(Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that lipid nanoparticles can mediate more than 100-fold greater mRNA delivery to the placenta of pregnant mice with pre-eclampsia than a lipid nanoparticle formulation approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. These lipid nanoparticles can decrease high blood pressure and increase vasodilation in these pre-eclamptic pregnant mice.

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers at the University of Kentucky and the New York Blood Center in New York City have discovered that combining magnetic nanoparticles with ascorbic acid destroyed breast cancer cells, but only if the nanoparticles were added and went inside the cells first before the ascorbic acid was added. “This discovery underscores the significance of coordinating nanoparticles and ascorbic acid in cancer treatment,” said Sheng Tong, the scientist who led this study. The researchers also engineered a specific type of immune cell, called macrophages, to carry the nanoparticles to the tumor site. When loaded with magnetic nanoparticles, the macrophages can be guided to the tumor using an external magnetic field.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers at Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas at Arlington, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul have discovered a way to enhance the sensitivity of nanopores for early detection of diseases. They integrated octahedral DNA origami structures with solid-state nanopores to significantly improve the detection of proteins, especially those that are present in low concentrations. Nanopores are tiny holes that can detect individual molecules as they pass through. The researchers determined that combining the precision of DNA origami with the robustness of solid-state nanopores could create a “hybrid nanopore” system, enabling more precise analysis.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a platform for studying how nanoscale growing surfaces can impact cellular behavior. While previous studies have shown how surface structures can change cellular shape, little is known about their specific effects on cell metabolism. The research team found that cells grown on engineered nanopillar surfaces show dramatically different metabolic profiles than cells not grown on such surfaces. Also, the researchers found that growing cells on different engineered nanopillar surfaces could change how cells produce and modify lipids, the primary components of cell membranes.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation)
Researchers from the University of North Carolina Charlotte and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed an innovative computational framework for modeling multifunctional RNA nucleic acid nanoparticles. By integrating small and wide-angle x-ray scattering data with data-driven molecular dynamics simulations, the researchers developed a methodology for studying multistranded RNA nucleic acid nanoparticles in their solution-state environments. Small-angle x-ray scattering–Molecular Dynamics (SAXS–MD) guides simulations toward biologically meaningful conformations, addressing the limitations of traditional unconstrained molecular dynamics simulations.