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

Researchers from Georgia State University and Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a novel type of protein nanoparticle vaccine formulation containing influenza proteins and adjuvant that provided complete protection against influenza viral infections. The protein nanoparticle consists of the influenza nucleoprotein as the core and surface proteins as the coating antigens. The researchers have focused their work on developing different types of protein nanoparticle vaccines against both influenza A and influenza B viral infections.

Engineers at Purdue University have developed a patent-pending tool to make the manufacture of ultrathin semiconductors more consistent, controllable, and repeatable than traditional methods. The tool uses a dry-transfer process to move graphene and other ultrathin, 2D materials from the growth substrate where they are synthesized to a device substrate. Thomas Beechem, an engineer who led the research team said that the tool provides users with more control and degrees of freedom, including creating their own recipes for a scalable process.

Researchers from Columbia University and the City University of New York have developed a new class of integrated photonic devices, called leaky-wave metasurfaces, that can convert light initially confined in an optical waveguide to an arbitrary optical pattern in free space. These devices, which are composed of nano-apertures etched into a polymer layer on top of a silicon nitride thin film, are the first to demonstrate simultaneous control of all four optical degrees of freedom, namely, amplitude, phase, polarization ellipticity, and polarization orientation. Because the devices are so thin, transparent, and compatible with photonic integrated circuits, they can be used to improve optical displays, LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), optical communications, and quantum optics.

Researchers from Yale University; the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed and measured a model nanomagnetic array in which the behavior can be best understood as that of a set of wiggling strings. The strings, which are composed of connected points of high energy among the lattice, can stretch and shrink but also reconnect. What makes these strings special is that they are limited to certain endpoints and must connect to those endpoints in particular ways.  

Cancers co-opt both the immune and cardiovascular systems to fuel their own growth. They do this in part by forming new blood vessels that provide essential nutrients to rapidly dividing cancer cells. T cells in the immune system also use blood vessels as conduits for finding and invading tumors. But vessels in tumors are often abnormal and put up barricades that impede the ability of T cells to locate and kill cancer cells. Now, by using a nanotechnology invented at Vanderbilt University, researchers have discovered that they could reverse the malformed tumor vasculature by activating the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway, a component of the immune system that plays an important role in protecting against pathogen infection and the development of cancers.

An international team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside; the Institute of Magnetism in Kyiv, Ukraine; and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, has developed a comprehensive manual for engineering spin dynamics in nanomagnets – an important step toward advancing spintronic and quantum-information technologies. Despite their small size, nanomagnets – found in most spintronic applications – reveal rich dynamics of spin excitations, or "magnons," which are the quantum-mechanical units of spin fluctuations. 

Researchers from the University of Oklahoma and Yale University have developed a super-resolution imaging platform technology that improves understanding of how nanoparticles interact within cells. The researchers suggest that their super-resolution imaging platform technology could be used to improve the engineering of safer and more effective nanomedicines. “Using this new super-resolution imaging method, we can now start to track and monitor nanoparticles inside cells, which is a prerequisite for designing nanomedicines that are safer and more efficient in reaching certain areas within cells,” said Stefan Wilhelm, one of the scientists involved in this study.

Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed smart coatings for surgical orthopedic implants that can monitor strain on the devices while killing infection-causing bacteria. Taking inspiration from the antibacterial wings of cicadas and dragonflies, the researchers created a thin foil patterned with nanoscale pillars like those found on the insects’ wings. When a bacterial cell tries to bind to the foil, the pillars puncture the bacterial cell wall, killing the bacteria. 

Researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have developed a new diagnostic technique that will allow for faster and more accurate detection of neurodegenerative diseases. These diseases share a common feature – the buildup of misfolded proteins in the central nervous system. But the diagnostic methods used to detect these misfolded proteins can be expensive and time-consuming. The researchers added 50-nanometer silica nanoparticles to protein-misfolding detection methods, which dramatically reduced detection times from about 14 hours to only four hours and increases the sensitivity by a factor of 10.

A research team led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory has used powerful X-ray beams to unlock a new understanding of materials that are important to the production and use of hydrogen. The goal is to make hydrogen production and usage more efficient and less expensive, offering a better fuel for transportation and industry. The researchers aimed an intense X-ray beam onto a single grain of platinum. A nanodroplet chemical cell, created with a tiny pipette tip, was used to control the chemical reaction that was happening on the platinum grain to produce hydrogen.