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

Date Published
(Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation)

Scientists at the University of Washington have developed a nanoparticle-based drug delivery system that can ferry a potent anti-cancer drug through the bloodstream safely and inhibit tumor growth in mice. The nanoparticle is derived from chitin, a natural and organic polymer that makes up the outer shells of shrimp. The nanoparticles showed no adverse side effects, likely since they are derived in part from naturally occurring polymers.

(Funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology)

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and colleagues have demonstrated a room-temperature method that could significantly reduce carbon dioxide levels in fossil-fuel power plant exhaust. Previous methods of removing carbon dioxide have required high temperature or pressure and employed costly precious metals. The team relied on the energy harvested from traveling waves of electrons, known as localized surface plasmons (LSPs). Aluminum nanoparticles were able to transfer the LSP energy to graphite at room temperature, enabling the reduction of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide.

(Funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology)

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and colleagues have demonstrated a room-temperature method that could significantly reduce carbon dioxide levels in fossil-fuel power plant exhaust. Previous methods of removing carbon dioxide have required high temperature or pressure and employed costly precious metals. The team relied on the energy harvested from traveling waves of electrons, known as localized surface plasmons (LSPs). Aluminum nanoparticles were able to transfer the LSP energy to graphite at room temperature, enabling the reduction of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy)

Scientists at Rice University have modified their method for making flash graphene to enhance it for recycling plastic into graphene. Instead of raising the temperature of a carbon source with direct current (DC), as in the original process, they first expose plastic waste to around eight seconds of high-intensity alternating current, followed by the DC jolt.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy)

Scientists at Rice University have modified their method for making flash graphene to enhance it for recycling plastic into graphene. Instead of raising the temperature of a carbon source with direct current (DC), as in the original process, they first expose plastic waste to around eight seconds of high-intensity alternating current, followed by the DC jolt.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy)

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of California, Irvine have created fundamental electronic building blocks out of quantum dots and used them to assemble functional logic circuits. The innovation promises a cheaper and manufacturing-friendly approach to complex electronic devices that can be fabricated in a chemistry laboratory via simple, solution-based techniques, and offer long-sought components for a host of innovative devices.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy)

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of California, Irvine have created fundamental electronic building blocks out of quantum dots and used them to assemble functional logic circuits. The innovation promises a cheaper and manufacturing-friendly approach to complex electronic devices that can be fabricated in a chemistry laboratory via simple, solution-based techniques, and offer long-sought components for a host of innovative devices.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense)

A team of engineers at Penn State are attempting to pioneer a type of computing that mimics the efficiency of the brain's neural networks while exploiting the brain's analog nature. Like synapses connecting the neurons in the brain that can be reconfigured, the artificial neural networks the team is building can be reconfigured by applying a brief electric field to a sheet of graphene, the one-atomic-thick layer of carbon atoms.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense)

A team of engineers at Penn State are attempting to pioneer a type of computing that mimics the efficiency of the brain's neural networks while exploiting the brain's analog nature. Like synapses connecting the neurons in the brain that can be reconfigured, the artificial neural networks the team is building can be reconfigured by applying a brief electric field to a sheet of graphene, the one-atomic-thick layer of carbon atoms.

(Funded by the National Science Foundation)

Researchers at Michigan State University are testing a liquid nanofoam liner, a material full of tiny nanopores, that could prolong the safe use of football helmets. When a helmet withstands an impact severe enough to cause a concussion to the player wearing it, the safety features of the helmet are compromised, rendering equipment unsafe for further use.