Prof. Dr. Matthias Karg’s group "Colloids and Nanooptics" at the Institute of Physical Chemistry has developed a simple yet precise method for producing extremely ordered particle layers. The group is using miniature, soft and deformable spherical polymer beads with a hydrogel-like structure. Hydrogels are basically water swollen, three-dimensional systems. For instance, hydrogels are commonly [...]
DNA Script has raised $38.5 million in new financing to commercialize a process that it claims is the first big leap forward in manufacturing genetic material. The revolution in synthetic biology that’s reshaping industries from medicine to agriculture rests on three, equally important pillars. They include: analytics — the ability to map the genome [...]
These startups have seen investment from NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, and DARPA, among many others. As the digital health sector matures from basic tracking apps into highly regulated medical devices, we are seeing bleeding edge technologies being developed that blur the lines between computers and biology. And a growing share of these startups are beginning [...]
Quantum technologies utilise the unique phenomena of quantum superposition and entanglement to encode and process information, with potentially profound benefits to a wide range of information technologies from communications to sensing and computing. However a major challenge in developing these technologies is that the quantum phenomena are very fragile, and only a handful of [...]
Nanoparticles can be used in many ways as catalysts. To be able to tailor them in such a way that they can catalyse certain reactions selectively and efficiently, researchers need to determine the properties of single particles as precisely as possible. So far, an ensemble of many nanoparticles is analysed. However, the problem of [...]
University of Copenhagen researchers have developed a nanocomponent that emits light particles carrying quantum information. Less than one-tenth the width of a human hair, the miniscule component makes it possible to scale up and could ultimately reach the capabilities required for a quantum computer or quantum internet. The research result puts Denmark at [...]
Once cartilage is damaged, there is little that can be done to repair it. Unlike many other tissues, cartilage doesn’t heal well and consequences of injuries and disease can last a lifetime. Now researchers at Texas A&M University have developed an unusual new class of materials that may give cartilage a way of [...]
Like Frankenstein, Marc Miskin’s robots initially lie motionless. Then their limbs jerk to life. But these robots are the size of a speck of dust. Thousands fit side-by-side on a single silicon wafer similar to those used for computer chips, and, like Frankenstein coming to life, they pull themselves free and start crawling. “We [...]
Bacteria across our planet contain nanometer-sized factories that do many different things. Some make nutrients, others isolate toxic materials that could harm the bacteria. We have barely scratched the surface of their functional diversity. But all share a common exterior, a shell made of protein tiles, that Michigan State University researchers are learning how [...]
Researchers from University of Jyväskylä and Aalto University in Finland have developed a customized DNA nanostructure that can perform a predefined task in human body-like conditions (ACS Nano, "Reconfigurable DNA Origami Nanocapsule for pH-Controlled Encapsulation and Display of Cargo"). To do so, the team built a capsule-like carrier that opens and closes according to [...]
