credit: ACSNano
Scientists in the UK and the US have collaborated on a “nanopipette” a device capable of taking minute particles of living cells without causing damage to the cell.
The process is called a “nanobiopsy” and by inserting the pipette, technicians take a sample size of 50 femtolitres, or 0.00000000000005 litres. This is about one percent of a human cell’s volume.
The researchers believe this will allow physicians to repeatedly test the same cells to measure progression of disease and will also create a delivery system to specific, diseased cells for targeted treatments.
Dr. Paolo Actis, from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London said, “This technology will be extremely useful for research in many areas. You could use it to dynamically study how cancer cells are different from healthy cells, or look at how brain cells are affected by Alzheimer’s disease. The possibilities are immense.”
The technique has already been used to extract RNA from cells and mitochondria. Researchers discovered that Mitochondria contain their own DNA, and that the genomes of different mitochondria in the same cell are different.
The researchers in the UK collaborated with colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A patent for the device was granted to the university in 2012 and researchers have been working on the device since 2005. The device is relatively inexpensive to create so could become widely used in just a few years’ time.
What do you think of being able to diagnose and watch at the cellular level? Will knowing the details of cell behavior help patients? Have you had access to any of the early testing happening now? We’d love to continue the conversation inside Sermo. If you’re an M.D. or D.O. please join us.
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