Mar 19 2010
Nanogea, a nano-biotechnology company focused on commercializing the industry's most sensitive single molecular detection platform, is pleased to announce that its technology was featured in an article by Scientific American, a prominent science and technology magazine.
The article "Seeing the Little Picture: Novel Nanocoating Gives Atomic Force Microscope Users a Better Look at Individual Molecules," reports that Professor Ozgur Sahin, a Fellow at Harvard's Rowland Institute, has identified Nanogea's NanoCone-Enabled Atomic Force MicroscopeTM (NE-AFMTM) approach as a way to help researchers spot diseases in its earliest stages.
It is mentioned that Dr. Sahin's greatest bottleneck in his work has been the ability to handle molecules in such a way that does not produce false positives or negatives. He has used AFM machines to measure intermolecular forces but could not be sure whether what he was measuring came from a single molecule or a group of molecules. He felt that the "ability to handle these individual molecules was limited by [his] surface chemistry." Dr. Sahin now believes that the answer may lie with Nanogea's approach to molecular detection.
Also mentioned in the article is Dr. Saul Tendler, pro vice chancellor and professor of biophysical chemistry at the University of Nottingham's School of Pharmacy in England and member of Nanogea's scientific advisory board. Dr. Tendler explains in the article: "An AFM is like a record player. It has a sharp probe needle that interrogates a surface, taking either topography measurements or measuring the force of interactions between molecules… If you have a molecule on a substrate that recognizes a molecule on the probe, you get a molecular interaction. As you pull back you can measure the force of that interaction."
"We are honored that our technology is being examined and discussed by such prominent scientists," said David Sun, CEO of Nanogea. "Dr. Sahin is correct in his assessment that our approach increases precision and virtually eliminates the chance of false positives. I am confident that increasingly more scientists will fully appreciate the benefits of our technology, particularly in the area of molecular diagnostic and pharmaceutical research."