Join the Nanotechnology discussion. Take a look at this:
Nano-sensor For Better Detection Of Mad Cow Disease Agent
ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2008) ? In an advance in food safety, researchers in New York are reporting development of a nano-sized sensor that detects record low levels of the deadly prion proteins that cause Mad Cow Disease and other so-called prion diseases.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See also:
Health & Medicine
Diseases and Conditions
Infectious Diseases
Plants & Animals
Prions
Microbes and More
Matter & Energy
Detectors
Nanotechnology
Reference
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy
Prion
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Amyloid
The sensor, which detects binding of prion proteins by detecting frequency changes of a micromechanical oscillator, could lead to a reliable blood test for prion diseases in both animals and humans, the researchers say.
Prions are infectious proteins that can cause deadly nerve-damaging diseases such as Mad Cow Disease in cattle, scrapie in sheep, and a human form of Mad Cow Disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Conventional tests are designed to detect the proteins only upon autopsy and the tests are time-consuming and unreliable.
In the new study, Harold G. Craighead and colleagues describe a high-tech, nano-sized device called a nanomechanical resonator array. The device includes a silicon sensor, which resembles a tiny tuning fork, that changes vibrational resonant frequency when prions bind. Its vibration patterns are then measured by a special detector. In experimental trials, the sensor detected prions at concentrations as low as 2 nanograms per milliliter, the smallest levels measured to date, the researchers say.
The article "Prion Protein Detection Using Nanomechanical Resonator Arrays and Secondary Mass Labeling" is scheduled for the April 1 issue of ACS' Analytical Chemistry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adapted from materials provided by American Chemical Society.
Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the following formats:
APA
MLA American Chemical Society (2008, March 5). Nano-sensor For Better Detection Of Mad Cow Disease Agent. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/03/080303093549.htm
Nanotechnology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Part of a series of articles on
Nanotechnology
History
Implications
Applications
Organizations
In fiction and popular culture
List of topics
Subfields and related fields
Nanomaterials
Fullerenes
Carbon nanotubes
Nanoparticles
Nanomedicine
Nanotoxicology
Nanosensor
Molecular self-assembly
Self-assembled monolayer
Supramolecular assembly
DNA nanotechnology
Nanoelectronics
Molecular electronics
Nanocircuitry
Nanolithography
Scanning probe microscopy
Atomic force microscope
Scanning tunneling microscope
Molecular nanotechnology
Molecular assembler
Nanorobotics
Mechanosynthesis
This box: view " talk " edit
Nanotechnology refers to a field of applied science whose theme is the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally nanotechnology is approximately 100 nanometers or smaller and involves developing materials or devices within that size.
