Glossary of useful terms

Cervical cancer: Cervical cancer is malignant cancer of the cervix uteri or cervical area. It may present with vaginal bleeding but symptoms may be absent until the cancer is in its advanced stages. Treatment consists of surgery (including local excision) in early stages and chemotherapy and radiotherapy in advanced stages of the disease.

Condyloma: Condyloma is also known as: wart, genital wart, venereal wart, and all are caused by the Human Papillomavirus. A Condyloma represents a growth resembling a wart on the skin or a mucous membrane, usually of the genitals or anus.

DNA: Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses (like HPV). The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information.

EU: European Union funding European Projects like NANO-MUBIOP.

FP7: The Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development is the European Union´s chief instrument for funding research over the period 2007 to 2013. CORDIS is the official portal for participating in FP7 and following related developments in European science and technology.

Genotype: The genotype is the genetic constitution of a cell, an organism, or an individual (i.e. the specific allele makeup of the individual) usually with reference to a specific character under consideration. In our context, within the project, we use the term genotype when we talk about a specific HPV type (16, 18, 6, etc.). In fact, over 100 different HPV types have been identified and are referred to by number. Some of them are "high-risk" sexually transmitted HPVs and may lead to the development of cervical cancer.

HPV: Human Papillomavirus responsible for cervix cancer or gene mutations and consequent hereditary diseases.

Nanoparticle: particle made of different material (silica, latex, gold, etc.) and sized between 1 and 100 nanometers.

Probes (oligonucleotide): fragment of DNA or RNA of variable length (usually 15-1000 bases long), which is used to detect in DNA or RNA samples the presence of nucleotide sequences (the DNA target) that are complementary to the sequence in the probe. The probe thereby hybridizes to single-stranded nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) whose base sequence allows probe-target base pairing due to complementarity between the probe and target.

SME: Small Medium Enterprises are companies whose headcount or turnover falls below certain limits.