In May 2009 researchers at The Centre for Investigative and Diagnostic Oncology began working on a grant awarded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to carry out research focusing on applying nanotechnology to healthcare.  The proposal for this research is to use gold nanoparticles to enhance a new approach to imaging called Multi-frequency Electrical Impedance Tomography (MfEIT).

Nanoscience:

The term “nano” comes from the Greek word meaning small. So, nanoscience simply refers to the science of the very small. Anything with a dimension between 1 and 100nm can be referred to as “nano”. One nanometre (1nm) is 0.000000001 of a metre! The average human hair at one tenth of a millimetre is 100,000 times greater than this, which gives you an idea just how small the nanoscale is.

Recent research into how things behave on such a small scale has shown us that the laws of physics and the properties of a material don’t necessarily remain the same on the nanoscale. It is these changes that raise new possibilities for medicine and technology and are the focus of ongoing research.

More Information:

For more information about some of the key components of the research being carried out on this nanoscience grant at Middlesex University please go to the Research Topics section of this website.