Nano Looms as the Next Pervasive Technology

Nano Looms as the Next Pervasive Technology

Science-based nanosystems could lead to the creation of fundamentally new services and devices.

FAIRFAX, Va., Dec. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Scientists working on a nanotechnology initiative that involves more than two dozen government agencies say that tiny is poised to be the titan of future technologies. The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), which also is engaging industry, academic partners and international participants, aims at moving discoveries from the laboratory into products that benefit both the military and public.

[caption id="attachment_190" align="aligncenter" width="409"] Nano Looms as the Next Pervasive Technology[/caption]

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Several NNI leaders spoke with Rita Boland, senior news editor, SIGNAL Magazine, about the potential that nanotechnology will also offer health care and commercial sectors. "It's hard for me to imagine an area that won't be impacted by nanotechnology," says Dr. Lisa Friedersdorf, senior scientist, National Nanotechnology Coordination Office. "If we manipulate matter at these size scales, it's going to be part of everything we do."

Because of the broad reach promised by nanotechnology, partnerships will be important to ensure that fundamental research matches key needs. In addition, ensuring that the next-generation work force is well trained will result in commercialization of what nanotechnology enables and help overall economic health, Friedersdorf adds.

Dr. Lew Sloter, associate director, materials and structures, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, says he could see a period in which the military will intensively exploit the understanding of nanoscale phenomena, nanoprocesses and nanomaterials for more specific defense applications, such as flexible display devices. Nanotechnology also could serve as a catalyst in energetic materials, an area in which the military has highly unusual needs, he points out. Safer explosives, which release energy rather than a kinetic force, could be better controlled if using nanoparticulate powers, for example.

Read this and other fascinating articles about how advances in nanotechnology will transform the world in the next 10 to 15 years in the December 2013 issue of SIGNAL Magazine online.

SIGNAL Magazine is the official publication of AFCEA International.

Established in 1946, AFCEA is a non-profit organization serving its members by providing a forum for the ethical exchange of information and dedicated to increasing knowledge through the exploration of issues relevant to its members in information technology, communications and electronics for the defense, homeland security and intelligence communities.

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Scientists scale terahertz peaks in nanotubes

Scientists scale terahertz peaks in nanotubes

Rice University researchers find plasmonic root of terahertz signals in some carbon nanotubes 

HOUSTON – (Dec. 9, 2013) – Carbon nanotubes carry plasmonic signals in the terahertz range of the electromagnetic spectrum, but only if they’re metallic by nature or doped.

In new research, the Rice University laboratory of physicist Junichiro Kono disproved previous theories that dominant terahertz response comes from narrow-gap semiconducting nanotubes.

[caption id="attachment_187" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Scientists scale terahertz peaks in nanotubes[/caption]

Knowing that metallic or doped nanotubes respond with plasmonic waves at terahertz frequencies opens up the possibility that the tubes can be used in a wide array of optoelectronic amplifiers, detectors, polarizers and antennas.

The work by Kono and his Rice colleagues appeared online recently in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.

Scientists have long been aware of a terahertz peak in nanotubes, the tiny cylinders of rolled-up carbon that show so much promise for advanced materials. But experiments on batches of nanotubes, which generally grow in a willy-nilly array of types, failed to reveal why it was there.

The origin of the peak was not explainable because researchers were only able to experiment on mixed batches of nanotube types, said Qi Zhang, a graduate student in Kono’s group and lead author of the paper. “All the previous work was done with a mixture of semiconducting and metallic tubes. We are the first to clearly identify the plasmonic nature of this terahertz response,” he said.

Rice’s growing expertise in separating nanotubes by type allowed Kono and his group to test for terahertz peaks in batches of pure metallic nanotubes known as “armchairs” as well as nonmetallic, semiconducting tubes.

“Metallic carbon nanotubes are expected to show plasmon resonance in the terahertz and infrared range, but no group has clearly demonstrated the existence of plasmons in carbon nanotubes,” Zhang said. “Previously, people proposed one possible explanation — that the terahertz peak is due to interband absorption in the small band gaps in semiconducting nanotubes. We rejected that in this paper.”

Plasmons are free electrons on the surface of metals like gold, silver or even aluminum nanoparticles that, when triggered by a laser or other outside energy, ripple like waves in a pond. Strong waves can trigger plasmon responses in adjacent nanoparticles. They are being investigated at Rice and elsewhere for use in sophisticatedelectronic and medical applications.

The Kono group’s research showed plasmons rippling at terahertz frequencies only along the length of a nanotube, but not across its width. “The only way charge carriers can move around is in the long direction,” Kono said. The researchers previously used this fact to demonstrate that aligned carbon nanotubes act as an excellent terahertz polarizer with performance better than commercial polarizers based on metallic grids.

Nanotubes can be thousands of times longer than they are wide, and the ability to grow them (or cut them) to specific lengths or to dope semiconducting nanotubes to add free carriers would make the tubes highly tunable for terahertz frequencies, Kono said.

“This paper only clarifies the origin of this effect,” he said. “Now that we understand it, there’s so much to do. We will be making various terahertz devices, architectures and systems based on carbon nanotube plasmons.”

Rice alumni Erik Hároz, now a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Lei Ren, a researcher at TGS, co-authored the paper with undergraduate student Zehua Jin, postdoctoral researcher Xuan Wang, senior research scientist Rolf Arvidson and Andreas Lüttge, a research professor of Earth science and chemistry, all of Rice. Kono is a professor of electrical and computer engineering and of physics and astronomy and of materials science and nanoengineering.

The Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the Robert A. Welch Foundation supported the research.

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Read the abstract at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl403175g?prevSearch=kono&searchHistoryKey

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Kono Laboratory: http://www.ece.rice.edu/~irlabs/

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The ability to sort carbon nanotubes by type through a process called “density gradient ultracentrifugation (DGU)” allowed Rice researchers to test purified batches of nanotubes to find the cause of terahertz peaks in spectroscopic experiments. They determined that free electrons formed plasmons that ripple at terahertz frequencies in metallic and doped nanotubes. (Credit: Kono Laboratory/Rice University)

News Release Source : http://news.rice.edu/2013/12/09/scientists-scale-terahertz-peaks-in-nanotubes/

Scientists develop way to successfully give nanoparticle therapeutics orally

Scientists develop way to successfully give nanoparticle therapeutics orally

Findings will allow for more targeted, convenient drug delivery to treat chronic diseases, like diabetes

Boston, MA – Pop a pill or be poked by a needle? Being able to orally deliver microscopic particles—know as nanoparticles—loaded with medicine is a simple, convenient way to treat patients for various diseases, such as cancer or diabetes. But so far, nanoparticles can only be given via injection since they have trouble being readily absorbed by the intestine, which limits their usefulness.

[caption id="attachment_180" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Scientists develop way to successfully give nanoparticle therapeutics orally[/caption]

Now a study led by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is the first to report in the field of nanomedicine a new type of nanoparticle that can be successfully absorbed through the digestive tract. The findings may one day allow patients to simply take a pill instead of receiving injections.

The study will be published online November 27, 2013 in Science Translational Medicine.

The nanoparticles developed by the researchers are decorated with antibodies that attach to receptors found on the cell surfaces that line the intestines. Once attached, the nanoparticles gain entry past the cellular barriers in intestinal walls and into the bloodstream. According to the researchers, this type of drug delivery could also be useful in developing new treatments for conditions such as high cholesterol or arthritis.

"The novelty of actively being able to transport targeted nanoparticles across cell barriers can potentially open up a whole new set of opportunities in nanomedicine," said Omid Farokhzad, MD, director of the BWH Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Biomaterials, senior study author. "The body has receptors that are involved in shuttling proteins across barriers, as is the case in the placenta between the mother and fetus, or in the intestine, or between the blood and the brain. By hitching a ride from these transporters the nanoparticles can enter various impermeable tissues."

Until recently, after being injected into the body, nanoparticles travelled to their destination, such as a tumor, by seeping through leaky vessels. The research team, led by Farokhzad and Robert Langer, ScD of MIT, developed nanoparticles that could reach the target site without relying on injection nor leaky vessels.

For nanoparticles to be taken orally they need to cross the intestinal lining. This lining is composed of a layer of epithelial cells joined together to form impenetrable barriers called tight junctions. To ensure that the nanoparticles could cross these barriers, the researchers took a cue from research on how babies absorb antibodies from their mothers' milk. The antibodies would grab onto a receptor, known as neonatal Fc receptors, found on the cell surface. This gave them access across the cells of the intestinal lining into neighboring blood vessels.

Based on this knowledge, the researchers decorated nanoparticles with Fc proteins that targeted and bound to these receptors, which are also found in adult intestinal cells. After attaching to the receptors, the Fc-protein-decorated nanoparticles—toting their drug payload—are all absorbed into the intestinal lining and into the bloodstream at a high concentration.

According to the researchers, these receptors can be used to transport nanoparticles carrying different kinds of drugs and other materials—a feat that combines a versatile vehicle and an easily accessible passageway across cellular barriers.

To demonstrate how transport of Fc-targeted nanoparticles could impact the clinical space, the researchers focused on a diabetes treatment scenario, showing how oral delivery of insulin via these targeted nanoparticles could alter blood sugar levels in mice.

Insulin carried in nanoparticles decorated with Fc proteins reached the bloodstream more efficiently than those without the proteins. Moreover, the amount of insulin delivered was large enough to lower the mice's blood sugar levels. Aside from insulin, the researchers note that the nanoparticles can be used to carry any kind of drug to treat many diseases.

"Being able to deliver nanomedicine orally would offer clinicians broad and novel ways to treat today's many chronic diseases that require daily therapy, such as diabetes and cancer," said Langer. "Imagine being able to take RNA or proteins orally; that would be paradigm shift."

In terms of next steps, the researchers are working to enhance the nanoparticles' drug-releasing abilities to prepare for future pre-clinical testing with insulin and other drugs. They also plan to design nanoparticles that can cross other barriers, such as the blood-brain barrier, which prevents many drugs from reaching the brain.

"If you can penetrate the mucosa in the intestine, maybe next you can penetrate the mucosa in the lungs, maybe the blood-brain barrier, maybe the placental barrier," said Farokhzad.

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This research was supported by the Koch-Prostate Cancer Foundation Award in Nanotherapeutics; National Cancer Institute Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at MIT-Harvard; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology Award, National Institutes of Health (HHSN268201000045C, EB000244, EB015419-01, DK53056).

Lead authors of the paper are former MIT graduate student Eric Pridgen and former BWH postdoc Frank Alexis. Other authors are Timothy Kuo, MD, BWH Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine; Etgar Levy-Nissenbaum, Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Biomaterials, BWH Department of Anesthesiology; Rohit Karnik, PhD, MIT; and Richard Blumberg, MD, chief, BWH Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy.

The researchers disclose financial interests in BIND Therapeutics, Selecta Biosciences, and Blend Therapeutics, which are developing nanoparticle therapeutics.

Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a 793-bed nonprofit teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of Partners HealthCare. BWH has more than 3.5 million annual patient visits, is the largest birthing center in New England and employs nearly 15,000 people. The Brigham's medical preeminence dates back to 1832, and today that rich history in clinical care is coupled with its national leadership in patient care, quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, and its dedication to research, innovation, community engagement and educating and training the next generation of health care professionals. Through investigation and discovery conducted at its Biomedical Research Institute (BRI), BWH is an international leader in basic, clinical and translational research on human diseases, more than 1,000 physician-investigators and renowned biomedical scientists and faculty supported by nearly $650 million in funding. For the last 25 years, BWH ranked second in research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) among independent hospitals. BWH continually pushes the boundaries of medicine, including building on its legacy in transplantation by performing a partial face transplant in 2009 and the nation's first full face transplant in 2011. BWH is also home to major landmark epidemiologic population studies, including the Nurses' and Physicians' Health Studies and the Women's Health Initiative. For more information and resources, please visit BWH's online newsroom.