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NanoSight’s founder and CTO, Dr Bob Carr

Abstract:
Nanosight announces CTO Bob Carr to speak about Novel Biomarkers for Early Disease Detection and Treatment

Stop Press: Nanosight Shortlisted For Award In The Emerging & Nanotechnology Category

Salisbury, UK | Posted on November 11th, 2010

NanoSight, world-leading manufacturers of unique nanoparticle characterization technology announce their founder and CTO, Dr Bob Carr, will be speaking at the 2010 Technology World/NanoForum event at London's ExCeL centre on December 7th. This meeting annually showcases UK science & technology and this is the third year when NanoSight will give a mainstream presentation in the event which attracts more than 2,000 visitors from all around the world over the two day meeting. Dr Carr will discuss the potential of nanotechnology for early disease detection.

The condition pre-eclampsia in pregnant women remains a prominent cause of maternal and perinatal death. Pre-eclampsia is symptomless for most of its course and it is relentlessly progressive. No other complication of pregnancy is so common and so dangerous for both mother and baby.

Exosomes are 30nm - 100nm vesicles formed in blood as they shed from cells. Known to have key roles in intercellular communication, exosomes are promising biomarkers for early detection of pre-eclampsia. To date developments in this area have been constrained by limitations in the technology available for measurement of exosomes. Electron microscopy, western blotting, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and conventional flow cytometry all have weaknesses in detection and characterisation of exosomes.

Working with researchers at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals/University of Oxford, NanoSight has developed unique technology which can for the first time detect and phenotype exosomes.

Starting in 2005, NanoSight developed a method of laser illumination which enables detection and counting of populations of nanoparticles in real time and with little sample preparation. This method, Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA), simultaneously measures sizes of many particles on a particle-by-particle basis to give a uniquely detailed particle size distribution. Supported by a grant from The Wellcome Trust, the teams have combined fluorescent labeling with NTA to produce a capability to speciate these exosomes. This development effectively extends the power of flow cytometry downwards by one nearly one order of magnitude to the 50-600nm size range, and will perhaps provide early detection of a range of thrombosis-related disease.

To learn more about nanoparticle characterization using Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis, NTA, please visit the company website (www.nanosight.com) and register for the latest issue of NanoTrail, the company's electronic newsletter.

To register and listen to Bob Carr's talk at Technology World 2010, please visit www.technologyworld.uk.com/register-now/register.aspx

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About Nanosight
NanoSight Limited, of Salisbury, UK, provides unique nanoparticle characterization technology. “Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis” (NTA) detects and visualizes populations of nanoparticles in liquids down to 10nm (material dependent) and measures the size of each particle from direct observations of diffusion. This particle-by-particle methodology goes beyond traditional light scattering techniques such as Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), or Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (PCS), in providing high-resolution particle size distributions. Fluorescence options add a speciation capability. Additionally NanoSight measures concentration/titer and validates all data with video of particles moving under Brownian motion.

This characterization information is highly informative for the more complex suspensions in biological systems, hence its wide application in development of drug delivery systems, protein aggregation study, viral vaccines, the study of toxicology of nanoparticles and their environmental fate and in biomarker detection. This real-time data also provides insight into the kinetics of protein aggregation and other time-dependent phenomena in a quantitative manner, at deeply sub-micron sizes.

NanoSight has more than 250 systems installed worldwide with users including BASF, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, Roche, Solvay and Unilever together with many universities and research institutes. There are currently approaching 150 third party papers citing NanoSight results, having added 50 in the last 12 months, as NanoSight consolidates its key contribution to nanoparticle characterization. For more information, visit the NanoSight website (www.nanosight.com).

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T +44 (0) 1980 676060

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