Wisconsin Advanced Technology Advocates, Inc.

UWM researcher's program helps predict stem cell fates

By Mark Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Feb. 7, 2010

A software program developed by a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researcher successfully has predicted the fate of stem cells, a key step toward better understanding the developmental process and perhaps one day controlling it.

The program, developed by UWM's Andrew R. Cohen and described in a paper published Sunday in the journal Nature Methods, uses sophisticated mathematical techniques to study the movements of stem cells and translate those observations into reliable predictions about the kinds of cells they will eventually become.

Stem cells travel a path from less specific to more specific, from the limitless possibilities of an embryonic stem cell to the finished product - a piece of heart, brain, bone or skin. By studying the subtle behaviors that lead a cell to move toward one of these end points as opposed to the others, scientists hope they will discover ways to guide cells toward a particular path - perhaps skin to replace some that has been lost.

Full story.

Researcher Creates Strongest Metal Foam Ever

by Bridgette Meinhold, 02/01/10

Spongy metal sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but it’s actually a real material that is capable of absorbing large impacts without damage. Metal foams have been around for some time, but new research by Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei of North Carolina State University, has revealed the strongest metal foam ever. It can compress up to 80% of its original size under loading and still retain its original shape. The applications for this type of material are too numerous to fathom, but one of the most anticipated uses for the spongy metal is in automobiles to lessen the impact of crashes and protect the driver and passengers.

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Making Old Stem Cells Act Young Again

In virtually every part of the body, stem cells stand ready to replenish mature cells lost to wounds, disease, and everyday wear and tear. But like other cells, stem cells eventually lose their normal functions as they age, leaving the body less able to repair itself.

Surprisingly, this age-related decline in stem cell potency may be somewhat reversible. A team of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers has found that in old mice, a several-week exposure to the blood of young mice causes their bone marrow stem cells to act “young” again.

Full story.

Laser fusion test results raise energy hopes

By Jason Palmer

Science and technology reporter, BBC News

A major hurdle to producing fusion energy using lasers has been swept aside, results in a new report show.

The controlled fusion of atoms - creating conditions like those in our Sun - has long been touted as a possible revolutionary energy source.

However, there have been doubts about the use of powerful lasers for fusion energy because the "plasma" they create could interrupt the fusion.

An article in Science showed the plasma is far less of a problem than expected.

The report is based on the first experiments from the National Ignition Facility (Nif) in the US that used all 192 of its laser beams.

Along the way, the experiments smashed the record for the highest energy from a laser - by a factor of 20.

Full story.

Scientists convert cells while bypassing embryonic state

By Mark Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Jan. 27, 2010

In a feat of biological alchemy, scientists at Stanford have turned the skin cells of a mouse into brain cells without ever taking the cells back to the embryonic state, raising hopes that medicine may be approaching a new era.

The work by scientists at Stanford University was described in a paper published online Wednesday in the journal Nature and builds on the 2007 discovery that human skin cells could be reprogrammed back to the embryonic state. The reprogramming of human cells was first accomplished by the labs of James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University in Japan.

"To me, this is huge progress for biomedical science," said Su-Chun Zhang, a UW stem cell researcher and professor of anatomy and neurology.

Full story.

Platypus wins contract to develop sensor

By Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Jan. 5, 2010

A $2.2 million contract with a U.S. Army research center could bring a Madison company one step closer to its goal of making a portable sensor that detects deadly gases and other toxins.

Platypus Technologies LLC said it has been awarded a one-year contract with Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center in Maryland, the second it has received from the center.

Full story.

Marquette lands $5 million for engineering facility

By Amy Hetzner of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Dec. 29, 2009

Marquette University's new engineering facility got another big boost on Tuesday, with Gov. Jim Doyle announcing that the school will receive a $5 million grant from the Wisconsin Energy Foundation thanks to funding by the state.

"We know this is what we need," Doyle said during a morning announcement held in Marquette's current engineering building, across from its new home at N. 16th St. and W. Wisconsin Ave. "For us to compete, we need more engineers."

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Congress deals funding blow to Patent Office

Budget strips $100 million provision for backlogged agency

By John Schmid of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Dec. 29, 2009

The $1.1 trillion spending bill that Congress passed this month bankrolls thousands of pet projects: the World Food Prize in Iowa, a farmers market in Kentucky, and a 12-mile bike path in Michigan, among many others.

And to pay for a fraction of its largesse, Congress added one late change to the budget: It slapped a restrictive spending ceiling on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, further cramping an agency that was already incapacitated by more than a decade of congressional raids on its fees. 

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GE Healthcare to Evaluate and Develop Novel Imaging Technology Invented by Medical College of Wisconsin Researcher

A novel molecular imaging technology aimed at rapid diagnosis of cell death in organs such as the brain and heart has been licensed by The Medical College of Wisconsin to GE Healthcare.  Under the license GE will further evaluate and develop the technology and will have an option to commercialize the technology. The technology, using imaging probes with a radiopharmaceutical compound, was invented by Ming Zhao, Ph.D., assistant professor of biophysics.

The probes bind to dead and dying cells making them useful for detecting acute cell injury and cell death.  When the active component of this molecule is attached to a radioactive tracer, it can be used in nuclear medicine imaging techniques, such as PET (positron emission tomography) or SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography), to produce three-dimensional images of where this cell death is occurring. 

“We are pleased to be working with GE on this technology,” said Dennis Devitt, the director of marketing and licensing for the Office of Technology Development (OTD), the technology transfer arm of the Medical College. “Working with the market leader in medical imaging allows this technology to be quickly moved from the research laboratory into patient care,” Devitt said. 

According to Dr. Zhao, “Imaging agent discovery and development is an important aspect in molecular and medical imaging research. The process is critical for the improvement of existing imaging technologies and for early detection of acute cell death, cancerous tissue growth and major vessel diseases.”

The ability to image dead and dying cells can have major clinical benefits, pointed out Dr. Zhao. For example, it could allow oncologists to rapidly monitor tumor response to a specific therapy.  Another potential application is for rapid diagnosis of myocardial infarction. Often patients come into ER complaining of chest pain and need to have an expensive overnight hospital stay so they can be monitored while their lab results are being processed. This compound could allow clinicians to non-invasively image the heart and determine within a few hours if the patient actually had a heart attack or something else.

Joseph Hill, vice president for technology development, added that Dr. Zhao’s research was supported by a “Proof-of-Concept” grant administered by the College’s OTD.  They have filed several patent applications on the technology. 

The OTD patents intellectual property generated by faculty and staff at the Medical College and licenses it in line with its mission to commercialize as many inventions as possible to help patients.  Its “Patents to PatientsSM” brand best describes its mission. 

New questions are being raised in stem-cell debate

by Carmen Leibel and Lisa Willemse

December 10, 2009 - (Edmonton) The University of Alberta's Timothy Caulfield is questioning some of the ethical and legal barriers facing a new stem cell procedure.

It was two years ago when a groundbreaking discovery turned ordinary skin cells back into an embryonic or "pluripotent" state. This was recognized as the solution to the controversial ethical question that has plagued stem-cell science for the past decade.

But is it the solution? Or have iPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) added a new dimension to the legal, social and ethical debates that are an important and necessary part of stem-cell advances?

Caulfield, research director at the U of A's Health Law Institute and principal investigator at the Stem Cell Network, says that while iPS technology eliminates some of the ethical issues specific to embryonic stem-cell research it also adds new challenges.

"From a legal perspective, iPS technology is fascinating and complex. For example, if an iPS cell can be made into a functional human gamete, the potential exists for reproductive purposes. What would this mean for donor consent, concerns about cloning and rights of a potential child to know its parents," said Caulfield.

Full story.

Coaxing injured nerve fibers to regenerate by disabling 'brakes' in the system

Brain and spinal-cord injuries typically leave people with permanent impairment because the injured nerve fibers (axons) cannot regrow. A study from Children's Hospital Boston, published in the December 10 issue of the journal Neuron, shows that axons can regenerate vigorously in a mouse model when a gene that suppresses natural growth factors is deleted.

Adding to a previous study published in Science last year (http://www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom/Site1339/mainpageS1339P1sublevel477.html), research led by Zhigang He, PhD, of the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Children's Hospital Boston provides further evidence that axon regeneration is limited by a reduced or lost responsiveness to injury-induced growth factors -- and also suggests some ways of overcoming the problem to help people recover from brain or spinal cord injury.

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New skin stem cells surprisingly similar to those found in embryos

Scientists have discovered a new type of stem cell in the skin that acts surprisingly like certain stem cells found in embryos: both can generate fat, bone, cartilage, and even nerve cells. These newly-described dermal stem cells may one day prove useful for treating neurological disorders and persistent wounds, such as diabetic ulcers, says Freda Miller, an HHMI international research scholar.

Miller and her colleagues first saw the cells several years ago in both rodents and people, but only now confirmed that the cells are stem cells. Like other stem cells, these cell scan self-renew and, under the right conditions, they can grow into the cell types that constitute the skin's dermal layer, which lies under the surface epidermal layer. "We showed that these cells are, in fact, the real thing," says Miller, a professor at the University of Toronto and a senior scientist in the department of developmental biology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. The dermal stem cells also appear to help form the basis for hair growth.The new work was published December 4, 2009, in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Full story.

Stem Cells from Amniotic Fluid May be More Versatile than Originally Thought

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that stem cells found in amniotic fluid meet an important test of potential to become specialized cell types, which suggests they may be useful for treating a wider array of diseases and conditions than scientists originally thought.

Reporting in Oncogene, a publication of Nature Publishing Group, the research teams of Anthony Atala, M.D., director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and Markus Hengstschläger, Ph.D., from the Medical University of Vienna, have shown that these amnion stem cells can form three-dimensional aggregates of cells known as embryoid bodies (EBs). It is believed that cells at this stage of development can be directed to become virtually any cell in the human body.

“This finding suggests that the amnion cells have greater potential than we originally thought and may be able to form many cell types,” said Atala. “This could expand the number for diseases and conditions that they may be helpful for.”

Full story.

Boeing Laser Systems Destroy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Tests

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Nov. 18, 2009 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] in May demonstrated the ability of mobile laser weapon systems to perform a unique mission: track and destroy small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

During the U.S. Air Force-sponsored tests at the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, Calif., the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX), which was developed by Boeing under contract to the Air Force Research Laboratory, used a single, high-brightness laser beam to shoot down five UAVs at various ranges. Laser Avenger, a Boeing-funded initiative, also shot down a UAV. Representatives of the Air Force and Army observed the tests.

"The Air Force and Boeing achieved a directed-energy breakthrough with these tests," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Missile Defense Systems' Directed Energy Systems unit. "MATRIX's performance is especially noteworthy because it demonstrated unprecedented, ultra-precise and lethal acquisition, pointing and tracking at long ranges using relatively low laser power."

Full story.

UCLA researchers create 'fly paper' to capture circulating cancer cells

New method may help improve diagnosis, prognosis and treatment monitoring

By Rachel Champeau November 18, 2009

Just as fly paper captures insects, an innovative new device with nano-sized features developed by researchers at UCLA is able to grab cancer cells in the blood that have broken off from a tumor. 

 

These cells, known as circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, can provide critical information for examining and diagnosing cancer metastasis, determining patient prognosis, and monitoring the effectiveness of therapies. 

 

Metastasis — the most common cause of cancer-related death in patients with solid tumors — is caused by marauding tumor cells that leave the primary tumor site and ride in the bloodstream to set up colonies in other parts of the body. 

 

The current gold standard for examining the disease status of tumors is an analysis of metastatic solid biopsy samples, but in the early stages of metastasis, it is often difficult to identify a biopsy site. By capturing CTCs, doctors can essentially perform a "liquid" biopsy, allowing for early detection and diagnosis, as well as improved treatment monitoring.

 

To date, several methods have been developed to track these cells, but the UCLA team's novel "fly paper" approach may be faster and cheaper than others — and it appears to capture far more CTCs.

Full story.

Your own stem cells can treat heart disease

Transplanting people's own stem cells into heart lessens pain, improves ability to walk

CHICAGO --- The largest national stem cell study for heart disease showed the first evidence that transplanting a potent form of adult stem cells into the heart muscle of subjects with severe angina results in less pain and an improved ability to walk. The transplant subjects also experienced fewer deaths than those who didn't receive stem cells.

In the 12-month Phase II, double-blind trial, subjects' own purified stem cells, called CD34+ cells, were injected into their hearts in an effort to spur the growth of small blood vessels that make up the microcirculation of the heart muscle. Researchers believe the loss of these blood vessels contributes to the pain of chronic, severe angina.

"This is the first study to show significant benefit in pain reduction and improved exercise capacity in this population with very advanced heart disease," said principal investigator Douglas Losordo, M.D., the Eileen M. Foell Professor of Heart Research at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a cardiologist and director of the program in cardiovascular regenerative medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the lead site of the study.

Losordo, also director of the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute, said this study provides the first evidence that a person's own stem cells can be used as a treatment for their heart disease. He cautioned, however, that the findings of the 25-site trial with 167 subjects, require verification in a larger, Phase III study.

He presented his findings Nov. 17 at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2009.

Out of the estimated 1 million people in the U.S. who suffer from chronic, severe angina -- chest pain due to blocked arteries -- about 300,000 cannot be helped by any traditional medical treatment such as angioplasty, bypass surgery or stents. This is called intractable or severe angina, the severity of which is designated by classes. The subjects in Losordo's study were class 3 or 4, meaning they had chest pain from normal to minimal activities, such as from brushing their teeth or even resting.

The stem cell transplant is the first therapy to produce an improvement in severe angina subjects' ability to walk on a treadmill. Twelve months after the procedure, the transplant subjects were able to double their improvement on a treadmill compared to the placebo group. It also took twice as long until they experienced angina pain on a treadmill compared to the placebo group, and, when they felt pain, it went away faster with rest. In addition, they had fewer overall episodes of chest pain in their daily lives.

In the trial, the CD34+ cells were injected into 10 locations in the heart muscle. A sophisticated electromechanical mapping technology identifies where the heart muscle is alive but not functioning, because it is not receiving enough blood supply.

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The study was supported by Baxter Healthcare Corporation. Losordo formerly was a paid consultant to Baxter.

Contact: Marla Paul
marla-paul@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University

Small Nanoparticles Bring Big Improvement to Medical Imaging

If you’re watching the complex processes in a living cell, it is easy to miss something important—especially if you are watching changes that take a long time to unfold and require high-spatial-resolution imaging. But new research* makes it possible to scrutinize activities that occur over hours or even days inside cells, potentially solving many of the mysteries associated with molecular-scale events occurring in these tiny living things.

A joint research team, working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has discovered a method of using nanoparticles to illuminate the cellular interior to reveal these slow processes. Nanoparticles, thousands of times smaller than a cell, have a variety of applications. One type of nanoparticle called a quantum dot glows when exposed to light. These semiconductor particles can be coated with organic materials, which are tailored to be attracted to specific proteins within the part of a cell a scientist wishes to examine.

“Quantum dots last longer than many organic dyes and fluorescent proteins that we previously used to illuminate the interiors of cells,” says biophysicist Jeeseong Hwang, who led the team on the NIST side. “They also have the advantage of monitoring changes in cellular processes while most high-resolution techniques like electron microscopy only provide images of cellular processes frozen at one moment. Using quantum dots, we can now elucidate cellular processes involving the dynamic motions of proteins.”

Full story.

Local Stem Cell Break Through Could Help Fight Liver Disease

Discovery At The Medical College Of Wisconsin Gives Liver Disease Patients Hope

POSTED: 9:43 pm CDT October 26, 2009
UPDATED: 11:12 pm CDT October 26, 2009

A stem cell breakthrough at the Medical College of Wisconsin offers new hope in the fight against liver disease.

Scientists figured out how to turn skin cells into healthy liver cells. On good days, Emily Moynihan motors through a busy afternoon routine. She makes snacks, helps her three boys with homework and watches her two nieces.

Full story.

QUANTUM COMPUTER CHIPS NOW ONE STEP CLOSER TO REALITY

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In the quest for smaller, faster computer chips, researchers are increasingly turning to quantum mechanics -- the exotic physics of the small.

The problem: the manufacturing techniques required to make quantum devices have been equally exotic.

That is, until now.

Researchers at Ohio State University have discovered a way to make quantum devices using technology common to the chip-making industry today.

This work might one day enable faster, low-power computer chips. It could also lead to high-resolution cameras for security and public safety, and cameras that provide clear vision through bad weather.

Paul Berger, professor of electrical and computer engineering and professor of physics at Ohio State University, and his colleagues report their findings in an upcoming issue of IEEE Electron Device Letters.

The team fabricated a device called a tunneling diode using the most common chip-making technique, called chemical vapor deposition.

Full story.

Innovation leads the way for Prodesse's big payday

Biotech firm's investors listened to customers, changed the business and increased value

By Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Oct. 7, 2009

Shortly after Tom Shannon invested in and began running Prodesse Inc., he realized no one wanted to buy the Waukesha biotech company's labor-intensive flu tests.

Instead of abandoning Prodesse, Shannon decided to take it in a new direction.

The fruits of that decision were apparent this week when San-Diego-based Gen-Probe Inc. said it would acquire privately held Prodesse for $60 million. That price could rise as high as $85 million if certain milestones are met in 2010 and 2011.

"Prodesse is a great success story for the state because it beat all the big companies by being first to market with a highly accurate, molecular diagnostic flu test," said Kevin Conroy, president and chief executive officer of Madison-based Exact Sciences Corp. and a Prodesse director.

Full story.

Inquisitiveness of Milwaukee native leads to a Nobel prize

By Mark Johnson of the Journal Sentinel Posted: Oct. 8, 2009

Many miles and years removed from the competitive dinner-table debates of his childhood in Milwaukee and Wauwatosa, Yale chemist Thomas A. Steitz awoke at 5:20 Wednesday morning to the sound of a ringing phone, long distance from Sweden.

Steitz, the caller said, had won the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry. One by one, members of the Nobel Committee then got on the phone to offer personal congratulations.

"They wanted to be sure I knew this was not a hoax," Steitz said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel. "Since I knew some of the members of the committee, I could recognize their voices."

Sharing the prize and the $1.4 million with Steitz, 69, were Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in England and Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. The three scientists were honored for fundamental work that revealed the structure and function of ribosomes, which transform our DNA into the proteins necessary for virtually every human action from breathing to thinking.

Full story.

Researchers create smaller and more efficient nuclear battery

Mizzou scientist develops a powerful nuclear battery that uses a liquid semiconductor

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Batteries can power anything from small sensors to large systems. While scientists are finding ways to make them smaller but even more powerful, problems can arise when these batteries are much larger and heavier than the devices themselves. University of Missouri researchers are developing a nuclear energy source that is smaller, lighter and more efficient.

"To provide enough power, we need certain methods with high energy density," said Jae Kwon, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at MU. "The radioisotope battery can provide power density that is six orders of magnitude higher than chemical batteries."

Kwon and his research team have been working on building a small nuclear battery, currently the size and thickness of a penny, intended to power various micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (M/NEMS). Although nuclear batteries can pose concerns, Kwon said they are safe.

"People hear the word 'nuclear' and think of something very dangerous," he said. "However, nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pace-makers, space satellites and underwater systems."

His innovation is not only in the battery's size, but also in its semiconductor. Kwon's battery uses a liquid semiconductor rather than a solid semiconductor.

"The critical part of using a radioactive battery is that when you harvest the energy, part of the radiation energy can damage the lattice structure of the solid semiconductor," Kwon said. "By using a liquid semiconductor, we believe we can minimize that problem."

Kwon has been collaborating with J. David Robertson, chemistry professor and associate director of the MU Research Reactor, and is working to build and test the battery at the facility. In the future, they hope to increase the battery's power, shrink its size and try with various other materials. Kwon said that the battery could be thinner than the thickness of human hair. They've also applied for a provisional patent.

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Kwon's research has been published in the Journal of Applied Physics Letters and Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry. In addition, last June, he received an "outstanding paper" award for his research on nuclear batteries at the IEEE International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems in Denver (Transducers 2009).

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation settles suit against Intel

Madison — The University of Wisconsin-Madison's patenting arm has settled its infringement lawsuit against computer chipmaker Intel Corp. involving technology used in a popular computer processor.

The case was expected to go to trial Monday in U.S. District Court in Madison, but both sides notified the court Friday they had reached a settlement. Details were not released, and Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy said he could not comment because the terms were confidential.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation sued Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel in February 2008, alleging that technology used in Intel's Core 2 Duo Processor and others was created by university researchers but used by Intel without a licensing agreement.

The lawsuit claimed the micro-architecture of the Intel Core family of processors infringed on a 1998 patent based on work by four researchers, including Gurindar Sohi, a computer science professor. Intel had supported Sohi's research with about $90,000 in gifts in the 1990s and argued it was entitled to the intellectual property that resulted from the funding.

Full story.

Femtoseconds lasers help formation flying

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has helped to establish that femtosecond comb lasers can provide accurate measurement of absolute distance in formation flying space missions.

NPL, along with collaborators, produced technical reports for the European Space Agency (ESA). The conclusions demonstrated that the lasers were a suitable method for measurement in such missions.

Formation flying missions involve multiple spacecraft flying between tens and hundreds of metres apart, which autonomously control their position relative to each other. The benefit of such missions is they can gather data in a completely different way to a standard spacecraft – the formation can effectively act as one large sensor.

Measuring absolute distance between the formation spacecraft is critical to mission success. Femtosecond comb lasers are an accurate way of making such measurements. The lasers emit light with very short pulses – each lasting just a few femtoseconds (a femtosecond is one billionth of one millionth of a second). The short pulses allow time of flight measurements to be used to determine distance to a few microns.

Full story.

National Cancer Institute awards Stratatech $1.7 million grant

By Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel

osted: Sept. 30, 2009

Stratatech Corp. said Wednesday it has been awarded a $1.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute.

Full story.

Step forward for nanotechnology: Controlled movement of molecules

Scientists in the United Kingdom are reporting an advance toward overcoming one of the key challenges in nanotechnology: Getting molecules to move quickly in a desired direction without help from outside forces. The study is scheduled for the October issue of ACS Nano, a monthly journal.

Full story.

Marquette moving ahead on new College of Engineering facility

By Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Sept. 24, 2009

Marquette University's board of trustees on Thursday approved moving ahead on the first phase of a $100 million College of Engineering facility.

The school plans to break ground on a five-story, 100,000-square-foot building - the first of two buildings - in spring and begin occupying it in August 2011. The building will be on the campus at the southwest corner of W. Wisconsin Ave. and N. 16th St.

A second, 150,000-square-foot building eventually will be connected to the five-story building.

The timeline for construction of the second building depends on how quickly $32 million of remaining funding is raised.

"The university has more than $68 million of the projected $100 million cost of the total projects pledged and will continue aggressive fund raising in order to complete the entire project as soon as possible," Marquette President Robert A. Wild said.

The school has $25 million of that $68 million in hand, with another $10 million scheduled to come in during the next two years, he said.

Full story.

Component of asphalt eyed as new fuel source

The pavement material that cars drive on may wind up in their fuel tanks as scientists seek ways of transforming asphaltenes -- the main component of asphalt -- into an abundant new source of fuel, according to the cover story in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine.

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Engineers produce 'how-to' guide for controlling the structure of nanoparticles

Engineers produce 'how-to' guide for controlling the structure of nanoparticles

Tiny objects known as nanoparticles are often heralded as holding great potential for future applications in electronics, medicine and other areas. The properties of nanoparticles depend on their size and structure. Now researchers from North Carolina State University have learned how to consistently create hollow, solid and amorphous nanoparticles of nickel phosphide, which has potential uses in the development of solar cells and as catalysts for removing sulfur from fuel. Their work can now serve as a "how-to" guide for other researchers to controllably create hollow, solid and amorphous nanoparticles – in order to determine what special properties they may have.

The study provides a step-by-step analysis of how to create solid or hollow nanoparticles that are all made of the same material. "It's been known that these structures could be made," says Dr. Joe Tracy, an assistant professor of material science engineering at NC State and co-author of the paper, "but this research provides us with a comprehensive understanding of nanostructural control during nanoparticle formation, showing how to consistently obtain different structures in the lab." The study also shows how to create solid nanoparticles that are amorphous, meaning they do not have a crystalline structure.

Tracy explains that there is a great deal of interest in the formation of hollow nanoparticles and amorphous nanoparticles. But for many kinds of nanoparticles, there had previously been no clear understanding of how to control the formation of these structures. As a result of the new study, Tracy says, "nanoparticles with desired structures can be made more consistently, making it easier for researchers to determine their electronic, optical and catalytic properties." For example, amorphous nanoparticles may be of use in future electronic applications or for nanostructure fabrication. Tracy stresses that while the NC State researchers were able to show how to create hollow nanoparticles and amorphous nanoparticles, they were not able to create nanoparticles that were both hollow and amorphous.

The study could also have implications for many additional types of nanoparticles, not just nickel phosphide. Tracy says that the findings "could provide important insights for further studies to control the structures of many other kinds of nanoparticles, with a wide array of potential applications." These could include metal oxide, sulfide, selenide and phosphide nanoparticles.

Specifically, the researchers found that they could control whether nickel phosphide nanoparticles would be hollow or solid by adjusting the ratio of phosphorus to nickel reactants when they synthesized the nanoparticles. The researchers found that they could create amorphous solid nanoparticles by controlling the temperature.

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The study, "Nickel Phosphide Nanoparticles with Hollow, Solid, and Amorphous Structures," was co-authored by Tracy, NC State post-doctoral researcher Junwei Wang and NC State Ph.D. student Aaron Johnston-Peck. The research was funded by NC State and the National Science Foundation, and was published online by Chemistry of Materials.

Contact: Matt Shipman
matt_shipman@ncsu.edu
919-515-6386
North Carolina State University

Therapeutic Nanoparticles Give New Meaning to Sugar-Coating Medicine

A research team at NIST studying sugar-coated nanoparticles for use as a possible cancer therapy has uncovered a delicate balancing act that makes the particles more effective than conventional thinking says they should be. Just like individuals in a crowd respecting other people's personal space, the particles work because they get close together, but not too close.

Full story.