A Telomerase-Activated MRI Probe to Monitor Tumor Growth In Vivo

Telomerase has long been considered as a biomarker for cancer diagnosis and a therapeutic target for drug discovery. Detecting telomerase activity in vivo could provide more direct information of tumor progression and response to drug treatment, which, however, is hampered by the lack of an effective probe that can generate an output signal without a tissue penetration depth limit. In this study, using the principle of distance-dependent magnetic resonance tuning, we constructed a telomerase-activated magnetic resonance imaging probe (TAMP) by connecting superparamagnetic ferroferric oxide nanoparticles (SPFONs) and paramagnetic Gd-DOTA (Gd(III) 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid) complexes via telomerase-responsive DNA motifs. Upon telomerase-catalyzed extension of the primer in TAMP, Gd-DOTA-conjugated oligonucleotides can be liberated from the surface of SPFONs through a DNA strand displacement reaction, restoring the T₁ signal of the Gd-DOTA for a direct readout of the telomerase activity. Here we show that, by tracking telomerase activity, this probe provides consistent monitoring of tumor growth kinetics during progression and in response to drug treatment and enables in situ screening of telomerase inhibitors in whole-animal models. This study provides an alternative toolkit for cancer diagnosis, treatment response assessment, and anticancer drug screening.

A New Award in the Ferrofluid Community

For ICMF, the International Conference of Magnetic Fluids, in Granada on June 12-16, 2023, there was a new award created which will be handed out this year for the first time - the Rosensweig Medal. If you know of colleagues whose scientific life's work has had a formative character for the ferrofluid community, both in direct scientific respect and through efforts to specifically advance research in certain countries or through special efforts for the expansion, organization and further development of the international community, then please email by the end of February Prof. Stefan Odenbach, Stefan.Odenbach@tu-dresden.de, with your suggestion.

What he needs is a proposal for appropriate award winners. In addition to the name of the nominee and his/her contact information, the proposals should include a maximum one-page justification of the nomination. This justification should outline the particular scientific merits of the nominee as well as his or her contributions to the community at large. Proposals can be submitted in simple text form as a PDF file. For reasons of data security, please refrain from sending text files, WORD files, etc.

When deciding whether to make a suggestion, do not rely on the fact that others will already do it. On the one hand, you never know whether others have the same idea and thus a proposal is omitted in the end, and on the other hand, the information on how often a person has been proposed is also an important indication for the commission of the special merits that is to be honored.

Cleaning Up Toxic Metal Pollution

One of the C&EN - the Chemical & Engineering News "Talented 12" for 2022 is Adeyemi Adeleye who develops iron-sulfur nanoparticles for remediating soils contaminated with toxic arsenic. He’s working to mitigate the toxicity of the nanoparticles themselves and studying how well they can immobilize arsenic and protect crops like lettuce and animals like earthworms.

Iron nanoparticles show promise for immobilizing arsenic in the lab—they have a high surface area and readily reduce and immobilize the metalloid—but these particles can be toxic to living creatures. “We’ve had a lot of scientific and technological breakthroughs that later on we figured out, oops, this was a bad idea,” Adeleye says. His recent work shows that nanoparticles made up of a mix of iron and sulfur are nearly as effective at immobilizing arsenic as those made from elemental iron while being less toxic to earthworms.

The next question, Adeleye says, is, “Hey, can we actually reuse that soil for growing things?” For example, he wonders if these nanoparticles could be used in urban gardens where city dwellers grow food. Adeleye and green-thumbed collaborators are studying how lettuce, which tends to take up toxic metals and arsenic, grows in contaminated soil treated with the nanoparticles. They’re still analyzing the results, but Adeleye’s nanotechnological soil treatment seems to have a protective effect. Lettuce grown in arsenic-contaminated soil is stunted, but lettuce grown in contaminated soil mixed with the nanoparticles grows more normally. Whether the lettuce is safe to eat will require further study.

Reflow Transfer for Conformal Three-Dimensional Microprinting

Gary Zabow from NIST, who has a lot of experience with magnetism, just published a very interesting technique to micropattern all kinds of surfaces. With gentle water-based processing, reflow transfer can be applied to a range of materials, with microprinting demonstrated onto metal, plastic, paper, glass, polystyrene, semiconductor, elastomer, hydrogel, and multiple biological surfaces. In this way, many different materials, for example gold, but also magnetic materials such as nickel disks can be placed very precisely onto highly bent structures. As the proof that materials can be made magnetic and then react to a magnetic field, Gary shows in a supplementary video that a milkweed floss fiber reacts to a magnetic field. 

The overall technique is explained in the top picture, while the result can for example be the word "NIST" written on a human hair, shown to the right.

Check out what else can be done with this technique in the just published article "Zabow G, Science 378, 894–898 (2022)".

Special JMMM Issue Available after the 2022 Meeting of Scientific and Clinical Applications of Magnetic Carriers

The special JMMM issue after the 2022 meeting is now available, check it out here:
   https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-magnetism-and-magnetic-materials/special-issue/10CRH1HLML1

Seventeen original articles are now available at this link. Get a coffee and some cake, and look through these interesting articles, they are well worth it!

The editors for this special issue were Silvio Dutz, Lucia Gutierrez and Maciej Zborowski. Thank you very much for doing this!

Surgical Procedures to Lengthen Your Legs Use Magnetic Force for Extension

As we find all magnetic procedures interesting, here is a new method for the leg lengthening of people. A 25 to 30 cm long rod between half and one centimeter is implanted surgically into the center of the long leg bones. Every day after that, the rod which contains some internal gears is lengthened by about 1 mm per day and thus stretches the leg by the same distance. The mechanical movement by these gears is induced by an external magnetic field. The body seems to fill in the stretched distance by physiological bone and other tissues. Have a look at some of the details, unfortunately described not in the most scientific way:

https://www.businessinsider.com/limb-leg-lengthening-surgeon-la-how-it-works-patients-2022-11

Sirine El Mousli and Melody Perret Won A Photo Competition

Sirine El Mousli and Mélody Perret from the PHENIX lab at the Sorbonne University won a the LaboPhoto competition of the French Chemistry Society with their beautiful ferrofluid picture. The title of the picture is "Fighting Cancer With Ferrofluids". Congratulations to both authors for this achievement!

Magnetic Carrier Meeting 2022 in London, England

13^th International Conference on the Scientific and Clinical Applications of Magnetic Carriers

Magnetic Carrier Meeting 2022

from June 14-17, 2022

After skipping the 2020 meeting due to COVID-19, the 13th International Conference on the Scientific and Clinical Applications of Magnetic Carriers in London at the University College London (UCL) from June 14-17, 2022 was a great success. Exactly 209 experts and novices in the world of magnetic particles and their applications took part in this 4-day conference. The organization with the help of Prof. Nguyen Thanh's local team was flawless, the food was good, and reception and poster sessions were very animated. Thank you all for being with us at this wonderful meeting!

For more details about the 2022 meeting, go to the main meeting website.