May 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Spatiotemporal regulation of multistep enzyme reactions through compartmentalization is essential in studies that mimic natural systems such as cells and organelles. Until now, scientists have used liposomes, vesicles, or polymersomes to physically separate the different enzymes in compartments, which function as ‘artificial organelles’. But now,...
Automated synthesis allows for discovery of unexpected charge transport behavior in organic molecules
May 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A cross-disciplinary UIUC team has demonstrated a major breakthrough in using automated synthesis to discover new molecules for organic electronics applications. The technology that enabled the discovery relies on an automated platform for rapid molecular synthesis at scale—which is a game-changer in the field of...
Inserting mechanical drugs into living cells (w/video)
May 02, 2022 (Nanowerk Spotlight) HeLa cells (a lineage of continually dividing cells that have become the most widely used human cell line in biological research) have an average diameter of 20-21 µm. In nanotechnology terms this is quite large and so it is no surprise that researchers have been...
Nanotechnology enables visualization of RNA structures at near-atomic resolution
May 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) We live in a world made and run by RNA, the equally important sibling of the genetic molecule DNA. In fact, evolutionary biologists hypothesize that RNA existed and self-replicated even before the appearance of DNA and the proteins encoded by it. Fast forward to modern...
Smartphone-powered microchip for at-home medical diagnostic testing
May 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A University of Minnesota Twin Cities research team has developed a new microfluidic chip for diagnosing diseases that uses a minimal number of components and can be powered wirelessly by a smartphone. The innovation opens the door for faster and more affordable at-home medical testing....
The era of ‘optical computers’ operated by light is fast approaching
May 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The demand is explosively increasing for computers that can quickly calculate and process large amounts of information recently, as artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, drones, and metaverse technologies are drawing attention as core industries of the future. However, electronic semiconductor logic gates, which serve as the...
New strategy for active metasurface design provides a full 360 degree phase tunable metasurface
May 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) An international team of researchers led by Professor Min Seok Jang of KAIST and Professor Victor W. Brar of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has demonstrated a widely applicable methodology enabling a full 360° active phase modulation for metasurfaces while maintaining significant levels of uniform light...