligands attached to their surface allowing for their surface-attachment and accumulation in pathological areas for treatment of disease. Liposomes can be prepared by disrupting biological membranes, for example by sonication.

Liposomes can be composed of naturally derived phospholipids with mixed lipid chains (like egg phosphatidylethanolamine) or other surfactants. Liposomes should not be confused with micelles and reverse micelles composed of monolayers.

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