(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers from Northwestern University, Duke University, and Cornell University have developed the first two-dimensional mechanically interlocked material. Looking like the interlocking links in chainmail, the nanoscale material exhibits exceptional flexibility and strength. With further work, this material holds promise for use in high-performance, light-weight body armor and other uses that demand lightweight, flexible, and tough materials. “We made a completely new polymer structure,” said William Dichtel, the study’s corresponding author. “It’s similar to chainmail in that it cannot easily rip because each of the mechanical bonds has a bit of freedom to slide around. If you pull it, it can dissipate the applied force in multiple directions. And if you want to rip it apart, you would have to break it in many, many different places.”

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, MI, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have discovered that a mouse protein, called STELLA, disrupts cancer-causing chemical changes to genes associated with human colorectal cancer cells. First, the researchers found the part of the protein, or peptide, that was required to activate tumor suppressor genes in human colorectal cancer cells. Then, they designed a lipid nanoparticle – an ultratiny drug delivery vehicle made of fatty molecules – to deliver the messenger RNA (mRNA) that codes for this peptide to cells. The therapy performed well in mice, activating tumor suppressor genes and impairing tumor growth. Next, the researchers plan to test this therapy on human patients through clinical trials.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania; the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, PA; Central South University in Changsha, China, have engineered small nano-sized capsules called extracellular vesicles from human cells to target a cell-surface receptor called DR5 (death receptor 5) that many tumor cells have. When activated, DR5 can trigger the death of these tumor cells by a self-destruct process called apoptosis. Researchers have been trying for more than 20 years to develop successful DR5-targeting cancer treatments. The new approach outperformed DR5-targeting antibodies, which have been considered a leading DR5-targeting strategy. The small extracellular vesicles efficiently killed multiple cancer cell types in lab-dish tests and blocked tumor growth in mouse models, enabling longer survival than DR5-targeting antibodies.

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health)
Researchers from Georgia Tech and the University of California Riverside have developed biosensors made of iron oxide nanoparticles and special molecules called cyclic peptides that recognize tumor cells better than current biosensors. The cyclic peptides respond only when they encounter two specific types of enzymes – one secreted by the immune system, the other by cancer cells. In animal studies, the biosensors distinguished between tumors that responded to a common cancer treatment that enhances the immune system from tumors that resisted treatment.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)
Most cancers occur when there is an imbalance of cellular growth and inhibition, causing cells to grow rapidly and form tumors in the body. In the case of prostate cancer, no therapies exist to simultaneously correct tumor growth and restore tumor suppression. To restore this balance, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which is part of Harvard Medical School, have used lipid nanoparticles to deliver messenger RNA (mRNA) and small interfering RNA (siRNA) to human prostate cancer cells. This approach was successful in preclinical models, holding promise for suppressing tumor growth in patients.