An interdisciplinary research team led by MolES faculty member James Carothers, Dan Evans Career Development Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, received a new $1 million research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate whether cells can learn.
In a paper published online July 30 by the journal ACS Nano, David Masiello, MolES faculty member and professor of chemistry, and colleagues from Rice University and Temple University, report a new breakthrough on controlling the thermal profiles of materials at the nanoscale. The team of researchers designed and tested an experimental system that uses a near-infrared laser to actively heat two gold nanorod antennae "” metal rods designed and built at the nanoscale "” to different temperatures. The nanorods are so close together that they are both electromagnetically and thermally coupled. Yet the team measured temperature differences between the rods as high as 20 degrees Celsius. By simply changing the wavelength of the laser, they could also change which nanorod was cooler and which was warmer, even though the rods were made of the same material.
For the first time, scientists have visualized the electronic structure in a microelectronic device, opening up opportunities for finely tuned, high-performance electronic devices. UW physicists David Cobden and Xaiodong Xu, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Warwick, developed a technique to measure the energy and momentum of electrons in operating microelectronic devices made of atomically thin "” so-called 2D "” materials. Their findings, published last week in the journal Nature could lead to new, finely tuned, high performance electronic devices.
In a paper published May 20 in the journal Nature Materials, a research team led by MolES faculty member Cole DeForest unveiled a new strategy to keep proteins intact and functional in synthetic biomaterials for tissue engineering. Their approach modifies proteins at a specific point so that they can be chemically tethered to the scaffold using light. Since the tether can also be cut by laser light, this method can create evolving patterns of signal proteins throughout a biomaterial scaffold to grow tissues made up of different types of cells.
Bioengineers have cleared a major hurdle on the path to 3D printing replacement organs with a breakthrough technique for bioprinting tissues. A research team led by MolES faculty member Kelly Stevens, assistant professor of bioengineering and investigator at the UW Medicine Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, has created exquisitely entangled vascular networks that mimic the body's natural passageways for blood, air, lymph and other vital fluids. The team published its findings May 3 in the journal Science. Their research was also featured in Newsweek, Forbes, among other outlets.
A research team led by University of Washington (UW) Distinguished Career Professor of Bioengineering and Molecular Engineering & Sciences (MolES) Institute Director Patrick Stayton has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a new therapeutic for the radical cure (prevention of relapse) of malaria.
A team led by MolES faculty member and bioengineering Professor Valerie Daggett has developed synthetic peptides that target and inhibit the small, toxic protein aggregates that are thought to trigger Alzheimer's disease. Dylan Shea, a molecular engineering PhD student in the Daggett lab, was the lead author on a new paper describing these findings, published April 19 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A research team at the University of Washington, including MolES faculty member Nathan Sniadecki, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has created a novel system that can measure platelet function within two minutes and can help doctors determine which trauma patients might need a blood transfusion upon being admitted to a hospital. The team published its results March 13 in Nature Communications.
A recent publication from the Institute for Protein Design, located in the MolES building, describes a nanoparticle platform developed for a respiratory syncytial virus study that will also be applied to vaccine research on flu, HIV, and more. Seattle startup Icosavax will advance related clinical trials.
Future technologies based on the principles of quantum mechanics could revolutionize information technology. But to realize the devices of tomorrow, today's physicists must develop precise and reliable platforms to trap and manipulate quantum-mechanical particles. In a paper published Feb. 25 in the journal Nature, a team of physicists led by MolES faculty member Xiaodong Xu, a Boeing Distinguished Professor of both physics and materials science and engineering, reports the development of a new system to trap individual excitons.