Namdiatream - July 2010 - July 2014

NAMDIATREAM will develop a cutting edge nanotechnology-based toolkit for multi-modal detection of biomarkers of most common cancer types and cancer metastases, permitting identification of cells indicative of early disease onset in a high-specificity and throughput format in clinical, laboratory and point-of-care devices.

The project is built on the innovative concepts of super-sensitive and highly specific "lab-on-a-bead", "lab-on-a-chip" and "lab-on-a-wire" nano-devices utilizing photoluminescent, plasmonic, magnetic and non-linear optical properties of nanomaterials. This offers groundbreaking advantages over present technologies in terms of stability, sensitivity, time of analysis, probe multiplexing, assay miniaturisation and reproducibility. The ETP in Nanomedicine documents point out that nanotechnology has yet to deliver practical solutions for patients and clinicians in their struggle against common, socially and economically important diseases such as cancer. Over 3.2M new cases and 1.7M cancer-related deaths are registered in Europe every year, largely because diagnostic methods have insufficient levels of sensitivity, limiting their potential for early disease identification.