Versatile Nanotechnology for Research

It was 1959 when the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman suggested the immense possibilities afforded by miniaturization. Since then, the use of nanoparticles has increased significantly in several fields, among which diagnostics, biomedicine, environmental remediation, and water treatment, generating great expectations. 

Many advantages of nanomaterials depend on the fact that it is possible to personalize the structures to obtain specific properties. Using nanotechnology, materials can be made manageable, robust, and more enduring among many other peculiarities exploitable in a wide range of industrial sectors.  

Nanoscale additives in the surface treatment of fabrics can help them resist wrinkling, staining and microbial growth. But not only that, the so called “smart fabrics” acquired the capability for health monitoring, solar energy capture and energy harvesting through movements. Nanoscale films on eyeglasses, windows, displays can make them water-repellent, self-cleaning, anti fog, and antimicrobial.

In the transportation field, nano-bioengineering of enzymes enables the conversion of cellulose from wood chips, corn stalks and unfertilized perennial grasses into ethanol or fuel. In automotive, nano-engineered materials are used in high-power rechargeable battery systems. 

In addition, nanostructured ceramic coatings allow for improved toughness than conventional coatings.

The combination of nanotechnologies and medicine radically increased the possibilities in both life sciences and healthcare providing, day by day, new and surprising solutions. Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles, for example, have been used, since a long time, to increase the performance of sunscreens. In this scenario, AcZon’s fluorescent silica nanoparticles are considered a dramatically versatile tool which allows a multitude of applications. Thanks to the possibility to synthesize various kinds of nanoparticles and the ability to control their size, to modify surface characteristics and to conjugate them to different biological entities as antibodies, oligonucleotides and drugs (just to name a few) this tool will dramatically revolutionize the biomedical field.

NanoChromes and NanoTandems for immunofluorescence, NanoLisa & NanoLisa-F for colorimetric detection using enzymatic reaction or fluorescence detection, NanoRad for imaging and NanoCarrier for future applications in therapy are just examples of the possible declinations of the technology internally developed in AcZon.

• Feynman, R. There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom. Engineering and Science, 23, 22-36. 1960
• Malik S, Muhammad K, Waheed Y. Emerging Applications of Nanotechnology in Healthcare and Medicine. Molecules. 2023 Sep 14;28(18):6624