Researchers come up big by looking into the small

A study by Taiwanese scientists involving nanotechnology has shown that newly invented biological markers can be used to help detect certain diseases and cancers, the National Science Council (NSC) said yesterday.

The technology involves embedding nanoparticles into cells which can then be monitored.

An NSC-sponsored team led by Chen Chia-chun (陳家俊), a chemist at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), has been studying such biological markers since last year.

According to Chen, cells marked by traditional organic fluorescent techniques are stable for only a few hours when monitored by special sensors.

"Our newly invented biological markers, however, can be sensed for about two days," Chen said at a press conference yesterday.

In other words, Chen said, his team's technologies improve stability as well as the sensitivity of biological detection.

Nanotechnology involves the creation and utilization of materials, devices and systems through the control and manipulation of matter at the nanometer scale, that is, at the level of atoms, molecules and supramolecular structures. A nanometer (one billionth of a meter) is about 10,000 times narrower than a human hair and about four times wider than an atom.

Nanomaterials can also be used as biological markers. A nanoparticle can be embedded in the wall of an individual cell that can then be monitored.

As the technology develops, nanoparticles attached using certain materials, such as sugar, might be able to locate damaged or cancerous cells.

Working with Lin Chun-cheng (林俊成), an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Chemistry of Academia Sinica, and Wu Yi-chun (吳益群), a zoologist at National Taiwan University (NTU), Chen's team successfully applied newly invented gold nanoparticles to to detect germs in living cells.

Meanwhile, assisted by Chen Chien-tien (陳建添), a chemist at NTNU, and Dong Chen-yuan (董成淵), a physicist at NTU, Chen's team produced semiconductor nanoparticles, which can also function as biomarkers.

Chen said that his team had demonstrated that these biological markers could detect certain cells damaged by diseases or cancers.

Chen said an application for US patents was filed last year.

"Business opportunities are hidden behind the development of technologies pertaining to these biological markers," NSC vice chairman Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said.

Biological detection accounts for one third of medical industries in Taiwan, according to the NSC.

Vice chairman Chen said that the development of nanotechnology and biomarkers would ultimately provide a cost-effective and flexible germ-detection platform that would bring about a revolution in bioindustries.

Scientists say related technologies could be applied to the improvement of laboratory techniques, the production of biochips and detection instruments, medical image analysis and the invention of new drugs.