Too-few proteins prompt nanoparticles to clump

Blood serum proteins have been observed combining one-to-one with gold nanoparticles and prompting them to aggregate, scientists at Rice University reported.

The case of the sticky protein

Proteins are like a body's in-house Lego set. These large, complex molecules are made up of building blocks called amino acids. Most of the time, proteins fold correctly, but sometimes they can misfold. This misfolding causes ...

Recipe for antibacterial plastic: Plastic plus egg whites

Bioplastics made from protein sources such as albumin and whey have shown significant antibacterial properties, findings that could eventually lead to their use in plastics used in medical applications such as wound healing ...

Bovine blood keeps gold nanoparticles stable

(Phys.org) —A protein from cow blood has the remarkable ability to keep gold nanoparticles from clumping in a solution. The discovery could lead to improved biomedical applications and contribute to projects that use nanoparticles ...

Glowing flowers for ultra-trace analysis of TNT

(Phys.org)—Highly sensitive and highly selective tests are important for the early detection of disease, the detection of environmental toxins, or for the detection of explosives at airports. Increased selectivity for the ...

Nanoparticles harvest invisible cancer biomarkers

(PhysOrg.com) -- Cancer biologists have long presumed that tumor cells shed telltale markers into the blood and that finding these blood-borne biomarkers could provide an early indicator that cancer is developing somewhere ...

First nanoscale mass spectrometer created

Using devices millionths of a meter in size, physicists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a technique to determine the mass of a single molecule, in real time.

Surprise discovery set to improve drug development

A surprising discovery from the University of Virginia School of Medicine has torpedoed a key principle used in the development of new drugs to treat diseases. The finding could speed the drug-development process and help ...

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