(Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. National science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health)
In 2023, researchers at Caltech developed a smart bandage that can provide real-time data about chronic wounds and accelerate the healing process by applying medication or electrical fields to stimulate tissue growth. Now, the researchers have shown that an improved version of their bandage can continually sample fluid, which the body sends to wound sites as part of the inflammatory response. The bandage is composed of a flexible, biocompatible polymer strip that integrates a nanoengineered biomarker sensor array, which is disposable for hygiene and single-use applications. The system also includes a reusable printed circuit board that handles signal processing and wireless data transmission to a user interface, such as a smartphone.

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found a way to create a metamaterial that is both strong and stretchy. (A metamaterial is a synthetic material with microscopic structures that give it exceptional properties.) The key to the new material’s dual properties is a combination of stiff microscopic struts and a softer woven architecture. The researchers printed samples of the new metamaterial, each measuring in size from several square microns to several square millimeters. They put the material through a series of stress tests, in which they attached either end of the sample to a specialized nanomechanical press and measured the force it took to pull the material apart. They found their new material was able to stretch three times its own length. The researchers say the new design can be applied to other materials and create stretchy ceramics, glass, and metals. This work was performed, in part, through the use of MIT.nano’s facilities.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Hydrogen fuel cells rely on proton exchange membranes to conduct protons while preventing the unwanted crossover of hydrogen molecules. Thinner membranes can improve performance but also allow more hydrogen molecules to leak through, reducing overall efficiency. So, researchers from Vanderbilt University, along with international collaborators, have developed a way to improve fuel cell efficiency without reducing its performance. By incorporating a monolayer of graphene – an ultra-thin material just one atom thick – into proton exchange membranes, the team significantly reduced hydrogen crossover by more than 50% while maintaining high proton conductivity. Part of the research work was performed at the Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers have long recognized that quantum communication systems would transmit quantum information better and be unaffected by certain forms of error if nonlinear optical processes were used. But past efforts at using such processes could not operate with the very low light levels required for quantum communication. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have improved the technology by basing the nonlinear process on an indium-gallium-phosphide nanophotonic platform. The result requires much less light and operates all the way down to single photons, the smallest units of light.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University, and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago have created DNA origami structures – which are made by folding DNA into nanoscale scaffolds – that can selectively deliver fluorescent imaging agents to pancreatic cancer cells without affecting normal cells. The team experimented with different sizes of tube- and tile-shaped DNA origami structures. They found that tube-shaped structures about 70 nanometers in length and 30 nanometers in diameter, as well as ones that are about 6 nanometers in length and 30 nanometers in diameter, experienced the greatest uptake by the pancreatic cancer tissue while not being absorbed by the surrounding, noncancerous tissue. Larger tube-shaped structures and all sizes of tile-shaped structures did not perform as well.