Advanced nano-scale 3D printing techniques are being used to develop new drugs for prostate cancer and other applications. Parabon NanoLabs in Reston, Virginia is conducting this groundbreaking research with support from the National Science Foundation and other grants.

Using a simple “drag-and-drop” computer interface and DNA self-assembly techniques, researchers have developed a new approach for drug development that could drastically reduce the time required to create and test medications.

“We can now ‘print,’ molecule by molecule, exactly the compound that we want,” says Steven Armentrout, the principal investigator on the NSF grants and co-developer of Parabon’s technology. “What differentiates our nanotechnology from others is our ability to rapidly, and precisely, specify the placement of every atom in a compound that we design.”

The new technology is called the Parabon Essemblix^™ Drug Development Platform, and it combines their computer-aided design (CAD) software called inSēquio^™ with nanoscale fabrication technology.

Scientists work within inSēquio^™ to design molecular pieces with specific, functional components. The software then optimizes the design using the Parabon Computation Grid, a cloud supercomputing platform that uses proprietary algorithms to search for sets of DNA sequences that can self-assemble those components.

Read the full brief at NSF.gov.

Medicine photo by epSos.de used under Creative Commons license.

A team from the Vienna University of Technology set a new world record this week: 3D printed nano objects in just 4 minutes. Their process, called two-photon lithography, uses a focused laser to harden liquid resin.

Applications? Consider how this process could be used to make micro objects for biomedical research and treatment.

Photo above is a human figure smaller than a grain of sand. Photo below is a detailed cathedral about 50 microns in length.

Read more and see additional photos at Reuters’ World in Nano.