Background

Nanoparticles

What are nanoparticles?

Nanoparticles are tiny particles with diameters ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers, making them roughly 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. These minuscule entities come in various shapes and can be crafted from a wide array of materials.

In recent times, nanoparticles containing metallic elements, particularly Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (IONPs), have gained significant prominence. IONPs are lauded for their exceptional biological compatibility and inherent ferromagnetism.

This is why our program is dedicated to the study of IONPs, as they offer a diverse range of applications. For instance, in the realm of cancer therapy, IONPs can generate heat that selectively targets and eradicates tumor cells.

And how can you make them?

There are different ways of producing these nanoparticles

Chemical

Physical

Coorecipitation

but these production methods all have their downsides.

Inconsistent

Unadaptable

Toxic

Expensive

What can we do?

GFP expression level under different concentration of ferric ion treatment

Biosynthesitic Nanoparticles

Our genetically edited E. coli is used to synthesize Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (IONPs) by adding Fe³⁺ for induction.
After leaving the system in shaker for 1-2 days, we can seperate the IONPs from the culture by untrasonification and filtration method designed and tested by us own.

What is special about our nanoparticles?

They are not just any other nanoparticles! They have special abilities due to their properties. We then step into exploring therapeutic applications and drug delivery possibilities.

Interested?

Keep browsing for more information!

Breast Cancer

The Problem

Our Solution

Future promotion

breast cancer

breast cancer

One promising direction for future work is to optimize the design of plasmids to enable the expression terminal of antibodies to be located at the same site as the IONPs.This strategic modification would facilitate the self-assembly of antibodies and IONPs.

By further refining the coating composition, understanding the synthetic mechanism, and optimizing plasmid design, we are paving the way for improved efficiency, stability, and functionality of these nanoparticles. We are also trying to find new applications of nanoparticles in various fields, including targeted drug delivery, biomedical imaging, and therapeutics.

Engineering & Experiments :

vector

Vector Engineering

We focused on breast cancer and used a pGLO plasmid that had previously demonstrated protein expression with visible green-fluorescent protein (GFP). To target HER2, we replaced the original protein-coding gene with the anti-HER2 scFv coding gene. This modified gene includes a 6x His-tag for protein detection and purification.

GFP

Contribution

We designed a method for the separation of the Iron Oxide Nanoparticles by taking the advantage of ultrasonication and ultrafiltration. This method could relatively precisely separate the nanoparticles of desired size from the biological masses, resulting in a satisfying low polydispersity index, which is also an important factor to control for application. What is especially important is that the method designed by us is nicely suitable for preliminary test, as this method largely reduced the interference factors like salt ions and aggregation in the characterization like TEM and DLS.

cells

Experiment

Our experiments range from plasmid design, bacterial culture, to protein purification, chemistry to cell experiments. All of our experimental procedures and operations are documented in detail here.

detection

Results

1. We successfully synthesized the Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (IONPs) E. coli and the method used to separate IONPs are designed and tested by ourselves. 2. We successfully characterized the IONPs using TEM and DLS and found that using ok our method, the IONPs got by us were generally in superparamagnetic state and suitable for application need magnetic induction and won't let particles aggregrate.
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Human Practice & Team :

Interview & Survey

Human Practice

We have conducted extensive research, consulted experts, and implemented human practices to ensure the safety, efficiency, and accessibility of our proposed solution.

Activity & Communication

Human Practice

We have actively engaged with stakeholders, including patient advocacy groups, healthcare providers, and pharmaceutical companies, to gather insights and address concerns related to safety.

Westlake-China

Our Team

The Westlake-China consists of twelve ambitious undergraduates a with varied backgrounds ranging from expertise in biomedical engineering (modeling, programming chemical biology, synthetic biology, and organic chemistry) to experience with entrepreneurship, animation design, web authoring, and graphic design.