The ability to create nano- and meso-scopic structures with precise geometry is of immense interest and value in nanotechnology. Self-assembly with building blocks that encode the details of the structure is highly promising, but difficult to realize because of kinetic traps and unwanted byproducts. Although possible, it often requires painstaking trial-and-error...

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...

­Quantifying protein interaction kinetics is important in many biotechnology applications including biosensor development, biomarker discovery, drug screening and basic research. Current label-free techniques for quantifying protein-protein interactions often require separating the protein samples from complex media using magnetic nanoparticles....

­Recent infectious diseases, such as SARS-CoV-2, have caused massive and widespread global health and economic problems. One of the most effective tools in the early stages of a disease outbreak is testing and isolation of the infected. However, it takes time to develop a new diagnostic, particularly with novel pathogens. By the time a new test...

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,...

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,...

­Background Although chlorine remains one of the most widely used water disinfectants throughout the world, the toxicity of the chemical itself and of its by-products poses significant health risks. Non-chemical disinfectants such as ultraviolet (UV) irradiation has been an attractive alternative and is gaining acceptance in both large-scale and...