(Funded by the National Institutes of Health)
Scientists from The Johns Hopkins University, the Mayo Clinic, and Tufts University have developed a potential new way to treat a variety of rare genetic diseases marked by too low levels of specific cellular proteins. To boost those proteins, the scientists created a genetic “tail” that attaches to messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules that churn out the proteins. To deliver these genetic tails, also called “mRNA boosters,” the scientists encased them in nanoparticles covered in lipids. The nanoparticles are naturally absorbed by cells through their fatty outer membranes. After the scientists administered the mRNA boosters to laboratory mice, each group of mice had 1.5 to two times more of the proteins specific to the mRNA boosters than control mice that did not receive the boosters.

(Funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
Researchers from the University of Connecticut will grow rod-shaped nanoparticles, called Janus base nanotubes, on the International Space Station. These nanotubes will carry interleukin-12, a protein produced naturally by the human body to stimulate the development of helper T-cells, immune cells known for killing pathogens and cancer cells. With cross sections of just 20 nanometers, the nanotubes can slip into the cracks and attack solid tumors from the inside and then release interleukin-12 inside a tumor. Manufacturing these nanotubes in space has many advantages. “Since our nanotubes are self-assembled, there is a lot of similarity to crystallization,” says Yupeng Chen, one of the researchers involved in this study. “Without gravity, there’s no sedimentation, the molecules can rotate and assemble freely, and make better structures.”

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Southern California have devised a method to create large amounts of a material that can be used to make two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors with record high performance. That material, tellurium, has a fast conducting speed and is stable in the air, so it does not easily degrade. The researchers used 2D tellurium to create an ultralight-weight photodetector – a device that can detect light – which is highly tunable, allowing its parameters to be changed so it can be used in a variety of applications, a property that is not true of other photodetectors.

(Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from the University of Rhode Island and Brown University have shown that carbon nanotubes could be combined with machine learning to detect subtle differences between closely related immune cells. The researchers used an in vitro experiment that involved placing live cells into a culture dish, adding carbon nanotubes, and then using a specialized microscope with an infrared camera to observe the emitted light from each cell. The camera generated millions of data points, each of which reflected cellular activity. Healthy cells emitted one type of light, while potentially unhealthy or changing cells emitted different light patterns.

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from Penn State, the University of North Texas, the University of Pennsylvania, Université Paris-Saclay in France, and the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, have shown that the light emitted from two-dimensional (2D) materials can be modulated by embedding a second 2D material, called a nanodot, inside them. The researchers showed that by controlling the nanodot size, they could change the color and frequency of the emitted light. The control came from adjusting the band gaps of the materials – essentially the energy threshold electrons must cross to make a material emit light.