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

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Columbia Engineering have discovered a new method to improve the toughness of materials, which could lead to stronger versions of body armor and bulletproof glass. The researchers created films composed of tiny glass spheres, called silica nanoparticles, each covered with chains of a polymer known as polymethacrylate, and made them targets in miniature impact tests that showed off the material's enhanced toughness. 

A group of Carnegie Mellon University mechanical engineering researchers has developed a sensor system that was able to successfully detect levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine down to femtomolar concentrations. The team used a technique, known as aerosol jet 3D nanoparticle printing, that allowed them to build tiny micropillars using silver nanoparticles to create an incredibly sensitive detection system. This detection system consists of a three-dimensional electrode placed into a microfluidic channel, where samples are pumped through.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have discovered a nanoparticle released from cells, called a "supermere," which contains enzymes, proteins, and RNA associated with multiple cancers, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and even COVID-19. The discovery is a significant advance in understanding the role extracellular vesicles and nanoparticles play in shuttling important chemical "messages" between cells, both in health and disease.

Researchers from MIT, the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and other institutions have designed a new nanoparticle adjuvant that may be more potent than others now in use. Studies in mice showed it significantly improved antibody production following vaccination against HIV, diphtheria, and influenza.

Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology have found that flakes of lengenbachite, a mineral discovered 100 years ago in Switzerland, have strong anisotropic properties, meaning that the optical responses of the flakes vary along axis lines depending on the orientations of the flakes. This material could have implications for directional light-emitting devices, encrypted data transfer and signal processing, and polarization-sensitive photodetectors.

Researchers at the University of Michigan and Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SeoulTech) in South Korea have devised a new method for manufacturing devices that requires precisely sized and positioned micro- and nanoscale particles. With this technique, engineers would be able to more efficiently manufacture and assemble photonic crystals, filtration devices, biological assays, and more sensitive sensing devices.

For the past several years, engineers at the University of Michigan have been working on robotic devices that would mimic the sensitivity of fingertips for eventual robotic or prosthetic uses. Now, they report an improved method for tactile sensing that detects directionality and force with a high level of sensitivity. The engineers developed tactile sensors that are the first to integrate a highly sensitive sense of touch with directionality, using asymmetric nanopillars.

In collaboration with Raytheon BBN Technologies, engineers at Columbia University have recently demonstrated a superconducting qubit capacitor built with 2D materials that is a fraction of previous sizes. First, the engineers sandwiched an insulating layer of boron nitride between two charged plates of superconducting niobium diselenide. These layers are each just a single atom thick and held together by van der Waals forces. Then, the team combined these capacitors with aluminum circuits to create a chip containing two qubits, with an area of 109 square micrometers and a thickness of 35 nanometers – that’s 1,000 times smaller than qubit chips produced under conventional approaches. 

Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new and potentially more effective way to deliver messenger RNA (mRNA) into cells. Their approach involves packing mRNA inside nanoparticles that mimic the flu virus. To make the nanoparticles, the researchers genetically engineered cells in the lab to express the hemagglutinin protein on their cell membranes. They then separated the membranes from the cells, broke them into tiny pieces, and coated them onto nanoparticles made from a biodegradable polymer that has been pre-packed with mRNA molecules inside.

A silicon device that can change skin tissue into blood vessels and nerve cells has advanced from prototype to standardized fabrication, meaning it can now be made in a consistent, reproducible way. This non-invasive nanochip device, developed by researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine, can reprogram tissue function by applying a harmless electric spark to deliver specific genes in a fraction of a second. In laboratory studies, the device successfully converted skin tissue into blood vessels to repair a badly injured leg. The technology is currently being used to reprogram tissue to repair brain damage caused by stroke and to prevent and reverse nerve damage caused by diabetes.