News from the NNI Community - Research Advances Funded by Agencies Participating in the NNI

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Columbia University, and Bar-Ilan University in Israel have developed a platform for making 3-D superconducting nano-architectures with a prescribed organization. This platform is based on the self-assembly of DNA into desired 3-D shapes so that the DNA can serve as a scaffold for building 3-D architectures that can be fully “converted” into inorganic materials, such as superconductors.

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Columbia University, and Bar-Ilan University in Israel have developed a platform for making 3-D superconducting nano-architectures with a prescribed organization. This platform is based on the self-assembly of DNA into desired 3-D shapes so that the DNA can serve as a scaffold for building 3-D architectures that can be fully “converted” into inorganic materials, such as superconductors.

Researchers from the University of Michigan have reported a new synthetic protein nanoparticle capable of slipping past the nearly impermeable blood-brain barrier that could deliver cancer-killing drugs directly to malignant brain tumors. The discovery, demonstrated in mice, could enable new clinical therapies for treating glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer in adults.

Researchers from the University of Michigan have reported a new synthetic protein nanoparticle capable of slipping past the nearly impermeable blood-brain barrier that could deliver cancer-killing drugs directly to malignant brain tumors. The discovery, demonstrated in mice, could enable new clinical therapies for treating glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer in adults.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have developed a new nanoparticle drug formulation that targets a specific receptor on cancer cells and appears to be more effective than a standard nanoparticle therapy currently on the market to treat metastatic breast cancer. The study found that the new nanoparticles bypass healthy cells and tissues and bind to tumor cells, dispersing evenly throughout the tumor while releasing the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel.

Researchers at Rice University have developed a new cost-effective technology for desalinating industrial-strength brine by using a thin coating of the 2D nanomaterial hexagonal boron nitride. Boron nitride’s combination of chemical resistance and thermal conductivity facilitated a system that produced a flux of more than 42 kilograms of water per square meter of membrane per hour — more than 10 times greater than ambient solar membrane distillation technologies — at an energy efficiency much higher than existing membrane distillation technologies.

Researchers at Rice University have developed a new cost-effective technology for desalinating industrial-strength brine by using a thin coating of the 2D nanomaterial hexagonal boron nitride. Boron nitride’s combination of chemical resistance and thermal conductivity facilitated a system that produced a flux of more than 42 kilograms of water per square meter of membrane per hour — more than 10 times greater than ambient solar membrane distillation technologies — at an energy efficiency much higher than existing membrane distillation technologies.

Researchers at the University of Washington have designed the first end-to-end molecular tagging system that enables rapid, on-demand encoding and decoding at scale. Instead of radio waves or printed lines, the tagging scheme relies on a set of distinct DNA strands called molecular bits, or “molbits” for short, that incorporate highly separable nanopore signals to ease later readout. The molbits are extremely tiny, making them ideal for tracking small items or flexible surfaces that aren’t suited to conventional tagging methods.

Researchers at the University of Washington have designed the first end-to-end molecular tagging system that enables rapid, on-demand encoding and decoding at scale. Instead of radio waves or printed lines, the tagging scheme relies on a set of distinct DNA strands called molecular bits, or “molbits” for short, that incorporate highly separable nanopore signals to ease later readout. The molbits are extremely tiny, making them ideal for tracking small items or flexible surfaces that aren’t suited to conventional tagging methods.

Penn State researchers have reported advancing the development of “smart glass,” or glass equipped with automatic sensing properties. The Penn State team integrated atomically thin molybdenum disulfide in photosensors with durable materials such as those currently used in smartphone screens. This technology could be applied in biomedical imaging, security surveillance, environmental sensing, optical communication, night vision, motion detection, and collision avoidance systems for autonomous vehicles and robots.