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

Researchers from The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH,  have shown that therapeutic nanocarriers engineered from adult skin cells can curb inflammation and tissue injury in damaged mouse lungs, hinting at the promise of a treatment for lungs severely injured by infection or trauma. The nanocarriers are extracellular vesicles similar to the ones circulating in humans' bloodstream and biological fluids that carry messages between cells. The hope is that a drop of solution containing these nanocarriers, delivered to the lungs via the nose, could treat acute respiratory distress syndrome, one of the most frequent causes of respiratory failure that leads to putting patients on a ventilator.

Researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Columbia University have developed a novel nanoparticle treatment for glioblastoma. Previous Northwestern Medicine research has shown that glioblastoma tumors accumulate large numbers of immunosuppressive tumor-associated myeloid cells (TAMCs), which impairs the immune system's ability to fight the tumor and reduces the effectiveness of radiation and chemotherapy. The nanoparticle was loaded with antibodies targeting two immune checkpoint proteins that are overexpressed in glioblastoma tumors and TAMCs after radiotherapy. When mice with glioblastoma were treated with nanoparticles, scientists observed a spike in the number of activated T-cells, which are usually responsible for mounting an immune response against a tumor.

Researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Columbia University have developed a novel nanoparticle treatment for glioblastoma. Previous Northwestern Medicine research has shown that glioblastoma tumors accumulate large numbers of immunosuppressive tumor-associated myeloid cells (TAMCs), which impairs the immune system's ability to fight the tumor and reduces the effectiveness of radiation and chemotherapy. The nanoparticle was loaded with antibodies targeting two immune checkpoint proteins that are overexpressed in glioblastoma tumors and TAMCs after radiotherapy. When mice with glioblastoma were treated with nanoparticles, scientists observed a spike in the number of activated T-cells, which are usually responsible for mounting an immune response against a tumor.

By using the National Synchrotron Light Source II at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), researchers from Duke University, Princeton University, and BNL have shown that the amount of selenium and arsenic that can escape from coal ash depends largely on their nanoscale structures. BNL's capabilities were able to provide the researchers a nanoscale map of each fly ash particle, along with the distribution of elements in each particle. The incredible resolution revealed that individual nanoparticles of selenium were attached to bigger particles of coal ash, but most of the ash had arsenic and selenium either locked inside individual grains or attached at the surface, with relatively weak ionic bonds.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a computer model that can identify whether and how nanoparticles and proteins bind with one another – an important step toward being able to design antibiotics and antivirals on demand. The new model uses machine learning—the AI technique that powers the virtual assistant on your smartphone and ChatGPT. But instead of learning to process language, it learns to extrapolate how proteins and nanoparticles might interact, predict binding sites and the likelihood of binding between them. 

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a computer model that can identify whether and how nanoparticles and proteins bind with one another – an important step toward being able to design antibiotics and antivirals on demand. The new model uses machine learning—the AI technique that powers the virtual assistant on your smartphone and ChatGPT. But instead of learning to process language, it learns to extrapolate how proteins and nanoparticles might interact, predict binding sites and the likelihood of binding between them. 

Researchers from Columbia University and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München (Munich, Germany), the Korea Basic Science Institute (Cheongju, South Korea), the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (Daejeon, South Korea), and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (Ulsan, South Korea) have discovered the first fully photostable and photoswitchable nanoparticle. Using near-infrared light, the researchers darkened and brightened these nanoparticles over a thousand times in different ambient and aqueous environments with no signs of degradation. Also, the team demonstrated how the nanoparticles can be used to write – and rewrite – patterns onto 3D substrates, which could one day improve high-density optical data storage and computer memory.

Researchers from Columbia University and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München (Munich, Germany), the Korea Basic Science Institute (Cheongju, South Korea), the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (Daejeon, South Korea), and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (Ulsan, South Korea) have discovered the first fully photostable and photoswitchable nanoparticle. Using near-infrared light, the researchers darkened and brightened these nanoparticles over a thousand times in different ambient and aqueous environments with no signs of degradation. Also, the team demonstrated how the nanoparticles can be used to write – and rewrite – patterns onto 3D substrates, which could one day improve high-density optical data storage and computer memory.

Researchers from Purdue University and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories have developed a new treatment for a high-quality steel alloy that produced extraordinary strength and plasticity, two traits that, typically, must be balanced rather than combined. Even more intriguing are observations showing characteristics of what the researchers are calling a "nanolaminate" of ultra-fine metal grains the treatment created in a region extending from the surface to a depth of about 200 microns. A cross-section of a sample of the modified steel alloy shows that grain sizes increase from the surface, where the smallest ultra-fine grains are less than 100 nanometers in size, to the center of the material, where grains are 10 to 100 times larger.

Scientists from Rice University and the University of Helsinki in Finland have developed a highly flexible nanoelectrode designed for long-term implantation in the brain. The brain stimulation provided by the nanoelectrode was incredibly fine-grained, thanks to the very low current it can deliver. Electrodes that are currently used tend to be more rigid and larger, potentially causing tissue damage and scarring, if left in place for long periods. This nanoelectrode has been shown to remain in place for at least eight months in mice, with no scarring or tissue degradation.