Almost invisible' tools are being developed by European researchers to discover diseases earlier and to treat patients better. The miniaturisation of instruments to micro and nano dimensions promises to make our future lives safer and cleaner. A team of European researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Technologies Institute near Saarbruecken is using nanotechnology to improve diagnostic capabilities. In the "Adonis"-project, nano-sized gold particles are used to detect prostate cancer cells at an early stage.