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

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Harvard Medical School, and the National Institutes of Health have developed soft and implantable fibers that can deliver light to major nerves through the body. When these nerves are genetically manipulated to respond to light, the fibers can send pulses of light to the nerves to inhibit pain. The optical fibers, which are flexible and stretch with the body, are made from hydrogel, a rubbery, biocompatible mix of polymers and water, the ratio of which is tuned to create tiny, nanoscale crystals of polymers scattered throughout a more Jell-O-like solution.  

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, have discovered a surprising property in graphene (a single atom-thin sheet made with carbon atoms): When stacked in five layers, in a rhombohedral pattern, graphene takes on a very rare, “multiferroic” state, in which the material exhibits both unconventional magnetism and an exotic type of electronic behavior. The discovery could help engineers design ultra-low-power, high-capacity data storage devices for classical and quantum computers.

Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have developed an experimental vaccine that could prevent the spread of metastatic cancers to the lungs. The key ingredients of the vaccine are nanoparticles that have been engineered to target a protein known to play a central role in cancer growth and spread. In mice, the vaccine significantly reduced the spread of metastatic breast and skin cancers to the lungs. It also improved the survival rate in mice with metastatic breast cancer after surgical removal of the primary tumor.

Certain types of RNA venture outside the cell wall, and each of these strands of extracellular RNA rests inside an extracellular nanocarrier, which flows along bodily fluids like a microscopic message in a bottle, carrying information to other cells. Now, researchers at the University of Notre Dame have created a new device that causes the nanocarriers to sort themselves in a sample of blood plasma, saliva, or urine, enabling scientists to isolate any extracellular RNA that carries the early warning signs of cancer, heart disease, or HIV.

A technique developed by researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center to deliver medication through the blood-brain barrier has shown promise in a preclinical study for treating glioblastoma, the most common human brain cancer. The blood-brain barrier is a unique property of blood vessels in the brain that prevents substances in the bloodstream from reaching the brain. The technique, which was demonstrated in mice, relies on co-delivering medication with vessel-targeted gold nanoparticles, which are injected into the bloodstream. From an external source, researchers apply short laser pulses, which pass through the mouse skull and activate the gold nanoparticles. This activation generates thermomechanical waves and briefly makes the blood-brain barrier permeable, allowing medication to reach its target. 

Researchers from The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei have created nanoprobes that light up when they encounter certain enzymes found in cancer cells. The ability to visualize tumors early could significantly enhance cancer imaging, inform treatment options, and improve patient outcomes. Currently, tissue biopsies are the gold standard for detecting most cancers, but they can miss parts of tumors lurking in the margins. 

Researchers at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, have found that radiation from electron beams can repair cracks in nanostructures. "What we showed … is that when we took a crystal of titanium dioxide and irradiated it with an electron beam, the naturally occurring narrow cracks actually filled in and healed themselves," said Andre Mkhoyan, the lead researcher in this study. In the self-healing process, several atoms of the crystal moved together in tandem, met in the middle, and formed a sort of bridge that filled the crack. 

UCLA researchers have developed a new treatment method using tiny nanocapsules to help boost the immune response, making it easier for the immune system to fight and kill solid tumors. Cancer cells produce a lot of lactate, which creates an environment around the solid tumor that makes it difficult for the immune system to work effectively against the cancer. So, the researchers developed a treatment encapsulating an enzyme, called lactate oxidase, into a tiny nanocapsule that reduces lactate levels and releases hydrogen peroxide, a chemical that helps recruit and activate immune cells in tumors.

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); the University of Nevada, Reno; George Mason University; and the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan, have developed a “quantum ruler” to measure and explore the properties of twisted layers of graphene. Graphene is a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms that looks like chicken wire. This work may lead to a new, miniaturized standard for electrical resistance that could calibrate electronic devices directly on the factory floor, eliminating the need to send them to an off-site standards laboratory.

Taste receptors on the human tongue convert chemical data into electrical impulses. These impulses are then sent through neurons to the brain's gustatory cortex, where an intricate network of neurons in the brain shapes our perception of taste. Now, researchers at Penn State have developed an electronic “tongue” and an electronic “gustatory cortex” made with 2D materials, which are materials one-to-a-few atoms thick. The artificial tastebuds comprise tiny, graphene-based electronic sensors that can detect gas or chemical molecules.