University of Illinois researchers have recently announced a new medical breakthrough, when they have managed to create a nanoneedle, which is a device that is able to deliver molecules of vaccines, or other chemicals, straight through the cellular wall, either in the cytoplasm, or inside the very nucleus of the cell. The new instrument has the ability to penetrate the thick walls surrounding the cells, which is something that has not been regularly done before. As such, the nanoneedle could, in the future, also be used as an electrochemical probe, as well as an optical biosensor, on account of its versatility.

“Nanoneedle-based delivery is a powerful new tool for studying biological processes and biophysical properties at the molecular level inside living cells,” Mechanical Science and Engineering Professor Min-Feng Yu, who has also been the corresponding author of a new scientific paper detailing the find, explained. The research was accepted for publication in the prestigious journal Nano Letters, and has already been posted on the publication's website. Yu also works as a researcher at the Center for Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems.

“The nanoneedle provides a mechanism by which we can quantitatively examine biological processes occurring within a cell's nucleus or cytoplasm. By studying how individual proteins and molecules of DNA or RNA mobilize, we can better understand how the system functions as a whole,” one of the paper's co-authors, UI Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology Yang Xiang, added. The expert shared that the process he and his colleagues had developed could be fully controlled, monitored and recorded, a trait that had never before been achieved in other similar attempts.

“Combined with molecular targeting strategies using quantum dots and magnetic nanoparticles as molecular probes, the nanoneedle delivery method can potentially enable the simultaneous observation and manipulation of individual molecules,” UI Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering Ning Wang, who has been a co-author of the research as well, argued. “Nanoneedles can be used as electrochemical probes and as optical biosensors to study cellular environments, stimulate certain types of biological sequences, and examine the effect of nanoparticles on cellular physiology,” Yu concluded.