Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, a leader in prostate cancer testing, is also advancing on the nanotechnology market; its Prostate Health Index uses paramagnetic particles coated with mouse monoclonal antibodies to detect PSA levels.Upwards of 50 million people are believed to be suffering from Alzheimer’s or similar neurodegenerative diseases globally [3]. One of the most effective ways to diagnose these disorders is through a positron emission tomography (PET) scan of the brain, however, these are costly and often used too late in the disease’s progression to make a real difference.

When is a drug not a drug? When it’s a NaNot. Interesting new technology that’s already on its way through FDA and targeting $40m Series B after current bridge. Recently, we covered NaNotics’ breakthrough in nanotech – clever NaNots that use geometry, rather than biochemistry, to distinguish between soluble and membrane forms of T Cell inhibitors – an approach that will work on nearly every pathogenic target. The great value of NaNots is their ability to target only the soluble rather than membrane forms of a pathogenic molecular target. It is, according to CEO, Lou Hawthorne, “very difficult to engineer a drug which can do this because the two target forms are biochemically identical, resulting in very different effects on the body. NaNots, however, use particle geometry in addition to biochemistry, enabling them to distinguish between soluble and membrane forms.”

Startup Alzeca Biosciences, which is based in Houston, Texas, raised $11 million in 2017 to develop its ADx nanoparticle – they’ve been a bit quiet since then. The nanoparticle is used as a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) contrast agent and its the first one to target amyloid plaques, clumps of proteins that destroy connections between nerve cells and are typically found in the brains of Alzheimer’s sufferers. The nanoparticles bind to the abnormal proteins that can form these plaques, revealing reveal areas of damage during an MRI and Alzeca says this method could identify debilitating brain conditions a decade before outward symptoms are exhibited.

Cardiovascular disease is the world’s number one killer and it is hard to detect in the earliest stages as the molecular-level changes in early heart disease occur on the nanoscale. The Heart Research Institute (UK) is hoping to tackle these by build synthetic nanobots by integrating molecular, protein and materials engineering. Using sophisticated in vitro microfluidic systems the nanobots will travel around the patient’s body identifying early stage diseased blood vessels.