First-of-its-kind biofabrication research lab opens at University of Illinois

03-Jul-2018 - Enabled by a generous gift from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust , the BioMaker Lab at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Lab (MRL) will be the first state-of-the-art interdisciplinary biofabrication hub in the world. This new facility will enable non-specialists and specialists alike from ...

A path to sustainable and biodegradable polyesters

04-Jun-2018 - There's a good chance you've touched something made out of the polyolefin polymer today. It's often used in polyethylene products like plastic bags or polypropylene products like diapers. As useful as polyolefins are in society, they continue to multiply as trash in the environment. Scientists ...

Bacteria self-organize to build working sensors

12-Oct-2017 - Researchers at Duke University have turned bacteria into the builders of useful devices by programming them with a synthetic gene circuit. As a bacterial colony grows into the shape of a hemisphere, the gene circuit triggers the production of a type of protein to distribute within the colony that ...

Indestructible virus yields secret to creating incredibly durable materials

20-Jul-2017 - It's like the Superman of viruses, astonishingly tough and able to survive in an environment that would dissolve flesh and bone. And now scientists have unlocked the secrets of its indestructibility, potentially allowing them to harness its remarkable properties to create super-durable materials ...

New technology offers fast peptide synthesis

02-Mar-2017 - Manufacturing small proteins known as peptides is usually very time-consuming, which has slowed development of new peptide drugs for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and bacterial infections. To help speed up the manufacturing process, MIT researchers have designed a machine that can rapidly ...

Developing a catalytic conveyor belt

20-Feb-2017 - Capitalizing on previous studies in self-powered chemo-mechanical movement, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering and Penn State University's Department of Chemistry have developed a novel method of transporting particles that utilizes chemical reactions to ...

Bacterium from coal mine fire could aid drug targeting

08-Feb-2017 - Chemists scouring Appalachia for exotic microorganisms that could yield blockbuster drugs have reported a unique find from the smoldering remains of a coal mine fire that's burned for nearly a decade in southeastern Kentucky. In new findings a research team from Rice University, the University of ...

New sensors can detect single protein molecules

Modified carbon nanotubes could be used to track protein production by individual cells.

25-Jan-2017 - For the first time, MIT engineers have designed sensors that can detect single protein molecules as they are secreted by cells or even a single cell. These sensors, which consist of chemically modified carbon nanotubes, could help scientists with any application that requires detecting very small ...

DNA nanotubes build a bridge between 2 molecular posts

09-Jan-2017 - In a microscopic feat that resembled a high-wire circus act, Johns Hopkins researchers have coaxed DNA nanotubes to assemble themselves into bridge-like structures arched between two molecular landmarks on the surface of a lab dish. The team captured examples of this unusual nanoscale performance ...

Germs add ripples to make 'groovy' graphene

13-Jul-2016 - Graphene, a two-dimensional wonder-material composed of a single layer of carbon atoms linked in a hexagonal chicken-wire pattern, has attracted intense interest for its phenomenal ability to conduct electricity. Now University of Illinois at Chicago researchers have used rod-shaped bacteria - ...