Monthly Archives: July 2017

As people are getting older, they have more sensitive skin, so there is a need to develop new products for skin treatment, said Dr Carla Silva, chief technology officer at the Centre for Nanotechnology and Smart Materials (CENTI) in Portugal.

This increased sensitivity can lead to painful bacterial infections such as dermatitis, otherwise known as eczema. Current treatments use silver-based or synthetic antibacterial elements, but these can create environmentally harmful waste and may have negative side effects.

To combat these bacterial infections in an eco-friendly way the EU-funded SKHINCAPS project is combining concentrated plant oil with nanotechnology.

Their solution puts these so-called essential oils into tiny capsules that are hundreds of times smaller than the width of a human hair. Each one is programmed to release its payload only in the presence of the bacteria that cause the skin infections.

As people are getting older, they have more sensitive skin, so there is a need to develop new products for skin treatment.

Dr Carla Silva, Centre for Nanotechnology and Smart Materials (CENTI), Portugal

This means that each capsule is in direct contact with the affected skin as soon as an infection occurs, increasing the effectiveness of the treatment.

According to Dr Silva, who is also project coordinator of SKHINCAPS, the nano-capsules are attached to the clothing material using covalent bonding, the strongest chemical bond found in nature. This ensures the capsules survive the washing machine and that they are invisible to whoever is wearing them.

This nanotechnology has a lifespan equal to that of the garment, though the active ingredients contained in the nano-capsules will run out earlier depending on the extent of the skin infection, and thereby on how much of the treatment is released when the clothing is worn.

The nano-capsules will prove invaluable for chronic eczema sufferers and those with high levels of stress, as well as the elderly and diabetics, who are particularly vulnerable to developing such infections.

And its not just essential oils that could be held in the capsules.

The project is also demonstrating the use of nano-capsules loaded with paraffin, a waxy solid with the ability to absorb and release energy, in thermal clothing. The melting or crystallisation point of paraffin is around the temperature of human skin, meaning that the capsules can keep users cool by absorbing energy as the paraffin melts, or warm them up by releasing energy when it crystallises again.

This could not only improve the day-to-day comfort of those less able to control their body temperatures, such as young children, but also help sportspeople to control their temperature better while exercising.

SKHINCAPS is also adding nano-capsules loaded with vitamins and antioxidants to create anti-ageing cosmetics. The shell of this type of nano-capsule will protect their contents from decay due to sunlight exposure or change in temperature, releasing the anti-ageing ingredients only when they come into contact with skin at the right temperature and pH, maximising their effectiveness.

Cosmetics

Another EU-funded project developing nano-cosmetics is PEPTICAPS. They are putting vitamins, such as A, B, C and D, as well as antioxidants, inside nano-capsules to repair skin damage caused by chemical or sun exposure.

Dr Damien Dupin, the head of the biomaterials unit at IK4-CIDETEC, a research centre in Spain, is the project coordinator of PEPTICAPS, and highlights the importance of protecting ourselves in the chemical-rich world we live in.

In everything we are touching now there are chemical products, he said. For example, latex gloves fifty years ago no one used them, now everyone does and some people get redness and itching.

PEPTICAPS nano-capsules are filled with a special cocktail of vitamins that can protect or repair skin when exposed to harmful chemicals, but they dont release them until the conditions outside the capsule require them to do so.

This occurs when there is a change in pH and/or the release of an enzyme when skin irritation occurs. They could be used in creams, lotions and facial masks to help healthy skin recover after chemical or sunlight damage.

The project has been testing the nano-capsules on a laboratory-grown epidermis, an important layer of the skin, made from human skin cells donated by patients after cosmetic surgery. One advantage of this approach is that the skin layer can be irritated in the same way as real skin, providing realistic and validated results, without using animal testing.

The team have been able to show that their treatment is more efficient and penetrates deeper into the epidermis than products currently available in shops. The PEPTICAPSproject expects the first cosmetic products to contain the nano-capsules to be available by 2019, in time to make SKHINCAPS a possible competitor.

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Nano-capsules in cosmetics can help prevent long-term bacterial infection and help us look younger for longer, but something called nano-matrices may even help heal skin.

The EU-funded MOZART project aims to use a gel containing nano-matrices to deliver and release treatments only to an affected area. They will be laced with wound-healing drugs andspecial types ofcharged atoms called therapeutic ions that work together in a similar way to antibiotics to reduce the chances of developing antibiotic-resistant infections.

Its project coordinator, Professor Chiara Vitale Brovarone at the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, said: We hope that MOZART nano-matrices will offer a significant reduction in the number of non-healing patients.

Much of the work carried out by the project so far has focussed on the development of a wide platform of nano-matrices and on fine-tuning how and when they dissolve to provide the best possible targeted treatment. The MOZART consortium is aiming for a commercially viable product by 2023.

Nanotechnology is increasingly being used in products all around us, from cosmetics and building materials to electronics and toothpaste.

Across Europe, hundreds of institutions are working together to look at how to monitor exposure, manage the risks and advise on what regulations may be needed under the EUs NanoSafety Cluster.

EU funding aims to further the development of safe nanotechnologieswithin aEUR 1.8 billionfund for 2018-2020, which will also support next-generation materials as well as biotechnology and newmanufacturing processes.

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Clothes intertwined with nanotech will treat eczema | Horizon: the ... - Horizon magazine

The European Commission has approved an international collaborative grant, expected to be in excess of 12million, to Scientists at Swansea University Medical School who will lead the development of tests to prevent the use of animals when assessing safety concerns surrounding nanotechnology a field with potential to enhance crucial aspects of our lives pending proper investigation into associated risks.

Awarded as part of the Horizon2020 scheme, the project, Physiologically Anchored Tools for Realistic nanOmateriaL hazard aSsessment (PATROLS), involves a total of 26 partners spread across 14 countries through Europe and across the globe including Canada, Japan, Korea and the US.

Project lead Shareen Doak, Professor of Genotoxicology & Cancer at the Swansea University Medical School explained: Nanotechnology promises significant scientific, economic and societal benefits, but commercialisation and growth are threatened by safety uncertainties. Several problems currently exist in the field of nanosafety testing: standard non-animal tests are unreliable for nanomaterials, so there is a greater emphasis on evaluating their safety in animals. However animal tests are also unsuitable as they are expensive, time-consuming, and are associated with substantial moral concerns. Additionally, these tests do not predict the consequences of long term exposure on both human health and the environment.

PATROLS will address these limitations by providing state-of-the-art 3D culture models of the human lung, gastrointestinal tract and liver. The project will also deliver advanced testing methods for environmental safety testing and robust computational models that will allow us to more accurately predict human health and environmental safety based on data generated in cell culture, removing the need to test on animals. Exposure under realistic conditions (low concentrations over extended periods of time) will be applied to human cell culture to understand the true risk associated with nanomaterials in consumer products.

The PATROLS project is scheduled to commence in autumn 2017 and will run for 3.5 years.

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International Project Aims to Bring Nanotech Potential Closer - Labmate Online

Nanotech Security Corp (NTS.V) shares are moving today onvolatility1.57% or 0.02 from the open.TheTSXV listed companysaw a recent bid of 1.29 and21900shares have traded hands in the session.

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Nanotech Security Corp (NTS.V) currently has a 14-day Commodity Channel Index (CCI) of 172.84. Active investors may choose to use this technical indicator as a stock evaluation tool. Used as a coincident indicator, the CCI reading above +100 would reflect strong price action which may signal an uptrend. On the flip side, a reading below -100 may signal a downtrend reflecting weak price action. Using the CCI as a leading indicator, technical analysts may use a +100 reading as an overbought signal and a -100 reading as an oversold indicator, suggesting a trend reversal.

The RSI, or Relative Strength Index, is a widely used technical momentum indicator that compares price movement over time. The RSI was created by J. Welles Wilder who was striving to measure whether or not a stock was overbought or oversold. The RSI may be useful for spotting abnormal price activity and volatility. The RSI oscillates on a scale from 0 to 100. The normal reading of a stock will fall in the range of 30 to 70. A reading over 70 would indicate that the stock is overbought, and possibly overvalued. A reading under 30 may indicate that the stock is oversold, and possibly undervalued. After a recent check, Nanotech Security Corps 14-day RSI is currently at 54.43, the 7-day stands at 60.63, and the 3-day is sitting at 71.45.

Currently, the 14-day ADX for Nanotech Security Corp (NTS.V) is sitting at 9.61. Generally speaking, an ADX value from 0-25 would indicate an absent or weak trend. A value of 25-50 would support a strong trend. A value of 50-75 would identify a very strong trend, and a value of 75-100 would lead to an extremely strong trend. ADX is used to gauge trend strength but not trend direction. Traders often add the Plus Directional Indicator (+DI) and Minus Directional Indicator (-DI) to identify the direction of a trend.

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Nanotech Security Corp (NTS.V) Seeing Increased Action in Session - Stock Rover