Nanotechnology needs organization and precise control, which is why DNA self-assembly into nanostructures has been a remarkable breakthrough. The challenges in creating nanostructures and also the opportunities lie in how to achieve self-sustained replication. This allows for the system to amplify itself in unlimited cycles, which is not enabled in...

Self-assembling nucleic acid molecules have been utilized extensively for constructing unique nanoscale structures, and designing increasingly complex structures is a top nanotechnology challenge. Current methods to create NDA nanostructures are restricted to discrete domains of parallel lines as a result of the double crossover based unit motif, which...

Despite decades of research, cancer remains one of today’s most pressing health concerns. Traditional treatment approaches such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy can cause systemic toxicity and become ineffective when resistant tumors emerge. Recently, anticancer strategies have focused on drugs which specifically target tumor-related biological...

Despite decades of research effort, cancer remains one of today’s most pressing health concerns. Present day treatment methods tend to include debilitating side effects mainly due to low specificity of the treatments. Recently, some attempts have been made to augment tumor immunity by using bi-specific, hybrid antibodies that direct immune cells...

Protecting mobile devices from unauthorized access is becoming more than indispensable these days. In particular, mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are pervasive and store increasingly highly sensitive information about a user (e.g., contacts, usernames, passwords, emails, browser histories, business secrets, health conditions, etc.)....

Mobile two-factor authentication (2FA) has become common for user verification and secure sign-in. Mobile 2FA adds a smartphone or other mobile device as a second layer of security for accessing online accounts, in addition to the traditional username and password. After a user enters a username and matching password, the online system will grant access...

Compartmentalization increases the overall activity and specificity of encapsulated enzymes by protecting the enzymes, maintaining a high concentration of enzymes and substrates, and promoting substrate channeling. While there have been artificial enzymatic particles that have been created using compartmentalization by virus-like proteins, liposomes,...

The development of new drugs and diagnostic assays requires the ability to identify and prepare high-affinity, high-specificity ligands. Monoclonal antibodies are useful reagents in this regard, but are difficult to humanize and express in large amounts. Monoclonal antibodies are also intrinsically limited by the immunological repertoire of the immunized...

Accurate detection and diagnosis of infectious diseases is paramount to appropriate treatment and better outcomes. Despite tremendous efforts to advance new diagnostic techniques, there are still critical gaps in the healthcare system in quickly diagnosing and responding to infectious diseases. Current diagnostic technologies identify pathogens by detecting...

Background The incredible amount of data generated through users of Online Social Networks (OSNs) has given rise to third-party Social Data Providers (SDPs). These entities purchase complete datasets from OSNs in order to sell more tailored data services to end consumers. As this outsourcing model becomes more prevalent in the social media space, the...