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The latest news and blog posts from the World Nano Foundation.

Jack Hare 4/1/21 Jack Hare 4/1/21

Five Steps to Defeat the Next Pandemic

World Nano Foundation Co-Founder Paul Sheedy recently featured in The American, discussing five key steps to defeat the next pandemic to come along.

Pathogen surveillance

Humans now live ever-closer to animals, increasing the risk of new and unknown infections crossing from species such as bats and pangolins – the suspected ‘bridges’ for the COVID-19 infection – into humans, while global travel enables the rapid spread of any outbreak. Peter Daszak, an expert virus hunter at the EcoHealth Alliance research group, suggests governments should track and intervene against emerging viruses as they would terrorists, before they wreak havoc, but it is a big task. Daszak estimates there are some 1.7 million unknown mammal viruses that could spread to humans and proposes a $1 billion programme to identify at least two-thirds of these, so resources can be tailored to track and reduce pandemic risk. Others call for consensus on the right actions for the start of an outbreak to avoid the inconsistent response to COVID’s arrival; the jury is still out on which countries made the right calls on social distancing and lockdowns.

A tougher ‘World Health Organisation’

COVID-19 has highlighted the need for a cohesive global pandemic surveillance and response partnership. The World Health Organization should be that body but has been criticised for deference to China and for being slow to declare COVID as a global emergency. The WHO’s response was that it must stay diplomatic and cannot force member states to reply to its requests. But experts argue that if the world is to get better at spotting and then acting against the next pandemic, then individual nations must not hide local outbreaks until they erupt into global issues, as happened with COVID in China and Ebola in West Africa. Instead, it needs to be a more coordinated approach under a beefed up WHO-style body – one label being used is “a biological NATO” with rapid response powers. This ‘super-WHO’ might also use combined financial muscle to: fund elimination of ‘wet markets’ where wild and live animals are sold for food; discourage jungle deforestation - which pushes animals and the viruses closer to humans - and train more local field workers in remote regions to augment the current ad hoc system where the WHO, charities, universities and volunteers combine against emerging threats, but risk being too slow.

Genetic sequencing

Virus ‘Tracking and Tracing’ has enjoyed a mixed press during the COVID-19 pandemic and many scientists think it should give way to gene sequencing, made possible by a huge increase in the number of such machines, making it possible to sequence a virus genome for as little as $50. This would allow tracking and data on the virus to be assessed quickly and acted upon while also gathering intelligence on possible mutations and their resistance to current vaccines. The UK has become a leader here and used sequencing to identify what has become known as the ‘UK variant’ of COVID-19.

Faster vaccine development

One area where governments responded well against COVID-19 is in quickly developing several effective vaccines against the virus, but experts warn that we up the pace: better preparation could have made current vaccines available even earlier, while new ones need to be evolved or developed now against COVID variants and other threats as yet unknown. Some say the goal must be investment in vaccines and drugs that protect against multiple viruses.

Ironing out distribution and logistics

In a world of Amazon deliveries and supermarket shelves groaning with produce from far-flung places, it might be thought that moving medicines should be equally simple and well-organised, but COVID-19 has shown the opposite. The sometimes chaotic acquisition and transporting of Personal Protection Equipment as well as movement and distribution of vaccines – some with sensitive shipping and storage needs – plus the ad hoc vaccination infrastructures, all show that more needs to be done in this area. Incoming US President Joe Biden moved quickly to sets up an American network of mobile community vaccination centres.

Jack Hare 3/31/21 Jack Hare 3/31/21

Soaring healthtech investment is more than just a shot in the arm

Healthcare technology investment soared 47% last year, to a new high of $51bn in 2020.

Venture capital (VC) fundraising was particularly strong across the sector with $17bn available in new venture funds focused on healthcare.

Nanomedicine investment alone grew by x2.5 in the last five years, according to Pitchbook. The investment monitoring platform also reported that 2020's global funding for digital health and telemedicine rose 45% over the previous year, while equity funding to digital health companies hit an all-time high last year, reaching $26.5 billion.

Rather than a COVID-19 driven 'shot in the arm', such growth supports a long-term healthcare industry projection that it will be worth over $10 trillion by 2022.

Since Jan 2021 £3.79bn has been invested into tech companies delivering disruptive innovations specifically related to pandemic protection and preparedness, but also having wider applications and impact for global health – a trend set to continue for the next 10 years, now being called the 'COVID decade'.

And whilst the world needs this major boost to avoid being caught out by future pandemics, it is also creating new opportunities to democratise and decentralise healthcare through early detection diagnostics, precision medicine and early intervention therapies that will transform global health.

This will create a more sustainable point of care-based healthcare ecosystem that is more affordable and available to everyone, say, health experts.

The message is already being picked up. A recent report by tech market analysis specialists CB Insights stated that healthcare start-ups attracted a record $80.6 billion in equity funding in 2020, and general investment in the sector grew in the three consecutive quarters after the outbreak, helping to drive intense innovation.

Some experts suggest the sector has advanced 10 years in just six months, with new data-driven technologies and digitisation practices being used more, while vaccines have developed at unprecedented speed; the research and rollout for the Pfizer and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines were the fastest in history.

Testing has improved, too; the largest manufacturer of lateral flow tests, Innova medical group, has produced LFTs that is at least 99.99% specific while taking just 30 minutes to show results. These simple tests use colloidal gold nanoparticles and are now being manufactured and supplied to countries around the world, particularly by the UK, which has built a world-class testing and vaccine programme.

Harvard professor Dr. Michael Mina has been a major advocate of frequent mass testing using LFTs in the community and workplace to stop the spread of virus transmission and said:

"An over-the-counter rapid test is a tremendous advance. It means that some people will have ready access to a much-needed test to help know their status, without having to go through a physician."

A world-first new national health agency is also launching in the UK in April 2021, focusing on prevention of and response to external health threats such as infectious diseases.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will protect against future health threats and take over the COVID-19 pandemic response from Public Health England (PHE) and NHS Test and Trace. This includes harnessing the data analytics and genomic surveillance capabilities of both organisations, along with scale testing and contract tracing capability.

But far more is needed to avoid repetition of COVID-19's devastation, which has caused 2.74m deaths to date, plus severe financial, health, and social impacts.

An estimated $5.6 trillion in global GDP has been lost, and the World Bank states the global recession is the deepest since WW2 and twice the depth of the 2008 financial crash; and mental health problems, unemployment, and poverty have all increased, while many people with underlying, life-threatening diseases have gone undiagnosed.

And the world is still alarmingly unprepared for another outbreak. It's been reported that two new viruses have spilled over to human hosts every year for the last century, while the Royal Society of Chemistry claims only 10 of 220 viruses known to infect humans have clinically approved antiviral drugs available to combat them.

We now know that the current Coronavirus was transmitted into humans through bats and other animals, according to the latest World Health Organisation report. This will continue to happen, so investment into technologies that analyse these trends is essential.

Avoidance of future pandemics also needs fast support for innovation, according to Executive Chair of Scottish Health Innovations Ltd, Graham Watson, who forecasts a future where healthcare innovation, rapid development, and early adoption become routine:

"If modern healthcare innovation is to continue to grow at pace post-pandemic, then having an 'optimal investment ecosystem' is vital to encouraging its advancement."

Despite rising investment and innovation, processes must also evolve to keep pace with healthcare. Leading medical journal The Lancet showed how a 2020 assessment from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board found gaps in the pre-COVID R&D preparedness ecosystem.

The report exposed a need for capabilities to ensure rapid manufacturing and distribution during a pandemic. Waiting time also needed to be cut so that innovators and scientists could develop new products quickly, an approach proving highly attractive to investment funds.

The Lancet stated: "A true, end-to-end R&D ecosystem must deliver needed products to people as rapidly as possible, and at scale in a globally fair and equitable fashion."

Healthcare investments may not be the only way to get ahead of the next outbreak. Ending deforestation and the wildlife trade would protect us from animal diseases transferring to humans. Investing to prevent these acts could stop outbreaks in the first place.

Paul Sheedy, co-founder of the not-for-profit World Nano Foundation, advocates continued investment into nanotechnology towards better healthcare and pandemic protection:

"Healthcare innovation is more exciting than ever, with new technologies and techniques being developed and improving constantly. Increased investment into healthcare during COVID-19 has been outstanding but must be maintained.

"2.74m people to date have lost their lives during this pandemic, global economies have entered recession, unemployment and poverty have risen substantially, suicides and mental health cases are increasing, and there are fears many people have gone undiagnosed with life-threatening diseases because of COVID protocol.

"Continued, efficient investment where innovators can access critical capital at a faster rate is crucial to developing healthcare innovations that can prevent and combat future pandemics."

A new healthtech fund was launched in March by the Vector Innovation Fund, raising an initial $300m for its sub-fund for pandemic protection and future healthcare, focusing on precision medicine, advanced point of care, and AI technologies that support sustainable healthcare, the global economy and human longevity.

Jack Hare 3/18/21 Jack Hare 3/18/21

Nanotech-powered £1 a day testing strategy can accelerate global recovery from pandemic

The rapid mass testing strategy costing just £1 a day per child can get children back to school and economies up and running, according to experts.

That is the small price of the rapid mass testing across schools in the UK, which is also hard on the heels of one of the world’s swiftest and most successful vaccination programmes.

A double whammy of rapid testing and vaccine deployment applied internationally could lead to a reduction of the human and economic hardship caused by much-criticised lockdown strategies, as well as the continued failure of ‘Track and Trace,’ which has swallowed up £32 billion in the UK.

The UK Government’s investment in vaccines started early, but its equally far-sighted adoption of inexpensive lateral flow test (LFT) kits is less well known.

The economical LFT utilizes nanoparticles to detect virus fragments in a test sample, identifying whether a subject is SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic within 30 minutes. An individual can immediately isolate after a positive test, preventing transmission of COVID-19 at a rapid pace.

Some early scepticism about the devices has since been overwhelmed by new data and a robust rebuttal from Dr Susan Hopkins, COVID-19 Strategic Response Director to Public Health England, who said:

“Up to one in three people who have coronavirus never show any symptoms (asymptomatic) but that does not mean they are not infectious. Using LFTs enables us to rapidly identify people in the population who are asymptomatic, with results produced in 30 minutes.

“Lateral flow devices are effective at finding people with high viral loads who are most infectious and most likely to transmit the virus to others.”

And she added that the latest data suggested LFTs “are at least 99.9% specific which means that the risk of false positives is extremely low – less than one in a thousand.”

UK Government-sponsored LFT use in workplaces is already widespread, with nearly 50,000 UK businesses already registered for free kits, so that employees can be tested at least twice a week with fast results, enabling them to return to work and their children to get back into the classroom.

Each pupil must take two tests (£3.50 each) a week to show whether they need to be taken out of class to avoid infecting others and the same approach will be used for parents in the workplace.

“That’s remarkable value-for-money. £1 a day for an ‘insurance policy’ to enable schools to open, mums and dads to properly return to work, and the country to accelerate out of lockdown with the re-opening of hospitality and major venues no longer a distant prospect,” said Paul Sheedy, Co-founder of the not-for-profit World Nano Foundation (WNF) that promotes healthcare innovation and believes mass testing kits using nanotechnology are central to future pandemic protection.

Sheedy himself has co-developed Test2Suppress™ modelling to highlight how an LFT ‘Test to Suppress’ campaign allows early detection and immediate isolation, reducing the need for lockdowns.

He added: “The Government is rightly cautious about ending lockdown too early, so its medical advisors will pore over the data to check that the return to school and all workplaces maintain the falling infection rate.”

The next major battle will be the full re-opening of hospitality and major sporting and entertainment venues.

Britain’s Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has announced plans for 20,000 fans to watch the FA Cup Final on May 15 and for a dozen other events, including the World Snooker Championships starting on April 17, to go ahead providing spectators return a negative LFT and can be tested again afterwards. This means they will not need to comply with social distancing at the event.

This level of social interaction will finalise ‘Operation Moonshot’ – the Johnson Government’s use of targeted mass testing to halt and drive back COVID-19.

Daniel Elliott, CEO of Innova Medical Group – the world's biggest supplier of COVID-19 LFT kits – confirmed that the UK government was his biggest customer, with a billionth kit about to be delivered and the company looking to open a UK production site to meet demand.

Innova is also in discussions with UK pharmacy chains to sell direct to consumers and Elliott added: "A mass testing strategy is most protective in businesses like personal care, pubs, clubs and a lot of events, where close contact in enclosed spaces can't be avoided."

Arnold Kristoff 3/2/21 Arnold Kristoff 3/2/21

Bill Gates predicted the pandemic and now warns of future dangers

Bill Gates believes we are living with imminent and much more dangerous pandemic outbreaks while also fighting Climate Change.

The Microsoft founder and philanthropist previously warned of a COVID-19 style global pandemic in a 2015 Ted Talk and made his latest predictions in a Veritasium YouTube interview about his new book.

Asked ‘what will be the next global disaster?’ he responded by suggesting a more sinister pandemic deliberately caused by humans, plus the ongoing spectre of Climate Change:

“Also related to pandemics is something people don’t like to talk about much, which is bioterrorism; that somebody who wants to cause damage could engineer a virus and so that means the cost of running into this is more than just the naturally caused pandemics like this current one.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already donated billions of dollars towards innovations and technology to prevent and protect against pandemics: in 2010 the foundation pledged $10bn to vaccine development over ten years and then gave an extra $250m in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The potential need and growth in this sector is also attracting investment, as highlighted by the recent launch of the Luxembourg-based Vector Innovation Fund, with its $300m Pandemic Protection sub-fund based around investment in technology for future healthcare in preparation for the ‘next COVID’, and unlocking potential growth, value and prosperity from innovative and disruptive technologies.

This sub-fund is helping ignite the new tech driven investment era in global healthcare, a sector tipped to soar by 50% extra each year towards a market worth $1.333 trillion by 2027 (source: Precedence Research 2020).

In a recent Forbes interview, Bill Gates suggested that we must prepare for future pandemics as if they were a threat of war, and the Gates’ foundation’s annual letter for 2020 called on wealthy nations to invest tens of billions of dollars to be ready for the next pandemic after Covid-19.

Gates’ heavyweight support was welcomed by The World Nano Foundation (WNF) the not-for-profit organisation that advances innovation and commercialisation of nanoscale technologies.

WNF Co-founder Paul Sheedy said: “Not only is Bill Gates pledging huge amounts from his own foundation, but also calling for government and private investment in global issues like pandemic protection and Climate Change where nanotechnologies can play a vital part.”

Nanotechnology had helped speed development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, investment to develop a universal mRNA vaccine and other measures that will be crucial to global protection from another virus outbreak, and Sheedy concluded:

“Nanomedicines and nano-based diagnostics and other nanotechnology breakthroughs have been vital to the on-going COVID-19 battle, highlighting the need to back the science and technology with investment that can benefit us all while delivering value and extending human longevity.”

Image: Frederic Legrand/Shutterstock

Jack Hare 2/25/21 Jack Hare 2/25/21

World Nano Foundation backs key steps for pandemic protection and preparedness

When the inquest opens on millions of deaths caused by COVID-19, the questions should be: “How did it catch us out?”, “what did we learn” and “what do we do in future?”

The unpalatable answer to the first question “how did it catch us out?” is: “It shouldn’t have.”

“What did we learn?” along with “what do we do in future?” according to the World Nano Foundation (WNF) the not-for-profit organisation that advances innovation and commercialisation of nanoscale technologies.

WNF Co-founder Paul Sheedy said: “With the human and economic costs of COVID still rising, all nations surely know they must invest in technology and innovation against ongoing pandemic threats, especially after ignoring previous warning signs.

“We had had successive COVID-like outbreaks like SARS and MERS, the shocking 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in Africa which killed more than 11,000 and now threatens to erupt again in Liberia, plus historic devastation from events like Spanish Flu (1918-20) which killed up to 50 million people globally, and ongoing killers like Cholera.

“Some Asia-Pacific nations, notably Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia heeded recent warnings and put early intervention measures in place that moderated COVID’s impact, but most of the rest of the world failed to prepare early enough to act using data and technology within diagnostics, tele-medicine, universal vaccines, nanomedicines and early intervention treatments.

He quoted a recent Bloomberg report suggesting that the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) received a detailed plan from pharma firm GlaxoSmithKline in 2017 suggesting vaccine technologies to pursue, plus an organisational chart for a 180-strong task force of scientists, doctors, and others to execute the scheme at a cost of $595 million over 10 years.

Sheedy added: “Amazingly, an operation like this was well within the brief envisaged by Washington when it created BARDA in 2006, effectively to develop or procure drugs and vaccines, and promote action against bioterrorism plus pandemic and infectious threats.”

The Bloomberg report highlighted how Glaxo even offered an under-utilized lab and production plant in Rockville, Maryland and experts there who might work alongside government agencies and non-profit organisations on vaccines, but nothing came of the company’s initiative.

Sheedy added: “It looks like a major lost opportunity, compounded by a US government decision to disband the dedicated pandemic response unit at the National Security Council in May 2018, at a time when nanotechnology initiatives could have made great strides to protect against the current disaster.

“It’s not as though COVID hit us like a tsunami; not only had we witnessed those earlier and similar infectious diseases, but many experts were warning in late 2019 about what to expect, and now we all do – at a cost far higher than if governments had acted on those earlier pandemics,

“The good news is the whole world knows it is now time to invest in advanced technologies to save lives and our economies in relation to the long-term effects of long COVID on healthcare and before another pandemic hits, and this kind of investment will also have a positive impact on healthcare provision generally.”

This awareness is reflected by the recent launch of the Luxembourg-based Vector Innovation Fund, with its $300m Pandemic Protection sub-fund based around better protection and preparedness from infectious diseases using technologies that enhance future global healthcare and to unlock potential growth and prosperity from innovative and disruptive technologies such as nanoscale innovations.

This sub-fund will target the long-term effects of COVID-19 on healthcare and future pandemics and ignite a new tech-driven era in global healthcare, a sector tipped to soar by 50% extra each year towards a market worth $1.333 trillion by 2027 (source: Precedence Research 2020)

Paul Sheedy also endorsed a five-point pandemic ‘insurance’ plan in the Bloomberg report: “Five steps towards victory against the next pandemic threat – whatever that may be.”

The five steps for pandemic protection:

Pathogen surveillance

Peter Daszak, an expert virus hunter at the EcoHealth Alliance research group, suggests governments should track and intervene against emerging viruses as they would terrorists, before they wreak havoc, but it is a big task.

Daszak estimates there are some 1.7 million unknown mammal viruses that could spread to humans and proposes a $1 billion programme to identify at least two-thirds of these, so resources can be tailored to track and reduce pandemic risk.

Others call for consensus on the right actions for the start of an outbreak to avoid the inconsistent response to COVID’s arrival; the jury is still out on which countries made the right calls on social distancing and lockdowns.

A tougher ‘World Health Organisation’

COVID-19 has highlighted the need for a cohesive global pandemic surveillance and response partnership.

The World Health Organization should be that body but has been criticised for deference to China and for being slow to declare COVID as a global emergency. The WHO’s response was that it must stay diplomatic and cannot force member states to reply to its requests.

But experts argue that if the world is to get better at spotting and then acting against the next pandemic, then individual nations must not hide local outbreaks until they erupt into global issues, as happened with COVID in China and Ebola in West Africa.

Instead, it needs to be a more co-ordinated approach under a beefed up WHO-style body – one label being used is “a biological NATO” with rapid response powers.

This ‘super-WHO’ might also use combined financial muscle to: fund elimination of ‘wet markets’ where wild and live animals are sold for food; discourage jungle deforestation - which pushes animals and the viruses closer to humans -; and train more local field workers in remote regions to augment the current ad hoc system where the WHO, charities, universities and volunteers combine against emerging threats, but risk being too slow.

Genetic sequencing

This would allow tracking and data on the virus to be assessed quickly and acted upon while also gathering intelligence on possible mutations and their resistance to current vaccines.

The UK has become a leader here and used sequencing to identify what has become known as the ‘UK variant’ of COVID-19.

Faster vaccine development

Some say the goal must be investment in vaccines and drugs that protect against multiple viruses.

Ironing out distribution and logistics

In a world of Amazon deliveries and supermarket shelves groaning with produce from far flung places, it might be thought that moving medicines should be equally simple and well-organised, but COVID-19 has shown the opposite.

The sometimes chaotic acquisition and transporting of Personal Protection Equipment as well as movement and distribution of vaccines – some with sensitive shipping and storage needs – plus the ad hoc vaccination infrastructures, all show that more needs to be done in this area.

Incoming US President Joe Biden moved quickly to sets up an American network of mobile community vaccination centres.

Jack Hare 2/9/21 Jack Hare 2/9/21

UK GOVERNMENT AND SCIENTIFIC EXPERTS GET BEHIND COMMUNITY RAPID MASS TESTING

Following on from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s quoted £7bn mass testing “Moonshot” programme where the government are deploying over £1.2bn’s worth of rapid lateral flow antigen tests to identify asymptomatic cases in communities and workplaces.

In what many believe was a game changer in preventing lockdowns across the world, in the UK, community and workplace lateral flow rapid test kits (LFTs) have been mobilised now for door-to-door delivery – the UK government has secured more than 400 million of these kits – for its “Test to Suppress” strategy as well as to address fears that the South African variant had broken out in areas of the country.

The World Nano Foundation and scientific leaders say regular use of inexpensive mass lateral flow rapid antigen test kits is the way to beat COVID-19, its variants, and future viruses. Governments and politicians are now reducing the spread of the virus and ensuring a quicker return to normality for their electorate and themselves by adopting a mass testing approach to pinpoint hotspots, thus targeting areas, and preventing wide scale restrictions.

As vaccination quickens for vulnerable members of society, the next prize is to get the world’s economies moving, with mass frequent testing as the key, using the mantra ‘test to suppress’, and as an early warning system to protect against new strains and future outbreaks. By using mass rapid testing, it can be identified where there are infectious cases and ensure that the virus is not passed on, breaking chains of transmission and allowing non-infected communities to continue without disruption.

These simple-to-manufacture rapid tests have shown a thousand-fold increase in the effectiveness and accuracy of testing with this technology. The kits can produce a positive result even when there are fewer antigens to the virus in the sample – vital for finding asymptomatic individuals and ‘super-spreaders’.

Many other countries and industries are now adopting this technology.

This week, The Biden administration announced the investment of $230 million in at-home coronavirus testing kits, to identify cases of the virus across the country to break chains of transmission and prevent new strains from disrupting communities and workplaces.

Innova Medical – the world's largest manufacturer of rapid lateral flow antigen tests is ramping up to 50 million a day by the spring – has also confirmed that its COVID-19 product is effective in detecting variant strains such as the British (Kent), South African, and Brazilian variants, which appear more contagious than the earlier strains.

"As these dangerous strains show signs of increased transmissibility across communities, the global effort to eliminate COVID-19 requires frequent, comprehensive and equitable testing that can detect these emerging strains," said Daniel Elliott, President and CEO of Innova Medical Group.

Elliot added that numerous studies have shown that rapid antigen tests are an important tool for identifying infectious people quickly and equitably, even when they may not have COVID-19 symptoms, in ways not possible with slower, more expensive, centralised lab-based tests.

He said the virus continues to morph its genetic ribonucleic acid (RNA) to generate new and potentially more contagious variants, but Innova's antigen test is effective because it looks for multiple proteins in the virus.

Workplace and community rapid mass testing is already starting to take place to keep economies moving and the entertainment and sports industries are said to be looking at a ‘day pass’ testing approach using LFT kits, in the same way that temperature checks were made on people using restaurants and pubs between lockdowns.

A trial is already under way in France using a music theatre to give day pass security so that people can start attending mass events again.

World Health Organisation Special Envoy on COVID-19, David Nabarro, had already suggested this approach:

"We’ve seen it (rapid mass testing) used in many different locations, for example in trying to keep aircraft free of people who’ve got COVID or looking after major events.”

A UK Government initiative offering LFTs in workplaces - healthcare, education, and local authorities, with private companies such as Royal Mail, the DVLA and Tate & Lyle Sugars also adopting frequent rapid testing.

Globally renowned British doctors’ journal, The Lancet, backed this approach after publishing an exhaustive study of quarantine and testing measures, and leading UK scientists and clinical experts have added their weight.

Oxford University researchers found the UK Government's most sensitive LFTs detected 83-90% of all infectious cases of COVID-19 and, with the UK investing more than £1.5bn in these test kits so far.

Oxford’s Regius Professor of Medicine, Sir John Bell underlined the benefit of these tests removing infectious people from high-risk environments: “They’ve found 25,000 cases just in healthcare, which may have prevented tens of thousands of cases of the disease.”

Tim Peto, Professor of Medicine, Infectious Disease, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University addressed the contrasts between PCR (polymerase chain reaction) swab testing and lateral flow kits:

“PCR is very good at telling you’ve had the virus or got the virus, but it doesn’t tell you whether you are infectious or not and the other problem about the swab test is that it takes a day or two…to get the answer back. The LFT has the enormous advantage of giving you an answer in about 30 minutes.”

He said this allows immediate self-isolation and individuals can also quickly advise their contacts so, “within a few hours, a local outbreak can be detected. This can’t be done with the swab (PCR) tests” adding that LFTs “detect people with high viral loads…the very people who are infectious.”

The World Nano Foundation (WNF) promotes healthcare technology and predicts that mass testing is central to future pandemic protection.

The not-for-profit organisation’s Co-founder Paul Sheedy said: “Our research shows how healthcare diagnostics technology will shift dramatically to a more decentralised community early intervention model, against potential epidemics and pandemics.

“The Test2Suppress™ campaign shows that intensive front-line initiatives using rapid test kits available to the individual will allow early detection and immediate isolation, reducing the need for lockdowns.

“And our simulation maps how consecutive daily tests for three days can rapidly identify and isolate infectious people. Weekly testing can then sustain a low infection rate even in a large population.

“A key point previously missed by some experts is that high quality rapid lateral flow tests are not for people who already think they have COVID-19; it’s about everyone else testing frequently to check they are not infectious.

“Used alongside vaccines and other preventative methods, these simple tests have been developed from colloidal gold nanoparticle research and are a vital component in the battle to defeat the virus and it’s future variants.

“Rapid community testing is simpler, faster, cheaper, more effective and mobilises everyone to help themselves, their relatives, friends, and colleagues, to keep everyone safe.

“With the work that we do, we know that there are even more exciting technologies on the way that will be central to the world’s fight for pandemic protection and future healthcare.

“We have already seen the danger from not being on our guard against renewed viral threats. Spanish Flu struck in 1918, killing up to 50 million people in four waves, the last two being most deadly because public health warnings were not adhered to.”

This means that there will be a revolution in healthcare in the coming years. Healthcare investment is forecast to grow at a rate of nearly 50% a year towards a market set to be worth $1.333 trillion by 2027*. The acceleration highlights wide recognition that the world cannot afford the human and economic cost of another pandemic.

One international investment platform is a Pandemic Protection alternative investment fund operated by Vector Innovation Fund in Luxembourg focused on limiting the effect of long form Covid-19, insulating the world against the impact of future pandemics, whilst minimising any impact on the global economy and healthcare provision and preparedness.

The Vector Innovation Fund is a Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF) specialising in support for technology companies able to transform global markets, notably in global healthcare, sustainability and longevity. These transformational technologies come from the nanotechnology, biotech, AI and machine learning, medical devices, therapies and digital health sectors.

Arnold Kristoff 2/2/21 Arnold Kristoff 2/2/21

Nanotech powered mass testing now the key to unlocking Covid-19 lockdowns

The World Nano Foundation and pandemic experts say regular mass use of inexpensive lateral flow rapid antigen test kits is now the way to beat back against COVID-19, its variants and future virus threats.

As vaccination gathers pace for vulnerable members of the population, the next prize is to re-open societies and get the world’s economies moving, with mass frequent testing as the key, using the mantra ‘test to suppress’, and as an early warning system to protect against new strains and future outbreaks.

These simple-to-manufacture rapid tests employ the nano colloidal gold testing method already used in diagnostics prior to the pandemic. Results have shown a thousand-fold increase in the effectiveness and accuracy of testing with this technology. The kits can produce a positive result even when there is a lower level of antigens of the virus in the sample – vital for finding asymptomatic individuals and potential ‘super-spreaders’.

In what many believe was the trial for nationwide testing to end the lockdown, the UK’s anti-COVID-19 resources were mobilised for a door-to-door delivery of lateral flow test (LFT) kits – the UK government has secured more than 400 million of these – for its test to suppress strategy as well as to address fears that the South African variant had broken out in areas of the country.

Other countries and industry groups are now adopting this technology.

Innova Medical – the world's largest manufacturer of rapid antigen test kits – has also confirmed that its COVID-19 product is effective in detecting variant strains such as the UK (Kent), South Africa, and Brazil variants, which appear more contagious than the original.

Elliot added that numerous scientific studies have shown that rapid antigen tests are an important tool for identifying infectious people quickly and equitably, even when they may not have COVID-19 symptoms, in ways not possible with slower, more expensive, centralised lab-based tests.

Innova produces more than 10 million test kits daily but aims to ramp this up to 50 million by spring and rivals are expected to follow suit.

A trial is already under way in France using a music theatre to give day pass security so that people can start attending mass events again.

World Health Organisation Special Envoy on COVID-19, David Nabarro, had already suggested this approach:

"We’ve seen it (rapid mass testing) used in many different locations, particularly for example in trying to keep aircraft free of people who’ve got COVID or looking after major events.”

Using LFTs will keep economies open, health systems safe and allow audiences to attend entertainment and sporting events, he added.

A UK Government initiative offering LFTs in workplaces started with essential health workers, the education sector, and local authorities in the UK. Private companies have also been given the option – early adopters included the Royal Mail, DVLA and Tate & Lyle Sugars.

Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said around one in three infected people do not show symptoms, so testing was vital to break the chains of transmission; workplace testing offers peace of mind to those unable to work from home during lockdown.

He added: “LFTs have already been hugely successful in finding positive cases we would not otherwise find, and I encourage employers and workers to take up this offer to help protect essential services and businesses.”

Oxford University researchers found the UK Government's most sensitive LFTs detected 83-90% of all infectious cases of COVID-19 and, with the UK investing more than £1.5bn in these test kits so far, Oxford’s Regius Professor of Medicine Sir John Bell underlined the benefit of these removing infectious people from high-risk environments: “They’ve found 25,000 cases just in healthcare, which may have prevented tens of thousands of cases of the disease.”

The World Nano Foundation (WNF) promotes healthcare technology and predicts that mass testing is central to future pandemic protection.

“Used alongside vaccines, hand-cleansing, and social distancing, these simple tests have been developed from colloidal gold nanoparticle research and are a vital component in the battle to defeat COVID-19, future variants or other viruses.

“Rapid community testing is simpler, faster, cheaper, ultimately more effective and mobilises everyone to help themselves and their relatives, friends, and colleagues – we can all play a part in keeping everyone safe.

“As West Africa reeled under the impact of Ebola (2014-16) the world watched with bated breath to see if the ‘beast’ would go global, but frequent mass rapid testing was deployed at community level multiple times over a few weeks stopping that terrible disease in its tracks.

“With the work that we do, we know that there are even more exciting technologies on the way that will be central to the world’s fight for pandemic protection and future healthcare.

“We have already seen the danger from not being on our guard against renewed viral threats. Spanish Flu struck in 1918 and ultimately killed up to 50 million people in four successive waves, the last two being most deadly because public health warnings were not adhered to.

“The UK Government’s foresight in being first to secure large stocks of rapid lateral flow antigen test supplies by Innova Medical (USA) and SureScreen Diagnostics (UK) may prove to have been a human and economic lifesaver.”

Other innovations include using similar nano technology developed by UC San Diego that turns a face mask a different colour when it detects the presence of COVID-19 in the air that you breathe, allowing everyone to self-monitor easily and simply.

This means that there will be a revolution in the healthcare industry over the next 12 months. Healthcare investment is expected to grow at a rate of nearly 50% a year towards a market set to be worth $1.333 trillion by 2027*. The acceleration highlights wide recognition that the world cannot afford the human and economic cost of another pandemic.

Image: Shutterstock - Mark Duransky

Arnold Kristoff 1/26/21 Arnold Kristoff 1/26/21

WORLD EXPERTS GET BEHIND UK’S STRATEGY FOR RAPID MASS TESTING

Holding back on rapid mass testing is now a global public health emergency extending the war against COVID-19, say experts.

The UK was first to recognise the large-scale potential and is now deploying 400 million lateral flow rapid antigen test kits alongside the strategy for vaccinations as well as public guidance on masks, hand cleansing and social distancing.

*Image – Generic example of a Rapid Lateral Flow antigen test*

But the lateral flow test (LFT) message is fast going global with World Health Organisation Special Envoy on COVID-19, David Nabarro, now commenting:

"We’ve seen it (rapid mass testing) used in many different locations, particularly for example in trying to keep aircraft free of people who’ve got COVID or looking after major events.”

Using LFTs will keep economies open, health systems safe and allow audiences to attend entertainment and sporting events, he added.

A leading US mass testing expert, Dr Michael Mina of Harvard University, insisted rapid mass testing had been misunderstood by some: “The UK is one of the only countries that genuinely listened to the science and I spoke with Downing Street about the value of getting mass testing right.”

The UK Government initiative led the way offering LFTs, to essential health workers, the education sector, and local authorities. This mass rapid testing approach to suppressing transmission has now been extended to the workplace, via private sector and industry groups. Early adopters in the UK include the Royal Mail, DVLA and Tate & Lyle Sugars. This is expected to be significant in reducing the need for future lockdowns. Slovakia, like the UK, uses rapid lateral flow antigen tests with great success in their mass testing initiative, with extremely positive results.

Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that around one in three infected people do not show symptoms, so testing was vital to break the chains of transmission; workplace testing offers peace of mind to those unable to work from home during lockdown.

Globally renowned journal, The Lancet, supports this approach after publishing an exhaustive study of quarantine and testing measures, and leading UK scientists and clinical experts have added their weight.

Senior researchers at Oxford University found that most sensitive LFTs detected 83-90% of all infectious cases of COVID-19 and, with the UK investing more than £1.5bn in these test kits so far, Oxford’s Regius Professor of Medicine Sir John Bell underlined the benefit of these removing infectious people from high-risk environments: “They’ve found 25,000 cases just in healthcare, which may have prevented tens of thousands of cases of the disease.”

The World Nano Foundation (WNF) promotes healthcare technology and has modelled this form of technology, predicting that mass testing is central to future pandemic protection.

“Used alongside vaccines, hand-cleansing, and social distancing, these simple tests are a vital component in the battle to defeat COVID-19, future variants or other viruses.

“With the work that we do, we know that there are even more exciting technologies on the way that will be central to the world’s fight for pandemic protection and future healthcare.

INNOVA Medical Group leads in the manufacture and distribution of rapid antigen and antibody test kits for COVID-19 disease detection. INNOVA’s integrated solution provides a best-in-class portfolio of diagnostic and screening tests. QMC HealthID™ secure app captures test results and creates a “health passport” for the user. Analytics, powered by real-time data, assist in tailoring protocols to individual use cases: entertainment, government, manufacturing, nursing and care homes, schools and universities and transportation.

The four pillars of success: TIME – Testing, Implementation, Monitoring, and Engagement

https://innovamedgroup.com/

SureScreen believes that early, accurate diagnosis is better than waiting for problems to arise, and a proactive approach greatly benefits people's health, identifies issues early in their development, prevents accidents from happening and has a positive effect on performance, productivity and reputation.

https://www.surescreen.com/

Arnold Kristoff 11/10/20 Arnold Kristoff 11/10/20

How Nanotechnology Can Impact Space Travel and Exploration

Nanotechnology will play a big role in future space missions and challenges, here are a few examples of how nanotechnology will impact space travel and exploration.

Propulsion Systems

Rocket engines today rely on chemical propulsion. All current spacecraft use a form of rocket to launch, but scientists are researching new methods of space propulsion systems, such as electric propulsion. Electric propulsion systems instead of chemicals would significantly reduce the required propellant mass compared to conventional chemical rockets.

Using an EP system would allow an increase in payload capacity, as well as decreasing a spacecraft’s launch mass.

Radiation Shielding

The risks of exposure to space radiation is the most significant factor that limits human ability to participate in long term space missions. Advanced nanomaterials such as the newly developed, isotopically enriched boron nanotubes could pave the path to future spacecraft with nanosensor-integrated hulls that provide effective radiation shielding as well as energy storage.

These advanced nanomaterials would mean the possibilities of space exploration would widely broaden as the risk of space radiation would significantly decrease.

Space Elevator

As wacky as this sounds, there is an annual space elevator conference to discuss building the biggest elevator to exist which would transport you to space. A Japanese construction firm has even announced plans to build the first elevator by 2050.

The elevator would be built upon carbon nanotubes, and would be around 62,000 miles long in order to reach space. At the end of the elevator would be a weight that would hang in outer space and act as a terminal.

For more nanotechnology stories, visit our news page.

Arnold Kristoff 11/5/20 Arnold Kristoff 11/5/20

How Nanotechnology can be used to lower pollution

A big issue that faces our planet is pollution. Here are some of the clever solutions that nanotechnology offers or could offer in the future to help reduce pollution levels.

Nano Catalysts

Catalysts work by speeding up chemical reactions that transform harmful vapors from cars and industrial plants into harmless gases. All current Catalysts contain a nanofiber catalyst made of manganese oxide that removes volatile organic compounds from industrial smokestacks.

The use of Nano catalysts are crucial for reducing the amount of harmful gases in the air and the amount of carbon dioxide going into our atmosphere and contributing to climate change.

Nano wires to clean up oil spills

There are methods to clean up oil spills already, but there hasn’t been a method of cleaning up oil spills whilst recovering the oil lost. With Nano wires made of Potassium Manganese Oxide can clean up oil whilst making oil recovery possible. Nanowires are used to form a mesh which can absorb up to twenty times its weight in hydrophobic liquids while rejecting water with its water repellent coating.

This transforms the way oil spills and disasters can be cleaned up, meaning that even if huge amounts of oil is lost, it can be recovered.

Accelerating Digestion

Nanomaterials can be used to digest organic waste at a faster rate, helping to avoid more land and water pollution. With the acceleration of digestion, there is more efficiency in terms of the duration and enhanced production of the biogas.

Recent research showed that adding metal oxide nanoparticles to a food waste digester doubled the amount of biogas fuel produced compared to the digester without it.

For more news stories, visit our website news page.

Arnold Kristoff 11/2/20 Arnold Kristoff 11/2/20

How Nanotechnology can be used to store and create energy

We need to produce energy, and nanotechnology is becoming more and more involved in the creation of it. Here are some of the ways nanotechnology has been used to produce energy and how it could be used to produce energy in the future.

Storing Hydrogen in fuel cell powered cars

To increase the binding energy of hydrogen to a surface level of a fuel tank, researchers are using and producing graphene layers. This way, there can be a higher amount of storage in your car and a lighter weight fuel tank.

You can use these nanotube sheets to wrap around a hot pipe in your car, such as the exhaust, to generate the energy from the heat of the hot pipe which would usually be wasted.

Generating steam from sunlight

Researchers have demonstrated that sunlight, concentrated on nanoparticles, can produce steam with high energy efficiency. A ‘solar steam device’ could be used in developing countries where there is no electricity to purify water and to disinfect dental instruments.

The potential practicality of this nanoscience could be a useful tool in order to prevent less suffering in countries with unfiltered, diseased water and therefore improve the quality of life for people in developing countries.

Increased electricity generated by windmills

Using an epoxy containing carbon nanotubes can enable the creation of stronger and lower weight blades. This enables the production of longer blades, therefore increasing the amount of energy produced from each windmill.

The improved blade design through nanotechnology makes windmills more efficient, meaning that we can become more reliant on windmills to produce a larger amount of our energy rather than fossil fuels.

High efficiency light bulbs

High efficiency light bulbs can be produced through a nano engineered polymer matrix. The new bulbs are not only shatterproof, but also operate at twice the efficiency of compact, fluorescent light bulbs.

This will more efficient light bulbs help to conserve energy and electricity, and across multiple households and buildings across the world this could have a major impact on the amount of energy that we save.

Go to our news page to see more stories and find out more information about the possibilities of Nanotechnology.

Arnold Kristoff 10/21/20 Arnold Kristoff 10/21/20

How Nanotechnology can treat the brain

The brain is one of our most vital, yet complicated organs in the human body. Whilst we have learnt more and more about the brain, without nanotechnologies input we would be limited in how much we could learn and how we could treat people. These are some of the key areas where Nanotechnology will likely be involved in the future when it comes to the brain.

Graphene based implants

Scientists have been developing a graphene based implant which can track neural activity on the brain. There is little knowledge around the low frequency electric activity from the brain as the frequency has been incredibly hard to detect before. The implant is being used to study how seizures begin, and could potentially lead to improved treatment of epilepsy, whilst contributing to the future of brain computer interfaces.

This implant will allow scientists to deeper understand the brain and measure the signals that were previously unmeasurable.

Drug delivery

Nanotechnology has been used to create acellular synthetic polymeric brain implants to deliver drugs to the central nervous system. The method delivers drugs via degradation or diffusion over long periods, such as weeks or months.

Nanotechnology has a great potential to affect the treatment of neurological disorders, mainly Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, brain tumors, and stroke through improved drug delivery to the CNS.

Nanocoated Implants

Since 2009, scientists have added nanotechnology coatings to implants, which have allowed device electrodes to interface with the brain with less resistance. This then allowed the implants to operate for longer periods.

Nanocoated implants can help to treat diseases such as Parkinson's disease, depression and epilepsy.

Go to our news page to learn more about the impact of nanotechnology.

Arnold Kristoff 10/19/20 Arnold Kristoff 10/19/20

How nanotechnology is helping to combat diabetes

Diabetes is a lifelong condition which causes a person's blood levels to rise too high. It is estimated that 415 million people around the world suffer from diabetes, one in eleven of the world's adult population. Finding more effective methods to treat diabetes, as well as moving towards finding a cure for the disease, is something where nanotechnology could be revolutionary in the future of disease treatment.

Anti diabetic drugs

Nanotechnology could enable anti diabetic drugs to become cheaper and more accessible, after a breakthrough in 2019 where there was a simpler, cleaner cost effective drug made through advanced biological and chemical engineering.

Once trialled successfully, more efficient anti diabetic drugs could be produced and the cost of production can be reduced, meaning more access to the drugs that can help more people with diabetes manage the disease.

Gene therapy

It is believed gene therapy can be used to cure diabetes in the future, the therapy has already been trialled on mice with success. Gene therapy is a strategy correcting or compensating the symptoms of diseases caused by defective or abnormal genes through introduction of exogenous normal genes. Diseases such as diabetes could be cured by a single treatment, and it is now bringing new treatment options to multiple fields of medicine.

If this method to cure diabetes could be successful on humans in the future with no adverse side effects, this would lead to a major shift in the treatment of diabetes.

Insulin patch

An insulin delivery patch is currently being developed which could one day monitor and manage glucose levels in people with diabetes and deliver the necessary insulin dosage. The patch is easy and cost effective to manufacture and would be intended for once a day use.

If this patch could be developed and brought into use after trails, this would mean people living with diabetes would have more control of their Insulin levels at all times, therefore making life with diabetes much more manageable.

For more nanotechnology news and stories, click here.

Arnold Kristoff 10/14/20 Arnold Kristoff 10/14/20

How nanotechnology can help to combat climate change

Nanotechnology is quickly becoming one of the most important elements of modern science. With the looming uncertainty around climate change ahead, nanotechnology for certain will be playing a part in helping to try and protect our planet.

Nano CO2 Harvesters

Researchers have developed Nano CO2 harvesters, which can suck atmospheric carbon dioxide and deploy it for industrial purposes, helping to slow the rise of CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Many regard this nanotechnology as the potential ‘holy grail’ of combating climate change.

There is hope that the technology in the future could be used to take CO2 from the earth’s atmosphere and convert it into useful products such as Alcohol. Despite being very early in the progress of this potentially revolutionary product, there is a real promise that this science could be crucial to protecting the planet.

Accelerated Anaerobic digestion

Digesters have been used for years to convert biodegradable waste into biogas fuels and solids that can be used as fertilizers, but the process is incredibly slow. However, using nanotechnology, this process can be sped up rapidly.

Adding metal oxide particles to food digesters can double the amount of biogas produced, This means farms and food industries can manage biodegradable waste with more, leading to less pollution into land and water.

Electricity storage and batteries

As a cheaper method of supercapacitor storage of renewable energy, Electricity storage through everyday objects like bricks could play a major role in reducing the number of emissions we need to produce.

In this research, nanoscientists have found a way to store electricity into the house brick. This way, buildings could become powerhouses of energy, meaning that we would be able to be more efficient with our electricity and could lead the way from a transition away from CO2 emissions.

Click here to see some more impacts of nanotechnology.

Arnold Kristoff 10/12/20 Arnold Kristoff 10/12/20

How Nanotechnology can help to Improve Global Public Health

With the world changing due to COVID - 19, the protection of public health has never had more importance. Here’s how Nanotechnology could be used in the future to help improve and maintain human health and wellbeing.

Vaccines

Vaccines are the most definitive solution to the Covid-19 pandemic, and nanomaterials already play a vital role in vaccine design, development, delivery, and administration.

It is believed nanotechnology can be used in the future to create vaccines which will show a significant decrease in side effects along with improved effectiveness. Without nanotechnology, the speed and effectiveness of vaccines to meet the needed demand during a pandemic will not be able to be met in the future.

Cancer Treatment

One of the most promising methods for finding a cure for cancer is through Nanotechnology. A new nanotechnology design is already providing hope for personalized vaccinations for treating cancer, and nanomotor probes are also being developed to sense cancer environments in the body and target cancer cells.

This demonstrates how nanotechnology development will be critical for the development of cancer treatment across the globe in the near future.

Heart Treatment

As recently as 2020, scientists discovered a way to use nanoparticles to destroy plaques that cause heart attacks. It has also been discovered how you can use nanotechnology in tissue engineering and regeneration, as well as in heart repair.

With the use of nanotechnology and the potential it has, the treatment of heart disease, attacks, and failure will become more and more effective.

For more news and information, click here.

Arnold Kristoff 10/6/20 Arnold Kristoff 10/6/20

How Nanotechnology is already impacting our lives

The future possibilities of nanotechnology are mind blowing, but nanotechnology today has already had a significant impact in different sectors and industries. Here are some examples that show how nanotechnology has helped to shape the world we live in already.

Computers

Nanotechnology has shaped a large part of what is a modern laptop or computer. Laptops have longer battery lives and can contain much more power whilst consuming less.

With nanotechnology, the potential for what a computer can become is so much more. Scientists believe it is possible to make computers of large data sizes small enough to flow through your bloodstream. nanosized computers will mean computers will be able to go almost anywhere.

Chemical sensors

Due to the use of nanotechnology, chemical sensors can be used to detect a particular chemical at astonishingly low levels, such as a single molecule out of billions. This is hugely important in military chemical detection, chemical testing in food production, and early identification of diseases in medical care.

With such a reliance on this technology in such crucial areas of our society, the future possibilities of chemical sensors due to the developments of nanotechnology will be increasingly beneficial.

Clean water

Nano filters can be used to remove nano-sized particles from drinking water, effectively removing all viruses and bacteria from the water. With the water filters only being 15 to 20 nanometers wide, all the particles and bacteria can cause serious harm are removed.

These systems are very portable and cost-efficient too, making them perfect for improving the quality of drinking water in emerging countries across the globe.

For more information about Nanotechnology and its future, click here.

Arnold Kristoff 9/30/20 Arnold Kristoff 9/30/20

How Nanotechnology can help to end Water Scarcity

With an increasing lack of fresh and clean drinking water to meet human demand, the importance for humankind to provide a sustainable and large enough amount of drinking water to meet the rising population has never been as important as now. Nanotechnology could be crucial in making sure that no more countries have to risk facing day zero.

Nano Filters

Nano filters can be used to remove nano-sized particles from drinking water. This means that all viruses and bacteria that could be harmful to someone drinking the water can be removed. These filters are cost-efficient and portable too, so they can be used in developing countries where clean drinking water is not as accessible.

Nano filters will be crucial in the future to create more fresh drinking water for the majority of the population, and water that will have been harming the health and shortening the lives of recipients will now have access to clean drinking water and no longer be at risk.

Desalination

There are many methods to desalinate water, however, one of the most effective methods is membrane desalination. Water is pushed through a thin membrane with tiny holes, water can flow through the holes but not salt ions. Therefore the only freshwater can make it to the other side.

If this method to desalinate salt water can be used more cost-efficiently and on a larger scale, a lot of issues when it comes to accessing clean drinking water can be solved. Seawater makes up 97.5% of the planet’s water while drinking water makes up 1%, so drinking water would be immensely accessible to the whole population.

Magnetic water purification

In 2019, scientists identified another way to purify water. The method is based on using magnets to attract magnetic nanoparticles coated in an ionic liquid that attracts organic and inorganic chemicals and microplastics. This way you can then remove the nanoparticles in the water.

The method at the moment is too slow and impractical to be effective at the moment, but if a cheaper and more practical way to utilize this method could be developed, clean drinking water could be more accessible to many people who need it across the world.

For more information about Nanotechnology and its future, click here.

Arnold Kristoff 9/28/20 Arnold Kristoff 9/28/20

The Future of Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is one of the fastest emerging sciences of its time, and it is thought that Nanotechnology science will be a part of the lives of every person on the planet in 20 years. Here are some of the great things nanotechnology could be a part of in the future to better the way of human life.

Cancer treatment

Cancer therapy is currently limited to three different methods, surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Surgery is not always possible, and chemotherapy and radiation cause harm whilst trying to remove cancer. Nanotechnology offers an opportunity to target chemotherapies directly to cancer cells and neoplasms, guide in surgical resections of tumors, and enhance radiation-based therapy efficiency.

There is also a potential for nanotechnology to offer a cure for cancer in the future itself too. There are theories of how nanoparticles could be used to bind to tumor cells once injected into the affected area and then remove them.

Prosthetics

Nanotechnology is likely to play a huge role in the future of prosthetics. Electronic skin that can react to pain and contact in the same way as human skin has been developed, there has also been research into controlled antibiotic eluting prosthetic joints that release antibiotics post-surgery to decrease bacterial adhesion.

The use of nanotechnology and science within prosthetics could lead to closer to identical prosthetics and replicas of limbs, whilst being easier and less troublesome for amputees to maintain.

Graphene

The potential of what graphene can achieve is widely regarded as limitless. The super material has outstanding strength, flexibility, and conductivity properties making it perfect for composites and coatings, whilst having the unique properties to apply to groundbreaking biomedical applications.

Mobile phones that charge in seconds, the next generation of electronics, ‘smart’ implants, and improved brain penetration, these some of the things that graphene is capable of making an everlasting impact on in the future. Graphene is quickly becoming the most exciting technology of its era.

To find out more about the future of nanotechnology, read more of our stories here.

Arnold Kristoff 4/27/20 Arnold Kristoff 4/27/20

Why it's important for there to be transparency on COVID-19 test performance?

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect nations across the world, the demand for testing solutions continues to increase every day, with governments, researchers and manufacturers coming up with everything from rapid boots-on-the-ground testing kits to more traditional centralised lab testing solutions, all which come with varying degrees of accuracy/functionality.

The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), which is a global non-profit organisation driving innovation in the development and delivery of diagnostics to combat major diseases, currently lists 586 different SARS-COV-2 testing solutions which are currently in development, being used for research purposes or ready for deployment today, as of the 26th April. By its own admission, this is not a comprehensive list, and The World Nano Foundation is aware of many other testing solutions in development or readily available which are not featured on this list.

As the crisis continues to evolve, and pressure mounts on world governments to provide practical testing solutions for the masses, the number of different testing solutions also increases each day. So, how can policy makers devise workable testing strategies in this overly complex, highly pressured and ever-evolving environment?

Transparency is the answer. Currently, several manufacturers following best practices are trying to be incredibly open and transparent regarding the test data and functionality of their solutions, and it is important more follow suit. Government testing bodies also need to be transparent about the requirements they expect tests to fulfil, and provide testing data so that test solution providers know how their tests performed under scrutiny, instead of just announcing whether different tests do or do not work.

The variation of tests with varying degrees of accuracy, speed and ease of deployment create a spectrum, from which policy makers can work out the best function for different tests.

How accurate is accurate enough?

To work out the answer to this question, we must first ask; what functions do we want tests to perform? It is also important to recognise that no test is 100% accurate and all tests must form part of a diagnostic protocol.

If you have a large group/community of people, whose infectious status (Positive, Negative, Immune) is unknown, then testing solutions with different accuracy levels can provide different functions.

For example, if you have a test that is 90% accurate, which can be done as a rapid point-of-care test, you can quickly establish with 90% accuracy the size of the problem in a previously unmeasured group. This provides vital data to policy makers for how to manage that group accordingly.

To increase the functionality of that test, policy makers may decide to test a person multiple times, so again using the example above, statistically the accuracy goes up to 99% with the second test and beyond with each subsequent test. They could also test people with the same type of test but made by a different manufacturer, this would enable results to be cross-referenced, and use tests in the most efficient manner by understanding the inherent strengths and weaknesses of different tests.

With mass testing of this nature in progress, policy makers can learn from the results and understand the function of each test used and develop testing programs that are tailored to specific sub-groups of people. For example, you may use one test to triage a group of people, another test to provide confirmatory results, and a final testing solution, such as PCR testing, for more precise analysis of a smaller number of the sub-group.

By having mass testing programs in place, policy makers can quickly change the tests being used as more effective, or more accurate tests become available. The creation of the mass testing process may be more important than what tests you start the process with.

Arnold Kristoff 2/8/20 Arnold Kristoff 2/8/20

Discovering nanotechnology in the natural world

When many people think of nanotechnology, they automatically think of graphene, carbon nanotubes, bucky balls, or some other inorganic nanomaterial. Many people’s first thoughts about nanotechnology don’t naturally gravitate towards nature, yet so many natural processes happen on the nanoscale, it is something that more people should be aware of.

If you consider the human body, most of the internal reactions that help us to function in everyday life occur at the nanoscale. Because the human body goes through many nanoscale processes already, it has helped the development of the nanomedicine field as the nanomedicine interactions occur on the same molecular level as many of the bodily processes.

But it’s not just the body where nanotechnology can be found, it’s all around us in the natural world. Perhaps one of the best examples is the lotus leaf. To many, it is but a leaf that doesn’t get wet, but when you look at the atomic level, you can see that nanotechnology is the reason. The lotus leaf has a nanoscale roughness that causes it to be superhydrophobic, which causes water droplets to be almost circular (and hardly touching the surface of the leaf) and roll off the leaf. This has since been dubbed the lotus effect and the principles have been used to develop self-cleaning surfaces and sprays which can make a surface superhydrophobic.

On the other hand, you have the Nepenthes pitcher plant. This is a plant that traps insects inside it, where it digests them. How does it trap these insects? Nanotechnology. Many unsuspecting insects land on the leaves of the plant, but they can’t maintain a grip on the surface of the leaf due to it being superhydrophilic (which is created by the overlapping of smooth cells), and this causes them to aquaplane and fall in. If this self-healing nanoscale surface was not there, many insects could fly off before they became trapped. The nanoscale principles of the nepenthes pitcher plant also helped to yield the Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces (SLIPS) out of Harvard University, which is a self-healing superhydrophilic surface composed of a lubricated film and porous material, with applications spanning industrial pipelines to the biomedical markets.

Ever wondered how geckos can scale a wall with ease. This is down to increasing the surface contact area between the feet and the wall (or a different surface). One of the fundamental principles of nanotechnology is that the relative surface area of a material increases as you make it smaller. i.e. if you had 1 cm3 of a bulk material, and 1 cm3 of nanoparticles of the same composition (collective volume of all the nanoparticles), then the surface area of the nanoparticles would be much greater than the bulk material. Geckos have hairs on the bottom of their feet that you can’t see unless you look through a high-powered microscope. First there is a layer of micron-sized hairs and attached to each of these hairs is a series of nano-sized hairs. The presence of all these nano-sized hairs increases the surface area of the feet by a great amount, which significantly increases the adhesion forces and contact area between the feet and the wall, and this is what enables geckos to scale walls.

Whilst quite a few of these discoveries happened a while ago now, new research is also coming out that uses nature-inspired nanotechnology. Just recently, it was reported that a team of researchers had isolated nanostructured architectures from the wings of the glass wing butterfly wing and had coated them with nanosilver to produce an effective surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate for detecting specific pesticides.

But these are just a few examples. The principles of nanotechnology help many organisms in the natural world, and this includes many types of flora. Another big area where researchers are utilizing nanotechnology from the natural world is using the structure of DNA to create synthetic nanostructures, as well as functionalising DNA with other nanoscale materials. In short, nanotechnology exist in our natural world, is greatly important for many natural processes, and nanotechnology is not only confined to synthetic and/or inorganic nanomaterials.

Written by Liam Critchley.

Main Photo: Madagascar giant Day Gecko.