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

An international team of researchers has printed sensors directly on human skin without the use of heat. The researchers had previously developed flexible printed circuit boards for use in wearable sensors, but printing directly on skin has been hindered by the bonding process for the metallic components in the sensor. Called sintering, this process typically requires temperatures of around 572 degrees Fahrenheit (300 degrees Celsius) to bond the sensor's silver nanoparticles together. But in the presence of a novel layer (made of polyvinyl alcohol paste and calcium carbonate) and by changing the printing material, the nanoparticles can now bond at room temperature, so the sensor can be printed directly on skin.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are in the early stages of a massive undertaking to design and build a fleet of tiny ultra-sensitive thermometers. If they succeed, their system will be the first to make real-time measurements of temperature on the microscopic scale in an opaque 3D volume — which could include medical implants, refrigerators, and even the human body. The project will work by using nanometer-sized objects whose magnetic signals change with temperature.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are in the early stages of a massive undertaking to design and build a fleet of tiny ultra-sensitive thermometers. If they succeed, their system will be the first to make real-time measurements of temperature on the microscopic scale in an opaque 3D volume — which could include medical implants, refrigerators, and even the human body. The project will work by using nanometer-sized objects whose magnetic signals change with temperature.

A team of researchers at Columbia University and the University of Washington has discovered that a variety of exotic electronic states, including a rare form of magnetism, can arise in a three-layer graphene structure. The work was inspired by recent studies of twisted monolayers or twisted bilayers of graphene, comprising either two or four total sheets. These materials were found to host an array of unusual electronic states driven by strong interactions between electrons.

A team of researchers at Columbia University and the University of Washington has discovered that a variety of exotic electronic states, including a rare form of magnetism, can arise in a three-layer graphene structure. The work was inspired by recent studies of twisted monolayers or twisted bilayers of graphene, comprising either two or four total sheets. These materials were found to host an array of unusual electronic states driven by strong interactions between electrons.

Researchers from the University of Delaware and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute in Newark have created new drug-delivery systems with the potential to improve treatment for diseases that affect connective tissues, such as osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. The researchers devised cargo-carrying nanoparticles and are working to program these nanoparticles to selectively bind to degrading collagen in the body. When collagen degrades, as a result of disease or injury, the nanoparticles attach and remain at the injury site longer than many current treatment options. This allows for the possibility of delivering site-specific medicines over longer periods of time – from days to weeks.

Researchers from the University of Delaware and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute in Newark have created new drug-delivery systems with the potential to improve treatment for diseases that affect connective tissues, such as osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. The researchers devised cargo-carrying nanoparticles and are working to program these nanoparticles to selectively bind to degrading collagen in the body. When collagen degrades, as a result of disease or injury, the nanoparticles attach and remain at the injury site longer than many current treatment options. This allows for the possibility of delivering site-specific medicines over longer periods of time – from days to weeks.

While gene editing is remarkably precise in finding and altering genes, there is still no way to target treatment to specific locations in the body. The treatments tested so far involve removing blood stem cells or immune system T cells from the body to modify them, and then infusing them back into a patient. Now, researchers at Tufts University have, for the first time, devised a way to directly deliver gene-editing packages efficiently across the blood brain barrier and into specific regions of the brain, into immune system cells, or to specific tissues and organs in mouse models. The researchers used lipid nanoparticles – tiny "bubbles" of lipid molecules that can envelop the editing enzymes and carry them to specific cells, tissues, or organs.

While gene editing is remarkably precise in finding and altering genes, there is still no way to target treatment to specific locations in the body. The treatments tested so far involve removing blood stem cells or immune system T cells from the body to modify them, and then infusing them back into a patient. Now, researchers at Tufts University have, for the first time, devised a way to directly deliver gene-editing packages efficiently across the blood brain barrier and into specific regions of the brain, into immune system cells, or to specific tissues and organs in mouse models. The researchers used lipid nanoparticles – tiny "bubbles" of lipid molecules that can envelop the editing enzymes and carry them to specific cells, tissues, or organs.

Researchers at MIT, the Ragon Institute of MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard University are working on strategies for designing a universal flu vaccine that could work against any flu strain. In a new study, they describe a vaccine that triggers an immune response against an influenza protein segment that rarely mutates but is normally not targeted by the immune system. The vaccine consists of nanoparticles coated with flu proteins that train the immune system to create the desired antibodies.