A molecular model of the artificial antibody system.

On a hill overlooking the University of California campus in Berkeley, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory innovates in nearly every aspect of biomedical science—as this piece describes, in using nanotechnology to fabricate artificial antibodies.  “The system starts with a nanosheet made up of molecules called peptoids. This is then coated in loops of other peptoids, which the team calls “loopoids.” The nanosheet provides the supporting structure, while the loopoids are the active parts, latching onto molecules that may be present in different pathogens. All of these loopoids can be tweaked into different shapes, to test how well they may attract these pathogen molecules. The team can then expose the system to a variety of molecules and check which ones stick. If they do, the structure of that loopoid provides a good starting point for an artificial antibody for that pathogen.”  MORE

Image Credit:   University of California, Berkeley