An observation by William Dempsey, post-doc in the group of ETH professor Periklis Pantazis, led to the new application.
ETH professor Pantazis and his colleagues then had an idea of how this finding could be deployed in light microscopy.
which can be used with the conventional confocal laser microscopes that are found in many biomedical research institutes.
"Pantazis hopes the technique will be used more broadly in biomedical research in the future and is in talks with microscope manufacturers to implement this technology.
Fluorescent proteins Fluorescent proteins play a key role in biomedical research. It is these proteins that researchers use to colour a cell structure or specific molecule,
#Fckn. cool Releases Stainless Nanotech Tshirts You don have to worry about the dating night again
the masters of abbreviation have achieved also to produce this amazing tee. Not only dating but this stylish t-shirt may be used in your daily life, business events (of course with your jacket),
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The work increases the possibilities of controlling the processes of self-organization of matter. During their research, the scientists also managed for the first time to observe the formation of microdroplet structures with unexpected shapes.
The surface tension of the liquid shell around the encapsulated droplets caused it to itself form a drop.
and organized in order to minimize the energy of the surface constraining them. Depending on the configuration--the number of droplets within the drop and the ratio between the volumes of all the droplets--a unique structure of a mesoscale atom formed.
the aligned droplets would have to undergo deformation'on the way'requiring an input of additional energy.
"The controlled production of mesoscale atoms from droplets is of particular importance for materials science. This is because materials come into being in a manner somewhat similar to structures made of building blocks:
they are made up'of many smaller'bricks'--tightly packed clusters of particles or atoms. A promising area of use seems to be the transport of drugs to specific areas of the body.
Each drop in the mesoscale atom could contain various therapeutic substances which would be released under different conditions.
This sort of'smart'container for medicines could carry out carefully planned drug therapy in a selected organ in the human body.
Source: http://www. ichf. edu. p p
#Researchers Use Synthetic Strands of DNA to Create Nanoparticle Clusters and Arrays The study has been described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
This is a new breakthrough on the use of DNA in nanoscale construction. The method resulted in arrays and clusters of nanoparticles,
which represent a major milestone for designing materials with customized functions and structures for applications in medicine, optics, and energy.
These arrays of nanoparticles with predictable geometric configurations are somewhat analogous to molecules made of atoms.
While atoms form molecules based on the nature of their chemical bonds, there has been no easy way to impose such a specific spatial binding scheme on nanoparticles.
This is exactly the problem that our method addresses said Brookhaven physicist Oleg Gang, who headed the project at the Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), a DOE Office of Science User Facility.
According to the researchers, the novel technique would allow them to organize the arrangements of a variety of nanoparticles
and help them manipulate the synergistic or collective effects. Some of the examples comprise materials that deliver biomolecules,
rotate light, or control the flow of energy. The researchers designed the nanoparticle architectures by means of an octahedral scaffold,
with particles placed in accurate locations on the scaffold as per the specificity of DNA coding.
These designs contained two varied arrangements of the same group of particles with each configuration having different optical properties.
Geometrical clusters were utilized also as building blocks for larger arrays such as2d-planar sheets and linear chains.
We may be able to design materials that mimic nature's machinery to harvest solar energy, or manipulate light for telecommunications applications,
or design novel catalysts for speeding up a variety of chemical reactions,"Gang said. Our work demonstrates the versatility of this approach
and opens up numerous exciting opportunities for high-yield precision assembly of tailored 3d building blocks in
which multiple nanoparticles of different structures and functions can be integrated,""stated Ye Tian, CFN scientist and one of the lead authors of the paper.
This method of nanoscale construction leverages two major properties of the DNA molecule, such as the natural tendency of strands having complementary bases,
and the double helix, twisted-ladder shape to combine in an accurate way. Initially, bundles of six double-helix molecules were produced,
with four of these bundles combined together to form a stable and a relatively strong building material,
just like the way fibrous strands are integrated together to form a rigid rope. These rope-like girders were utilized then to create the frame of 3d octahedrons
eventually combining the linear chains of DNA with countless number of short complementary strands of DNA.
These were known as DNA origami octahedrons. In order to attach the nanoparticles to the 3d frames, the researchers designed each of the six-helix bundles in such a way that a single helix had an additional piece of single stranded-dna DNA sticking out from either ends.
When each vertex of the frame was organized into 3d octahedrons, some of these sticky end tethers were available in each vertex for adhering with objects covered with complementary strands of DNA.
When nanoparticles coated with single strand tethers are mixed with the DNA origami octahedrons the'free'pieces of DNA find one another so the bases can pair up according to the rules of the DNA complementarity code.
and the strands were fixed with a complementary sequence to gold nanoparticles. This resulted is a single gold nanoparticle fixed to individual octahedron's six vertices.
In further experiments the sequence of certain vertices was altered and complementary strands were utilized on a range of particles.
This is because the DNA molecules and nanoparticles, which constitute the frames, exhibit different densities. While some microscopy methods can show the particles alone
The team employed cryo-electron microscopy, also known as CRYO EM, to observe the particles and origami frames. This work was headed by Huilin Li, Brookhaven Lab and Stony Brook University biologist,
and Tong Wang, the other lead co-author of the paper and who also works with Li in the Biosciences department of Brookhaven.
In order to view the varied density components individually, the researchers need to subtract the data from the images
and integrate the same by means of single particle 3d reconstruction and tomography to create the final images.
The images thus obtained showed that the new method used to direct the placement of nanoparticles on DNA-encoded vertices of molecular frames can prove to be effective for designing new nanomaterials.
CRYO EM preserves samples in their near-native states and provides close to nanometer resolution. We show that CRYO EM can be applied successfully to probe the 3d structure of DNA NANOPARTICLE clusters,
Wang said. The DOE Office of Science supported the study. DOE Office of Science supports the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
It supports fundamental studies on the physical sciences in the US and is pursuing to tackle the most pressing complexities of today time e
#DNA NANOSTRUCTURES Assembled in Waterless Solvent Researchers at the Georgia Institute of technology have shown now that they can assemble DNA NANOSTRUCTURES in a solvent containing no water.
They also discovered that adding a small amount of water to their solvent increases the assembly rate
The research could open up new applications for DNA NANOTECHNOLOGY, and help apply DNA technology to the fabrication of nanoscale semiconductor and plasmonic structures.
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and NASA the research will be published as the cover story in Volume 54, Issue 23 of the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
NA nanotechnology structures are getting more and more complex, and this solvent could help researchers that are working in this growing field,
said Nicholas Hud, a professor in Georgia Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. ith this work,
we have shown that DNA NANOSTRUCTURES can be assembled in a water-free solvent, and that we can mix water with the same solvent to speed up the assembly.
and have the DNA structures remain intact in the water-free solvent. he assembly rate of DNA NANOSTRUCTURES can be very slow,
This solvent also offers enhanced properties for nanotechnology and for the stability of these nanomaterials in solution. állego had worked in DNA NANOTECHNOLOGY before coming to Georgia Tech,
and was convinced that alternative solvents could advance this field. At Georgia Tech he evaluated new solvents for use with DNA NANOSTRUCTURES,
solvents that had been designed for other purposes. One solvent he tested, called glycholine that is a mixture of glycerol and choline chloride, allowed a two-dimensional DNA origami structure to assemble in six days at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius.
Structures that fail to completely assemble are a major source of low yields in the DNA nanofabrication process. his solvent could provide a new tool to make more complicated designs with DNA
he added. inetic traps are among the bottlenecks for producing more complicated DNA NANOSTRUCTURES. lycholine is miscible in water,
A key feature of the new solvent system is that it does not require changes to existing DNA NANOTECHNOLOGY designs that were developed for water. ou can go back
said Gállego. his solvent system preserves the DNA structures that have been developed to work in water. he solvent system could improve the combined use of metallic nanoparticles and DNA based materials.
In the typical aqueous solvents where DNA NANOTECHNOLOGY is performed, nanoparticles are prone to aggregation. The solvent low volatility could also allow storage of assembled DNA structures without the concern that a water-based medium would dry out.
The research team which also included Martha Grover from Georgia Tech School of Chemical & Biomolecular engineering, has used so far the solvent to assemble three structures,
including two DNA origami structures. In future work, they hope to use the control provided by water-free solvents to obtain dynamic DNA structural rearrangements that are not possible in water,
and investigate other solvents that may have additional properties attractive for nanotechnology applications. e were confident all along that we would find a solvent that would be compatible with existing DNA NANOTECHNOLOGY, added Hud,
who is also director of the NSF-NASA Center for Chemical Evolution and associate director of the Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience,
both at Georgia Tech. hat was surprising was finding a solvent that allows the assembly of structures more easily than in water.
because DNA NANOTECHNOLOGY was developed in water. he research on water-free solvents grew out of Georgia Tech research into the origins of life.
the chemistry necessary to make the molecules of life would be much easier without water being present. his work was inspired by research into the origins of life with the basic question of
while also having applications in nanotechnology. his research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the NASA Astrobiology Program under the NSF Center for Chemical Evolution (CHE-1004570).
and Nicholas V. Hud, olding and Imaging of DNA NANOSTRUCTURES in Anhydrous and Hydrated Deep-Eutectic Solvents,(Angewandte Chemie International, 2015).
#CDTI Introduces Nanoscale BMARS Powder-Based Catalysts BMARS is one of CDTI's new, key enabling catalytic powder materials developed to reduce the dependence on the use of costly platinum group metals (PGMS) in vehicle emission control systems currently undergoing vehicle
and engine testing at third-party laboratories. Initial test results demonstrate that in a typical two-catalyst configuration using a close-coupled (CC) and an underfloor (UF) catalyst, BMARS,
resulting in an overall potential cost savings of over $200 per vehicle. Chris Harris, CDTI's President and CEO, stated:"
when we expect to validate our advanced materials platforms on vehicles at independent testing facilities.
in addition to SPGM#DOC and Spinel, #which we plan to employ in our own catalyst coatings
Initial tests reveal that BMARS delivers superior oxides of nitrogen (NOX) reduction on modern turbo-charged gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines compared to OEM catalysts,
rhodium (Rh) is the key PGM used to drive NOX conversion in gasoline three-way catalysts.
The auto industry's reliance on Rh has helped fuel significant price volatility in the past, with prices ranging from $890 to $10, 100 per troy ounce during the past 10 years.
Recently, Rh has been near historic lows, averaging $1, 127 per troy ounce during the first half of May 2015.
Rh prices could surge as automakers increase usage in order to meet the 80%NOX reduction requirement under the EPA's new Tier 3 regulations,
Benchmark testing of BMARS technology was conducted on a model year 2014 Buick vehicle with a 2. 0 liter engine
and on a 1. 6 liter engine from a model year 2012 BMW Mini using industry standard Federal Test Procedure (FTP) aging and test protocols.
with the Buick's OEM catalyst certified to EPA's Tier 2 Bin 4 standard
and the BMW Mini's OEM catalyst certified to the EURO 5 standard. Initial tests demonstrated BMARS has the potential to significantly reduce the PGM loading on the catalyst
Commercialization efforts for OEM and aftermarket applications of BMARS powder-based catalysts are well underway.
Meanwhile, vehicle and engine testing continues on other CDTI advanced catalyst materials, including Spinel, #with more interim results soon to be announced
#Mild Carbonization Process Converts Polymer Organic Frameworks into Nanometer-Thick Carbon Sheets"We have developed a'designer carbon'that is both versatile and controllable,
"said Zhenan Bao, the senior author of the study and a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford."
"Our study shows that this material has exceptional energy storage capacity, enabling unprecedented performance in lithium-sulfur batteries and supercapacitors."
"According to Bao, the new designer carbon represents a dramatic improvement over conventional activated carbon, an inexpensive material widely used in products ranging from water filters and air deodorizers to energy storage devices."
"A lot of cheap activated carbon is made from coconut shells, "Bao said.""To activate the carbon, manufacturers burn the coconut at high temperatures
which limits their ability to transport electricity.""With activated carbon, there's no way to control pore connectivity,
As a refrigerator deodorant, conventional activated carbon is fine, but it doesn't provide high enough performance for electronic devices and energy storage applications."
"3-D networksinstead of using coconut shells, Bao and her colleagues developed a new way to synthesize high-quality carbon using inexpensive-and uncontaminated-chemicals and polymers.
The process begins with conducting hydrogel, a water-based polymer with a spongy texture similar to soft contact lenses."
"Hydrogel polymers form an interconnected, three-dimensional framework that's ideal for conducting electricity, "Bao said."
"This framework also contains organic molecules and functional atoms, such as nitrogen, which allow us to tune the electronic properties of the carbon."
and activation process to convert the polymer organic frameworks into nanometer-thick sheets of carbon."
and high electronic conductivity,"said graduate student John To, a co-lead author of the study."
pore size and surface area simply by changing the type of polymers and organic linkers we use,
storing energy and capturing carbon dioxide emissions from factories and power plants, "Bao said. Supercapacitorsto see how the new material performed in real-world conditions,
the Stanford team fabricated carbon-coated electrodes and installed them in lithium-sulfur batteries and supercapacitors."
"Supercapacitors are used energy storage devices widely in transportation and electronics because of their ultra-fast charging and discharging capability,
"said postdoctoral scholar Zheng Chen, a co-lead author.""For supercapacitors, the ideal carbon material has a high surface area for storing electrical charges,
high conductivity for transporting electrons and a suitable pore architecture that allows for the rapid movement of ions from the electrolyte solution to the carbon surface."
"In the experiment, a current was applied to supercapacitors equipped with designer-carbon electrodes. The results were dramatic.
Electrical conductivity improved threefold compared to supercapacitor electrodes made of conventional activated carbon.""We also found that our designer carbon improved the rate of power delivery and the stability of the electrodes,"Bao added.
Batteriestests were conducted also on lithium-sulfur batteries, a promising technology with a serious flaw: When lithium and sulfur react,
they produce molecules of lithium polysulfide, which can leak from the electrode into the electrolyte
and cause the battery to fail. The Stanford team discovered that electrodes made with designer carbon can trap those pesky polysulfides
and improve the battery's performance.""We can easily design electrodes with very small pores that allow lithium ions to diffuse through the carbon
but prevent the polysulfides from leaching out, "Bao said.""Our designer carbon is simple to make,
relatively cheap and meets all of the critical requirements for high-performance electrodes.""Source: http://www. stanford. edu u
#Nanopost Array Nanotechnology in REDICHIP Enables Rapid Identification of Small Molecules in Biofluids Known as REDICHIP#("Resonance-Enhanced Desorption Ionization),
"the product employs a patented, "nanopost array"(NAPA) nanotechnology invented in the laboratory of Prof.
Akos Vertes, Phd. Department of chemistry, The George washington University, and exclusively licensed to Protea.""REDICHIP technology will greatly improve a researcher's ability to rapidly detect
and quantify small molecules in biofluids, in a contaminant-free environment. This breakthrough is made possible by a highly organized,
high density nanopost array design that provides 27 million nanoposts for each two millimeter spot.
The chip provides exceptional sensitivity and reproducibility of results,"stated Steve Turner, Protea CEO. He added,
"We are presenting applications data at this week's ASMS Conference, and plan to commence shipments in Q3 2015."
"REDICHIP technology was developed by Protea in conjunction with a $14 million DARPA cooperative research agreement led by The George washington University
and including GE Global Research and SRI International. The project goal is to develop new tools to elucidate the mechanism of action of a threat agent, drug, biologic or chemical on living cells within 30 days from exposure.
Uncovering the mechanism of action of such agents in 30 days compared to the years currently required will enhance
and support the development of effective threat mitigations and countermeasures. REDICHIP is formatted as a disposable, single use
96 spot, target plate, suitable for simple and complex biological mixtures, and compatible with most standard MALDI-MS instrument systems.
Source: https://proteabio. com c
#Fujifilm and imec Develop Full-Color Organic light-emitting diodes Organic EL displays are used increasingly for televisions, mobile devices including smartphones as well as wearable devices.
Since they can be made thin and flexible, while also offering excellent response time and contrast ratio.
It is said that today's products require organic EL displays of high pixel density, i e. around 200ppi for 4k televisions, 500ppi for full HD mobile devices and even higher density for compact displays for wearable devices.
There has been active R&d for organic semiconductors to develop a high-resolution patterning method for organic EL materials to be used in these products.
In 2013 Fujifilm and imec jointly developed photoresist technology for organic semiconductors that enables submicron patterning without damaging the organic semiconductor materials,
based on photolithography capable of high-resolution patterning on large substrates. There is no need for additional capital investment
since an existing i-line exposure system can be used for the new technology. This is why the technology has attracted wide attention since the development announcement with anticipation of a cost-effective way of manufacturing high-resolution organic semiconductor devices.
In the latest achievement, Fujifilm and imec produced full-color OLEDS with the photoresist technology for organic semiconductors
and successfully verified their performance. Red green and blue organic EL materials were patterned, each in the subpixel pitch of 20ìm,
to create full-color OLEDS. An OLED array of 40 x 40 dots at the resolution of 640ppi was realized
and illuminated with UV rays to confirm that red, green and blue dots separately emitted light.
The emission of red, green and blue lights was confirmed also in a test involving the application of voltage rather than illumination,
An example would be creating an OLED array that adds a fourth color to red
as well as developing previously-unseen devices such as a new sensors that integrate OLED with the organic photodetector.
This research result is to be presented at the SID Display Week, one of the world's largest international exhibitions for information displays, held in San jose, California from May 31 to June 5, 2015.
Since the commencement of joint research in November 2012, Fujifilm and imec have broken through the boundary of conventional technology to contribute to the progress of technology associated with organic semiconductors, e g.,
, developing the photoresist technology for organic semiconductors that enables the realization of high-resolution submicron patterns. The two companies will continue to undertake cutting-edge R&d involving semiconductor materials
process technology and system integration, thereby contributing to resolving challenges faced by the organic electronics industry.
Source: http://www. fujifilm. com o
#Protein nanostructures being developed as calibration standards for electron microscopy Demand for traceability, which accompanies improved technologies,
is driving the need for standard specimens or materials that can precisely assess imaging and instrument performance from the scale of optical and super-resolution imaging to high-resolution and cryo-electron microscopes.
The challenge is to provide a material with nanoscale features repeated over microscopic length scales.
Near-crystalline protein nanostructures assembled from geometrically consistent building blocks can offer this property. A team from NPL has engineered recently a microscopic specimen exhibiting single-nanometre spacings (as shown in the image.
These properties make the material, described in the journal Nanoscale, an ideal candidate for a calibration standard.
Emiliana De Santis, who is developing the standard in NPL's Biotechnology Group, said:""Our ability to exploit self-assembly processes allows us to enable
and impact on applications where precision and reproducibility of measurements are critical.""The technology is being taken to industry to address market needs for calibration standards.
The market is currently dominated by inorganic, hard materials, while the demand for soft matter applications and products is steadily increasing.
EM Resolutions Ltd, who are co-developing the standard, commented:""A new reliable biological standard is particularly attractive to the electron microscopy community as it has the potential to offer a cost effective solution for high-resolution imaging."
"Source: http://www. npl. co. uk k
#Novel Magnetic nanoparticles Could be an Alternative to Rare earth Magnets Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University have constructed a powerful novel magnetic material capable of decreasing the dependence of United states
and other countries on rare earth elements produced by China. The unique material is made up of nanoparticles comprising cobalt,
iron and carbon atoms with a magnetic domain size measuring about 5nm. It is capable of data storage of up to 790k with thermal and time-stable, long-range magnetic order.
This is likely to have a potential impact in the area of data storage. It was noticed that the newly created material displayed magnetic properties
when it was collected in powders. These magnetic properties were far better than those of permanent magnets which usually posses rare earth elements.
The challenge of producing powerful magnets without using rare earth elements is a crucial national issue as about 70 to 80%of the current rare earth materials are made in China.
The research findings will be published in the article"Experimental evidence for the formation of Cofe2c phase with colossal magnetocrystalline-anisotropy,"in a forthcoming issue of Applied Physics Letters.
Permanent magnets possessing rare earth metals are a significant component required in communications, electronics, and automobile sectors. They are used also in radars and other applications.
Recently the emergence of green technology markets of products such as direct drive wind turbine power systems hybrid and electric vehicles and energy storage units have increased the demand for permanent magnets.
China, being the chief global supplier of rare earth elements, have imposed restrictions on their export, which is causing an international problem.
This research work is a joint experimental theoretical effort where the novel material was created, characterized and displayed enhanced features according to the theoretical prediction."
"This is good science along with addressing a problem with national importance,"said Ahmed El-Gendy, a former postdoctoral associate in the Department of chemistry in the College of Humanities and Sciences and a co-author of the paper.
Everett Carpenter, Ph d.,a professor in the Department of chemistry and director of the VCU's Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Program, said the new material is"already showing promise, even for applications beyond permanent magnets."
"The research was supported by ARPA-e REACT project 1574-1674 and the U s. Department of energy (DOE) through grant DE-SC0006420 0
#Graphene-Coated Catheters May Improve Delivery of Chemotherapy drugs The research suggests that placing graphene-an extremely thin sheet of carbon atoms-on the internal surfaces of intravenous catheters commonly used to deliver chemotherapy drugs into a patient's body will improve the efficacy of treatments,
and reduce the potential of the catheters breaking. The study indicates that damaging interactions can occur between the most commonly used chemotherapy drug, 5-Fluorouracil (5-Fu),
and silver--one of the most widely used coating materials in medical applications. As a result of this damage the researchers believe the drug may not deliver the desired therapeutic effect in patients
and that chemotherapy treatment may be compromised. Furthermore, the research indicates that a by-product of the reaction between 5-Fu
and silver is hydrogen fluoride (HF), a strong acid. This raises concerns that silver and HF may be injected into the patient along with the treatment.
Co-author of the study Justin Wells, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said:"
"As far as we know, nobody has looked ever at the chemical reaction between chemotherapy drugs and the materials they routinely come into contact with, such as catheters and needles and their coatings.
It is assumed just that the drugs are delivered into the body intact.""We have shown that silver is catalytically degrading the chemotherapy drugs,
which means they are probably not being delivered correctly into the patient. Our research indicates that one of the decay products of this reaction is HF,
which would be a worrying thing to inject into a patient.""As a solution to this problem, the international team of researchers have proposed using graphene as an alternative coating material for catheters.
In their study, the researchers used a technique known as x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) to study the chemical composition of 5-Fu,
Graphene is a biocompatible material with low toxicity that has already been suggested as an external coating for biomedical applications.
Together with our collaborators and students, we are increasing our understanding of the critical interactions between drugs and medical coatings,
We will also look to extend our experiments to include other chemotherapy drugs.""Source: http://ioppublishing. org g
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