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A Ludwig Cancer Research study has developed a novel nanotechnology that triggers potent therapeutic anti-tumor immune responses and demonstrated its efficacy in mouse models of multiple cancers. Led by Co-director Ralph Weichselbaum, investigator Wenbin Lin and postdoctoral researcher Kaiting Yang at the Ludwig Center at Chicago, the study describes the synthesis, mechanism of action and preclinical assessment of the nanoparticle, which is loaded with a drug that activates a protein central to the efficient induction of anti-cancer immunity. The study, which overcomes significant technical barriers to targeting that protein-;stimulator of interferon genes, or STING-;for cancer therapy, appears in the current issue of Nature Nanotechnology.

“The nanoparticles developed by the Lin lab release a drug that targets macrophages and can activate potent antitumor immune responses that extend the survival of mice bearing a variety of tumors,” said Chicago Center Co-director Weichselbaum. “When used in combination with radiotherapy and immunotherapy, they even help control ‘cold tumors’ that are otherwise almost completely impervious to immune attack.”

STING is part of cellular sensing system for DNA fragments, which are generated by infection or cancer treatments that damage DNA, like radiotherapy and some chemotherapies. Its activation promotes inflammation and drives immune cells like macrophages and dendritic cells to process and present cancer antigens to T cells, helping to stimulate and direct the immune assault on tumors. Though STING is a prized target for drug development, the drug-like molecules that can activate the molecular sensor-;known as cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs)-;have been plagued by issues of poor bioavailability, low stability and high toxicity in the absence of any means to target them specifically to tumors.

A team of researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, working with a pair of colleagues from Harvard University, has developed a new way to synthesize single quantum nanomagnets that are based on metal-free, multi-porphyrin systems. In their paper published in the journal Nature Chemistry, the group describes their method and possible uses for it.

Molecular magnets are materials that are capable of exhibiting ferromagnetism. They are different from other magnets because their building blocks are composed of organic molecules or a combination of coordination compounds. Chemists have been studying their properties with the goal of using them to develop medical therapies such advanced magnetic resonance imaging, new kinds of chemotherapy and possibly magnetic-field-induced local hyperthermia therapy. In this new effort, the researchers have developed a way to create molecular nanomagnets with quantum properties.

The technique involved first synthesizing a monoporphyrin using what they describe as conventional “solution chemistry”—the monoporhyrins were created by using an atomic-force microscope to pull hydrogen atoms off of polyporphyrins. The researchers then applied the result to a base of gold, which they placed in an oven and heated to 80 °C. This forced the rings in the material to become chained. They then turned the oven up to 290°C and then let the material cook for another 10 minutes. This resulted in the formation of additional carbon cycles and the creation of quantum nanomagnets.

The method requires only visible light and no external heating.

Hydrogen sulfide, infamous for its aroma of rotten eggs, is known to be highly poisonous and corrosive — especially in wastewater applications. Petrochemical plants and other industries make thousands of tons of this gas every year as a byproduct of various processes that separate sulfur from petroleum, natural gas, coal, and other products.

Now, Rice University engineers and scientists have devised a new way for such petrochemical industries to turn the noxious gas into “high-demand” hydrogen gas.

Continue reading “Engineers developed a breakthrough method to generate hydrogen gas in one-step process” »

Nanotube-modified bacteria could produce electricity as living photovoltaic devices, say researchers.

Artificial-intelligence systems are increasingly limited by the hardware used to implement them. Now comes a new superconducting photonic circuit that mimics the links between brain cells—burning just 0.3 percent of the energy of its human counterparts while operating some 30,000 times as fast.

In artificial neural networks, components called neurons are fed data and cooperate to solve a problem, such as recognizing faces. The neural net repeatedly adjusts the synapses—the links between its neurons—and determines whether the resulting patterns of behavior are better at finding a solution. Over time, the network discovers which patterns are best at computing results. It then adopts these patterns as defaults, mimicking the process of learning in the human brain.

Measuring the mechanical interplay between cells and their surrounding microenvironment is vital in cell biology and disease diagnosis. Most current methods can only capture the translational motion of fiduciary markers in the deformed matrix, but their rotational motions are normally ignored. Here, by utilizing single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in nanodiamonds (NDs) as fluorescent markers, we propose a linear polarization modulation (LPM) method to monitor in-plane rotational and translational motions of the substrate caused by cell traction forces. Specifically, precise orientation measurement and localization with background suppression were achieved via optical polarization selective excitation of single NV centers with precisions of ∼0.5°/7.5 s and 2 nm/min, respectively.

While we may struggle with the production of electricity and green power now, a recent discovery by the University of Massachusetts in Amherst has discovered something quite amazing. One day, in the not far away future-we may have the ability to create electricity from thin air.

Well, technically we already do, but let me explain how this happened and what that means for us. The study was published in the journal Nature in February 2020. The title is “Power generation from ambient humidity using protein nanowires” and through this study, the researchers stumbled upon something quite amazing.

The project was started by electrical engineering student Xiaomeng Liu, who works in the lab with the study author Jun Yao, discovered a prototype that he had been working on and began doing something he didn’t expect. Even when he wasn’t running the machine, he was picking up on power output. “We were initially very perplexed,” Yao says.

Discovery made possible by state-of-the-art imaging and more than 60 million worms.

For the first time and in near-atomic detail, scientists at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) have revealed the structure of the key part of the inner ear responsible for hearing.

“This is the last sensory system in which that fundamental molecular machinery has remained unknown,” said senior author Eric Gouaux, Ph.D. He is a senior scientist with the OHSU Vollum Institute and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. “The molecular machinery that carries out this absolutely amazing process has been unresolved for decades.”

Are we alone in the universe? What could a future for humans in space look like? And what would Creon’s advise to Elon Musk be if he wants to make a self-sufficient mass colony there? This Hope Drop features Creon Levit, chief technologist and director of R&D at Planet Labs.

Creon Levit is chief technologist at Planet Labs, where he works to move the world toward existential hope via novel satellite technologies. He also hosts Foresight Institute’s Space Group.

Continue reading “Existential Hope: Creon Levit | On space and the long-term future” »