Biomedical

Monitoring pressure inside the skull is key to treating traumatic brain injuries and preventing long-lasting complications, but most of the monitoring devices are large and invasive. Now, researchers from Georgia Tech and Louisiana State University, along with international collaborators, have created a nanosensor made from ultra-thin, flexible silicone that can be embedded in a catheter. Once the catheter is in a patient’s skull, the nanosensor can continuously gather data at a more sensitive rate than traditional devices.

A new study by Brown University researchers suggests that gold nanoparticles might one day be used to help restore vision in people with macular degeneration and other retinal disorders. The researchers showed that nanoparticles injected into the retina can successfully stimulate the visual system and restore vision in mice with retinal disorders. The findings suggest that a new type of visual prosthesis system in which nanoparticles, used in combination with a small laser device worn in a pair of glasses or goggles, might one day help people with retinal disorders to see again.

Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of California, San Diego, have developed new technology that could lead to the creation of a rapid point-of-care test for HIV infection. The technology uses a nanomechanical platform and tiny cantilevers to detect multiple HIV antigens at high sensitivity in a matter of minutes. Built into a solar-powered device, this technology could be taken to hard-to-reach parts of the world, where early detection remains a challenge to deliver fast interventions to vulnerable populations without waiting for lab results.

Researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas; Texas State University in San Marcos, TX; and Lintec of America in Plano, TX, as well as international collaborators,  have invented a new, inexpensive method in which fibers are coiled to make springlike artificial muscles. What’s unique about this method is that it doesn’t make use of a mandrel – a spindle that serves to support or shape the artificial muscles.

In a Perspective article published in Nature Materials, two engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carlos Portela and James Surjadi, discuss key hurdles, opportunities, and future applications in the field of mechanical metamaterials. Metamaterials are artificially structured materials with properties not easily found in nature. With engineered three-dimensional geometries at the micro- and nanoscale, metamaterials achieve unique mechanical and physical properties with capabilities beyond those of conventional materials.

Scientists from The Wistar Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Saint Joseph’s University (Philadelphia, PA), and Inovio Pharmaceuticals (Plymouth Meeting, PA) have described a next-generation vaccination technology that combines plasmid DNA with a lipid nanoparticle delivery system.

Researchers from the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, have developed a sensor technology based on natural biochemical processes that can continuously and reliably measure multiple metabolites at once. The sensors are built onto electrodes made of tiny cylinders called single-wall carbon nanotubes. These electrodes use enzymes and other molecules to perform reactions that mirror the body’s metabolic processes.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new process that transports DNA into cells using lipid nanoparticles. Unlike messenger RNA (mRNA), DNA remains active in cells for months, or even years, and can be programmed to work only in targeted cells. But past attempts to use lipid nanoparticles to deliver DNA failed, because DNA can trigger severe immune reactions. The researchers discovered that by adding a natural anti-inflammatory molecule, called nitro-oleic acid, to the lipid nanoparticles, these immune reactions could be eliminated.

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; the University of Chicago; the University of Vermont; Middlebury College; Brown University; Stanford University; and Northwestern University have observed that when semiconductor nanocrystals called quantum dots were exposed to short bursts of light, the symmetry of the crystal structure changed from a disordered state to a more organized one.

Researchers from Oregon State University, Oregon Health & Science University, and international collaborators have developed magnetic nanoparticles in the shape of a cube sandwiched between two pyramids for the treatment of ovarian cancer. Made of iron oxide and doped with cobalt, the nanoparticles show exceptional heating efficiency when exposed to an alternating magnetic field. When the particles accumulate in cancerous tissue after intravenous injection, they are able to quickly rise to temperatures that weaken or destroy cancer cells.