Clive Cookson reports on the nanotechnology hope for potential sufferers of Alzheimer's disease in today's Financial Times.
"An ultra-sensitive new diagnostic system based on bionanotechnology could provide the first blood test for Alzheimer's disease, a scientific conference in London heard yesterday. The "bio-bar-code" assay detects a toxic protein called ADDL.
"Chad Mirkin, director of the Northwestern University Institute of Nanotechnology in Illinois, says the bio-bar-code could be applied in principle to any biological molecule - and is 1m times more sensitive than the conventional "Elisa" test for proteins in blood. In addition to Alzheimer's, the Northwestern scientists hope to exploit the technology to detect prion diseases, HIV infection and various cancers."
