Lithographically defined encoded magnetic heterostructures for the targeted screening of kidney cancer.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the 7th commonest cancer in the UK and the most lethal urological malignancy; 50% of all RCC patients will die from the condition. However, if identified early enough, small RCCs are usually cured by surgery or percutaneous procedures, with 95% 10 year survival. This study describes a newly developed non-invasive urine-based assay for the early detection of RCC.

Early detection of kidney cancer using urinary proteins: a truly non-invasive strategy.

Objectives: To review urinary protein biomarkers as potential non-invasive, easily obtainable, early diagnostic tools in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Methods: A PubMed database search was performed up to the year 2020 to identify primary studies reporting potential urinary protein biomarkers for RCC. Separate searches were conducted to identify studies describing appropriate methods of developing cancer screening programmes and detection of cancer biomarkers.

Controlling All-Optical Helicity-Dependent Switching in Engineered Rare-Earth Free Synthetic Ferrimagnets.

All-optical helicity-dependent switching in ferromagnetic layers has revealed an unprecedented route to manipulate magnetic configurations by circularly polarized femtosecond laser pulses. In this work, rare-earth free synthetic ferrimagnetic heterostructures made from two antiferromagnetically exchange coupled ferromagnetic layers are studied. Experimental results, supported by numerical simulations, show that the designed structures enable all-optical switching which is controlled, not only by light helicity, but also by the relative Curie temperature of each ferromagnetic layer.

Magnetic particles with perpendicular anisotropy for mechanical cancer cell destruction.

We demonstrate the effectiveness of out-of-plane magnetized magnetic microdiscs for cancer treatment through mechanical cell disruption under an applied rotating magnetic field. The magnetic particles are synthetic antiferromagnets formed from a repeated motif of ultrathin CoFeB/Pt layers. In-vitro studies on glioma cells are used to compare the efficiency of the CoFeB/Pt microdiscs with Py vortex microdiscs.

Controlled Payload Release by Magnetic Field Triggered Neural Stem Cell Destruction for Malignant Glioma Treatment.

Stem cells have recently garnered attention as drug and particle carriers to sites of tumors, due to their natural ability to track to the site of interest. Specifically, neural stem cells (NSCs) have demonstrated to be a promising candidate for delivering therapeutics to malignant glioma, a primary brain tumor that is not curable by current treatments, and inevitably fatal. In this article, we demonstrate that NSCs are able to internalize 2 μm magnetic discs (SD), without affecting the health of the cells.

Rotating magnetic field induced oscillation of magnetic particles for in vivo mechanical destruction of malignant glioma.

Magnetic particles that can be precisely controlled under a magnetic field and transduce energy from the applied field open the way for innovative cancer treatment. Although these particles represent an area of active development for drug delivery and magnetic hyperthermia, the in vivo anti-tumor effect under a low-frequency magnetic field using magnetic particles has not yet been demonstrated. To-date, induced cancer cell death via the oscillation of nanoparticles under a low-frequency magnetic field has only been observed in vitro.

Flexible, low-voltage, and low-hysteresis PbSe nanowire field-effect transistors.

We report low-hysteresis, ambipolar bottom gold contact, colloidal PbSe nanowire (NW) field-effect transistors (FETs) by chemically modifying the silicon dioxide (SiO(2)) gate dielectric surface to overcome carrier trapping at the NW-gate dielectric interface. While water bound to silanol groups at the SiO(2) surface are believed to give rise to hysteresis in FETs of a wide range of nanoscale materials, we show that dehydration and silanization are insufficient in reducing PbSe NW FET hysteresis. Encapsulating PbSe NW FETs in cured poly(methyl) methacrylate (PMMA), dehydrates and uniquely passivates the SiO(2) surface, to form low-hysteresis FETs.

Ambipolar and unipolar PbSe nanowire field-effect transistors.

Wet-chemical methods, under rigorous air-free conditions, were used to synthesize single-crystalline 10 nm diameter PbSe nanowires (NWs), and electric-field, directed assembly was employed to align NW arrays to form the semiconducting channels of field-effect transistors (FETs). Electrical measurements revealed as-aligned NWs in bottom, gold, contact FETs are predominantly p-type ambipolar, consistent with the presentation of small barriers to electron and hole injection for this low band gap semiconductor. Exposing the NW FET to UV-ozone p-doped the NWs, illustrating the sensitivity of PbSe to oxygen, but controlled oxidation allowed the fabrication of unipolar p-type FETs.