Griffith University (Australia) researchers have developed a new way to detect cancer biomarkers which could help diagnose early-stage disease. Led by Associate Professor Muhammad Shiddiky from the Queensland Micro and Nanotechnology Centre and Professor Bernd Rehm, Director of the Centre for Cell Factories and Biopolymers at the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, the research team designed an inexpensive and sensitive way of detecting ovarian cancer and other cancers using a new class of superparamagnetic nanomaterials. The researchers bioengineered cell factories to assemble nanobeads with magnetic properties that bind to specific target antibodies. Then the magnetized nanobeads were added to ovarian cancer cells to capture methylated DNA and exosomes (subcellular vesicles) to detect cancer.