NEWSROOM

Scientists at Rice University and University of Houston have developed an innovative, scalable approach to engineer bacterial cellulose into high-strength, multifunctional materials. The study, published in Nature Communications, introduces a dynamic biosynthesis technique that aligns bacterial cellulose fibers in real-time, resulting in robust biopolymer sheets with exceptional mechanical properties.

Engineers have harnessed quantum physics to detect the presence of biomolecules without the need for an external light source, overcoming a significant obstacle to the use of optical biosensors in healthcare and environmental monitoring settings.

Now, an interdisciplinary team of scientists at King’s have developed a nanoneedle patch that painlessly collects molecular information from tissues without removing or damaging them. This could allow healthcare teams to monitor disease in real time and perform multiple, repeatable tests from the same area – something impossible with standard biopsies.

A team of researchers from Brown University has developed a new nanotechnology-based approach that could improve treatment of fungal infections, particularly those caused by the increasingly drug-resistant Candida species.

Northwestern Medicine investigators have developed first-of-its-kind eyedrops that use synthetic nanoparticles to help the eye regenerate cells that have been damaged by mustard keratopathy, or exposure to mustard gas, and other inflammatory eye diseases, detailed in a recent study published in the journal NPJ Regenerative Medicine.

The team successfully generated two bubbles measuring about 10 micrometers in diameter that spontaneously vibrate at sub-megahertz frequencies, investigating how their vibrations affect each other. Using this apparatus, the researchers were able to precisely control the fast movements of bubbles at sub-megahertz frequencies as well as the surrounding flow.