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

Using state-of-the-art magnetic imaging, researchers from Cornell University, the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, the University of North Dakota, and The Ohio State University have, for the first time, characterized a key property of the superconducting state of a class of atomically thin materials that are too difficult to measure due to their minuscule size. The group's superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) revealed that the material was expelling the device's magnetic field. "Seeing magnetic field expulsion, in combination with very low resistance, is a really clear signature that something is a superconductor," said Alexander Jarjour, one of the researchers involved in this study.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (including the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies), the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Ericsson Research in Gothenburg, Sweden, have demonstrated a novel technology that can effectively and efficiently “grow” layers of 2D transition metal dichalcogenide materials directly on top of a fully fabricated silicon chip to enable denser integrations. Growing 2D materials directly onto a silicon wafer usually requires temperatures of about 600 degrees Celsius, while silicon transistors and circuits could break down when heated above 400 degrees. In contrast, the newly developed technology operates at low temperatures and does not damage the chip. 

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley; the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and the University of Melbourne in Australia have shown that extremely thin layers of black phosphorus can be stimulated to emit useful quantities of light in specific wavelengths. The work is a fundamental discovery about the properties of black phosphorus, and it suggests exciting prospects for applications in night vision, sensing, and spectroscopy.

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard have designed a new nanoparticle sensor that could enable early diagnosis of cancer with a simple urine test. The sensor, which can detect different cancerous proteins, could also be used to distinguish the type of a tumor or how it is responding to treatment. The nanoparticles are designed so that when they encounter a tumor, they shed short sequences of DNA that are excreted in the urine. Analyzing these DNA "barcodes" can reveal distinguishing features of a particular patient's tumor. The researchers designed their test so that it can be performed using a strip of paper, similar to an at-home COVID-19 test.

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (including the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies) have designed a two-component system that can be injected into the body and help form blood clots at the sites of internal injury. This system, which mimics the way that the body naturally forms clots, could offer a way to keep people with severe internal injuries alive until they can reach a hospital. In a mouse model of internal injury, the researchers showed that the two components – a nanoparticle and a polymer – performed significantly better than hemostatic nanoparticles that were developed earlier.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Medical School, and ETH Zurich in Switzerland have developed a mobile vaccine printer that could be scaled up to produce hundreds of vaccine doses in a day. This kind of printer, which can fit on a tabletop, could be deployed anywhere vaccines are needed, the researchers say. The printer produces patches with hundreds of microneedles containing the vaccine. When the patch is applied to the skin, the tips of the needles dissolve under the skin, releasing the vaccine. The "ink" that the researchers use to print the vaccine-containing microneedles includes molecules that are encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles, which help them to remain stable for long periods of time.

Cancer drugs that stimulate the body’s immune system to attack tumors are a promising way to treat many types of cancer. However, some of these drugs produce too much systemic inflammation when delivered intravenously, making them harmful to use in patients. Now, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have shown that when immunostimulatory prodrugs — inactive drugs that require activation in the body — are tuned for optimal activation timing, these drugs provoke the immune system to attack tumors without the side effects that occur when the active form of the drug is given. The prodrugs were designed with nanoscale, bottlebrush-like structures based on a class of compounds called imidazoquinolines.

Researchers from Florida State University, the Scripps Research Institute, and the University of California San Diego have developed a new biosensor for detecting biological markers related to several types of cancer. The biosensor is made of a gold nanoparticle and molecules called peptides that are labeled with a dye. When a patient sample contains a biomarker for cancer, the biomarker breaks bonds in the peptides, separating a fragment with the dye from the gold. Without the gold to absorb the energy from the dye, the sample begins to glow, indicating the presence of cancer.

Scientists from the University of California, Irvine, and the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, have reported the discovery of nanoscale devices that can transform into many different shapes and sizes even though they exist in solid states. What the scientists saw specifically was that tiny nanoscale gold wires could slide with very low friction on top of special crystals called van der Waals materials. Taking advantage of these slippery interfaces, they made electronic devices with single-atom-thick sheets of a substance called graphene attached to gold wires that can be transformed into a variety of different configurations on the fly.

Houston Methodist Research Institute nanomedicine researchers have found a way to tame pancreatic cancer – one of the most aggressive and difficult to treat cancers – by delivering immunotherapy directly into the tumor with a device that is smaller than a grain of rice. Immunotherapy holds promise in treating cancers that previously did not have good treatment options, but so far, immunotherapy has been delivered throughout the entire body, causing many side effects. "Our goal is to transform the way cancer is treated," said Alessandro Grattoni, one of the scientists involved in the study. “We see this device as a viable approach to penetrating the pancreatic tumor in a minimally invasive and effective manner, allowing for a more focused therapy using less medication.”