Glaucoma is the second-leading cause of blindness internationally, with a prevalence projected to reach nearly 60 million by 2020. Anti-glaucoma products took in approximately $5.8bn in revenue in 2009, with industry analysts projecting this figure to rise to $6.6bn by 2014. Precisely and accurately assessing the stage of the disease is crucial to determining which of the many classes of medications would be most effective for a given patient. Currently, staging is done largely by combining structural, functional, and clinical data of the patient. However, the addition of a genomic profile, a rich source of patient-specific data, would empower physicians to perform evidence-based risk assessment, thereby greatly improving glaucoma staging and patient outcomes.  (more...)

Advances in nanotechnology over the last two decades have allowed for use of nanoparticles in therapeutic applications. A number of nanoparticles such as quantum dots, polymer-based nanoparticles, and gold nanoshells have successfully been used in pre-clinical studies, clinical trials or become commercial products. Despite advances in nanoparticle therapeutics, there is a need for developing novel synthetic approaches in order to produce new-generation nanoparticles, which exhibits significantly improved characteristics, including controllable sizes/morphologies, low toxicity, and in-vivo degradability.        (more...)

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have developed a nanofluidic device that may be used to trap and analyze single mitochondria. (more...)

First time demonstration of enhanced formation of polymers on nanostructures under X-ray irradiation. (more...)

Rapid, efficient, and low cost detection and identification of microorganisms including pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and fungi is a challenge facing plant and animal health. Current technologies such as Q-PCR rely on multiple assays and amplification methods to identify bacteria and viruses. Traditional optical detection methods also require fluorescent markers. These multiple independent steps and tests increase the processing time and cost for detection and identification. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have developed a technique that uses nanotechnology to electrically detect and identify bacterial and viral RNA sequences without the necessity of using enzymatic amplification methods or fluorescent markers. In cases where microbe densities are particularly low, the technique provides additional sensitivity that allows for the target molecules to be detected in small quantities. Furthermore, the technique may be scaled into large multiplexed arrays for high-throughput and rapid screening. The implementation is further able to differentiate closely related variants of a given bacterial or viral species or strain. This technique addresses the need for a quick, efficient, and inexpensive bacterial and viral detection and identification system. (more...)

Optical trapping systems are commercially available through several companies. In these systems, the optical trap precision relies on the passive stability of the instrument itself, and therefore demands costly engineering solutions to limit environmental noise that can be coupled into the optomechanical components. Consequently, high-resolution measurements are not possible in common biological laboratory settings that typically lack appropriate vibration isolation and temperature stability.  Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed an invention that addresses a critical problem currently limiting the performance of high-resolution optical traps: that the mechanical drift of optical components often results in physical drift in the location of an optical trap that obscures the displacement-of-interest. The motion of biological motor proteins that are specific to interacting with DNA often take steps along the double helix that is on the order of 0.3 nanometers in size. Accurate measurement of displacements on this scale requires that drift of the trap positions be limited to no more than a few angstroms. However, the current best-performing optical traps suffer from instrumental drift that is almost twice what can be tolerated. Owing to the critical role of these components in all optical trapping systems, and the previously undetectable levels of mechanical drift they undergo, we sought to measure the trap drift with angstrom-level precision using a new approach. This new approach has successfully measured for and corrected for the mechanical drift of these components and demonstrated that this novel invention is capable of consistently reducing the noise floor to levels that have not previously been accomplished.        (more...)

Available for licensing are patent rights in a method of creating nanostructured membranes with topographic features that closely mimic the topographic environment of a variety of basement membranes found in the body. These membranes therefore can provide a means for controlling a number of important cell behaviors. (more...)

Conventional lab-on-a-chip systems or diagnostic systems generally use glass and polymer as their substrates and structural materials. Recent advances in nanophotonic crystals for sensing applications provide a new possibility of fully integrated lab-on-a-chip systems and diagnostic systems having an 'all-in-one' functionality as a nanophotonic crystal changes its color responding upon chemical species of interest. This colorimetric response could make 'naked eye detection' feasible without using any instrument. Most nanophotonic crystals, however, are made of ceramic, metal oxide, or metal, which needs assembly onto glass- or polymer-based diagnostic systems. Integration of sensing components onto conventional lab-on-a-chip diagnostic systems is a challenging task in developing stand-alone as well as ready-to-use integrated diagnostic systems. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have demonstrated a novel approach that addresses this challenge. The approach can be used to form nanofluidic and microfluidic channels and other functional chambers to form a lab-on-a-chip diagnostic system. Furthermore, it is ideal for both optical sensor template and electrical circuits with self aligned insulating layers. Other functional layers can be bonded on functional layers to append other functionalities including instrument-free degas driven flow and on-chip electrochemical cell lysis. (more...)

Present methods for forming lipid bilayer membranes fall into two categories: freestanding (faced by fluid on both sides) and solid-supported (faced by a solid surface on one side). Freestanding membranes-used commercially for drug discovery, membrane protein incorporation, and biophysical experimentation-are extremely susceptible to mechanical and acoustic disturbances. The solid-supported membranes are resilient against these disturbances, but the presence of the solid wall precludes measurements of surface phenomena such as transmembrane ionic transport. Encapsulating the membranes within a hydrogel provides mechanical support while still allowing the benefits of freestanding membranes; the hydrogel matrix allows both sides of the membrane to access a bulk-like aqueous environment, and it is highly porous allowing a low resistance path for analytes to diffuse through to the membrane. Since the encapsulating hydrogel is primarily composed of water, it ensures compatibility with the membrane and with membrane proteins incorporated into it as well as other biological material present in the surrounding environment. (more...)

Leveraging from microfabrication techniques originally developed for the microelectronics industry, researchers have been able to create simple designs such as well-defined and repetitive patterns of grooves, ridges, pits, and waves.Techniques such as photolithography, electron-beam lithography, colloidal lithography, electrospinning, and nanoimprinting are popular methods for fabricating micro and nano topographical features.However, the need for large capital investments and engineering expertise has prevented the widespread use of these fabrication methods in common biological laboratories.Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have developed an ultra-rapid, robust, and inexpensive fabrication method to create multiscaled grooves, ranging from micron to nanometer in size, as biomimetic cell culture substrates.This method only takes a few minutes to perform and does not require any metal deposition.In addition, the size of the nanowrinkles is easily tuned for a multitude of biological applications. (more...)

Fluorescence imaging is one of the most versatile and widely used visualization methods in biomedical research because of its high sensitivity, high spatial resolution, low cost, and non-invasive nature. In this method, a fluorescent probe molecule or nanoparticle is used to enhance contrast of the image in desired regions or to identify specific features, molecules, or tissues. However, in vivo fluorescence imaging has not been widely applied in clinical practice due to the lack of specific imaging agents, shallow tissue penetration of the exciting or emitting wavelengths, and ubiquitous background tissue autofluorescence. Conventional fluorescent probes based on organic molecules or quantum dots normally display short fluorescence lifetimes (on the order of a few nanoseconds). These lifetimes are comparable to the lifetimes of naturally occurring species in tissues and cellular media that are responsible for autofluorescence. This makes it hard to separate the fluorescence signal of the probe from background fluorescence in the time domain. (more...)

Optical microscopy methods have tremendous application in the study of cells and other biological structures.Current imaging methods, such as STED and PALM, have allowed scientists to capture super-resolution images that have been difficult in the past.However, these current imaging methods are inadequate to detect the dynamic movements of live cell structures which are continually changing shape and position in the millisecond to second time scale.In addition, current scanning techniques, which utilize laser scanning in a predetermined pattern, are inefficient when the features to be imaged are at the nanometer scale.A method that is effective at capturing super-resolution images of dynamic, nanoscale biological samples will be an important scientific tool. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have developed an optical imaging method that can produce 3D images of small, moving cellular structures with fluorescent surfaces.The method is based on a feedback principle according to the shape of the objects present in the sample, instead of having a predetermined path.The feedback approach produces high quality 3D images in seconds and does not require sample fixation.This method works with live cells and is compatible with correlation techniques like FCS and RICS. (more...)

Owing to its unique structure and ease with which their surface can be functionalized, mesoporous silica nanoparticles constitute a multi-functional platform that can be used for nucleic acid delivery and/or small molecule (e.g. anti-cancer drugs) delivery for therapeutic purposes. This unique functionality allows for MSNPs to be used for a number of applications that are not possible with conventional delivery vectors. (more...)

Modulating immune responses to pathogen invasion and tumors is a major goal in immunotherapy. Progress towards this goal can be accomplished by stimulating the immune response in vivo through active immunization. Biodegradable particles can be engineered for the purpose of improving immunization. Particulates can elicit potent immune responses, either by direct immuno-stimulation of antigen presenting cells or/and by delivering antigen to specific cellular compartments and promoting antigen uptake by appropriate stimulatory cell types. Micro- and nanoparticles derived from porous Si have been proposed as carriers to deliver external imaging and therapeutic but the immune response that may be triggered by functionalized silicon nanoparticles has thus far not been explored. (more...)

DNA has been used to create a variety of molecular machines, including tweezers, sensors, walkers, and devices with properties mimicking logic-circuit operations. They are promising because of their small size, high binding specificity, ease of chemical synthesis, and commercial availability of inexpensive DNA oligonucleotides. The specificity with which DNA hybridizes holds the potential for designing a variety of DNA based diagnostic and therapeutic systems. The creation of synthetic nucleotides has allowed for the development of DNA helices with lower than normal binding interactions. This lower interaction energy can be exploited to separate the strands.Previously reported DNA tweezers utilize single stranded DNA (fuel strand) overhangs, to drive the tweezer activity. These fuel strands are short and their overhangs are susceptible to non-specific binding and they often require additional DNA strands for its operation thus increasing their complexity and reducing the reliability. (more...)

Much recent attention has been given to self-propelled chemically-powered catalytic nanomotors. Among these, catalytic microtube engines are particularly attractive for practical applications due to their efficient bubble-induced propulsion in relevant biological fluids and salt-rich environments. Such powerful microengines are commonly prepared by top-down photolithography, e-beam evaporation, and stress-assisted rolling of functional nanomembranes on polymers into conical microtubes. While offering attractive performance, these methods’ practical utility is greatly hindered by their complexity and related (clean-room) costs. Another approach involves sequential electrodeposition of platinum and gold layers onto an etched silver wire template but offers low yield and inferior propulsion behavior. (more...)

The rapid progress of nanotechnology in the past decade has fueled a growing interest in polymeric biomaterials that can be remotely disassembled in a controlled fashion upon an external stimulus but otherwise stable under physiological conditions. Various internal and external stimuli, such as pH are being explored.Tissue homeostasis of pH, enzymes, reactive oxygen species and transition metals are highly regulated processes that are altered in pathological states. Mildly acidic pH and mildly oxidative environments are common in metabolic disorders such as cancer. pH-activation has long been a useful tool for differentiating between healthy and disease-state tissue in the pharmaceutical industry. Active targeting exploits atypical extra and intra cellular microenvironments and other physiological characteristics to distinguish between targeted and untargeted tissue. (more...)

Use of inorganic microparticles and nanoparticles in biological systems may confer many benefits. One primary example is in the realm of fluorescent labeling as an analytical tool for modern biotechnology and analytical chemistry. Conventional labels that use organic dye molecules carry several limitations. Only a few different colors may be used simultaneously, they require a broad spectrum excitation source, their photostability is not very long, and it is impossible to label a material with a single type of probe for both electron microscopy and for fluorescence. Semiconductor nanocrystals (also known as quantum dots) provide a very real solution to the limitations of organic dye molecules. Varying the size of the nanocrystals allows a tuning of the emission wavelength without changing the absorption characteristics. Further, they emit a strong fluorescent signal that remains stable for a much longer period of time. However, these semiconductor nanocrystals are highly hydrophobic particles. As a result, to have any significant biological application, surface chemistry is necessary to make the particle biocompatible and soluble in aqueous environments. (more...)

High sensitivity sensors for specific antigens in solution are in high demand for medical diagnostics and biological assays all over the world. For widespread applicability, these sensors must be low-cost, require minimal need for additional instrumentation, minimize handling of instable proteins such as enzymes, and yet still produce a strong signal in response to a single antigen. To meet all of these requirements, one potential method would be to generate an optical signal or change due to the presence of a particular analyte. However, in order to still have highly sensitive sensors that require minute amounts of antigen, a platform capable of generating amplified responses upon molecular binding must be developed.In order for protein diagnostics to have worldwide utility, especially in regions of the world with limited equipment and cold storage facilities, methods must be established to rapidly screen for the presence of particular analytes without requiring thermally unstable enzymes or specialized detection apparati, such as microscopes or spectrophotometers. Furthermore, it would be much more efficient and highly advantageous to amplify the signal directly from the sensing agent without extensive synthesis or engineering of new materials. A platform providing optical signal changes as well as the identity of the antigens within a complex mixture would be highly advantageous for protein diagnostics. (more...)

Neuropathic pain is a type of chronic pain caused by the dysfunction of one or more nerves. This type of pain represents a challenge in medicine because of its frequency, severity, and limited number of effective treatment options. In the USA and European countries, the prevalence of neuropathic pain is between 1.5 and 7.7% of the population. Most patients respond poorly to standard pain therapies involving pain killers. One treatment that has been used to reduce neuropathic pain is antidepressants. Antidepressants are useful, however the mechanisms are unknown and they have unwanted side effects. Therefore, there is a need to uncover how antidepressants work in neuropathic pain, which would then open up new targets to design better analgesics. (more...)

Recombinant protein based drugs represent a very promising avenue of therapy for a number of medical applications and the market for protein therapeutics is currently projected to reach $141.5 billion by 2017. Despite their great commercial success, many of these drugs suffer from significant obstacles in the areas of delivery. To date, a number of protein delivery approaches have been pursued including electroporations, microinjections, protein transduction domain (PTD)-mediated platforms, and noncovalent methods. Though promising, these methods suffer from various limitations that make them clinically unfeasible. The ability to deliver protein products in an efficient and safe manner would be a significant achievement that could potentially open up an entirely new avenue of medical technologies for clinical use. (more...)

A system using nanotechnology to synthetically replicate the body's immune function for uses in body fluid filtration, stimulation of immune system, therapeutics and diagnostics. (more...)

Dark field (DF) microscopy is widely used to view objects that have low contrast in bright-field microscopy, e.g., live and unstained biological samples. In conventional DF microscopy, the central part of the illumination light that ordinarily passes through and around the sample is blocked by a light stop, allowing only oblique rays to strike the sample. While conventional DF microscopy can achieve high contrast imaging, its resolution may also be improved by using a high numerical aperture (NA) configuration of the condenser/objective pair. However, the NA of the objective cannot be larger than that of the condenser to avoid having the oblique illuminating rays enter the objective. Also high NA condensers are very sensitive to alignment and must be accurately positioned and aligned to the very sharp cone of illumination, making them difficult to use. In addition, the illumination light in such a high NA arrangement must be very bright, which is wasteful of energy. Thus conventional DF microscopy is instrumentally bulky, complex, and costly. (more...)

A significant part of past work on artificial nanomotors involves catalytic nanowire motors that self-propel in the presence of a specific fuel, e.g. hydrogen peroxide. However, many applications of nanomachines require elimination of the fuel requirement. (more...)

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have developed a Laplace pressure trap that can fuse droplets from different inlets and fuse droplets generated at different frequencies. The device traps and fuses droplets passively by balancing the driving hydrostatic pressure with increasing Laplace pressure imposed by the device’s design geometry. Above are video frames showing the Laplace pressure trap and of a single droplet fusion event at the Laplace trap. Frame A - Reference droplet can be seen waiting for its fusion partner. Excess partner droplets can be seen exiting towards the outlet. Frames B and C show the reference droplet and its fusion partner fuse and move toward the outlet. Frame D shows the next reference droplet approaching the trap. (more...)

UC San Diego inventors have created a powerful method to control aggregation of ultrasound imaging agents that enables the aggregation of imaging agents in the presence of specific enzymes, including enzymes transcribed from a reporter gene. (more...)

A microfluidic device that measures mitochondrial membrane potential that may be used as a clinical diagnostic or a research tool. (more...)

It is highly desirable to replicate a natural silk spinning process in an industrial setting. Natural silk fibers produced by silkworms and spiders have exceptional mechanical properties, which so far have not been matched by artificially produced silk. Furthermore, most of the artificial spinning technologies involve extremely high temperatures and pressures, as well as hazardous solvents. Spider and silkworm silk, on the other hand, is spun at room temperature, low pressures, and uses only water as a solvent. Although a lot is known about the biological mechanisms involved in the natural silk spinning process, a major roadblock toward the creation of a biomimetic spinning system has been the inability to fabricate fluidic structures on the same size scale as the silk gland (10-100 μm in a large spider). Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a biomimetic silk gland using the latest advances in microfabrication and microfluidics. The system captures the geometrical features of the native silk gland, and it uses a porous material allowing mass transport in and out of the silk solution during flow. Similar to the native spinneret, the biomimetic spinneret can alter the pH of a solution flowing through it. This invention opens the way towards replicating natural silk production in an industrial setting, and producing native-quality artificial silk. (more...)

In the areas of diagnostic and discovery applications surface bioaffinity sensing using either SPR sensors or LSPR sensors is currently being used for the detection of proteins, antibodies and nucleic acids. By combining the advantages of both SPR and LSPR, researchers at UCI have developed Nanoparticle-Enhanced Diffractions Grating biosensors (NEDG) that are able to detect unmodified DNA at a concentration of 10fM. (more...)

Technological advancement demands new types of transducer materials that can efficiently sense and convert force and energy form one type to another for signal processing and modulation, switching and actuation, sensing and energy harvesting. It is also desirable to have transducer materials that mimic cylindrical outer hair cells and retinal cells and able to detect and convert signals instantly and reliably with exceptionally high coupling efficiency at reduced size. Nanocomposite materials could provide the necessary advantages, but are difficulty to be synthesized with controlled morphology and interface characteristics. The rod-coil copolymer systems have attracted widespread interest in both fundamental understanding of the thermodynamics that control nanoscale self-assembly in polymers, as well as technological implication associated with the unique characteristics of the novel designed systems. With inception of the responsive polymer system designed by the inventors, for the first time, there are opportunities to design materials without the compromises typically found in conventional composites. The rationally synthesized nanomaterials can be processed in a thin film format, which provides a platform for technology innovation. (more...)

Enzyme-based logic gates and their networks are recent developments in the field of biochemical information processing or biocomputing. Chemical logic gates mimic Boolean logic operations and are composed of chemical systems where the input and output signals are represented by concentrations of reactants and products, respectively. In particular, enzyme-based logic gates perform enzyme-biocatalyzed reactions resembling properties of Boolean logic systems. (more...)

Nanotechnology applied to medicine provides new approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Ultrasensitive imaging for early detection of cancers and efficient delivery of therapeutics to malignant tumors are two primary goals in cancer bionanotechnology. However, developing nontoxic, functional nanoparticles that can successfully home to tumors presents some significant challenges. An emerging theme in nanoparticle research is to control biological behavior and/or electromagnetic properties by controlling shape. (more...)

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed novel core-shell architecture nanoparticles that consist of a gold shell and a phosphor core. These particles are developed using a simple, robust one pot water based technique to coat gold on rare-earth fluoride containing nanometer sized phosphors. The uncoated phosphors are white, while the gold coated phosphors have distinct reddish tints that arise from the surface plasmon resonance of the gold shell. The tunable visible color together with the phosphor emission offers numerous possible applications. (more...)

Current, mature semiconductor technologies allow for altering of electrical conducting properties through doping. While state of the art techniques allow for precise doping, manufacturing requires large, expensive capital equipment, and resultant semiconductors are quite rigid and sensitive to defects. Previous attempts at creating nanowires have proved difficult, as doping and controlling their conductive properties is quite difficult. Furthermore, replicating electrical behavior from device to device with current nanowire techniques is difficult and highly sensitive to material defects. (more...)

Researchers at UC San Diego 's BioEngineering Department have recently developed a novel new dielectrophoretic (DEP) system for cell separation that will possess great advantages over state-of-the-art systems. Existing DEP technologies rely upon the difference in crossover AC frequencies between various cell populations to separate them into distinct groups. The technique becomes less effective as the cell types become more similar and the surrounding fluid becomes more complex (higher ionic strength), as in whole blood. This problem is overcome by the present invention, which will allow cell separation to be carried out under high ionic strength conditions.  (more...)

The treatment of eye diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, uveitis, and others, has been problematic. The largest barrier to effective treatment is the difficulty of delivering the appropriate concentration of drug to the correct location in the eye for a sufficient length of time. Various solutions have been attempted, including repeated intraocular injections of drug or surgical implantation of drug-permeated material. However, these methods are impractical and present a significant risk to the patient: multiple injections are required, each carrying a finite risk of infection, and surgical procedures are cumbersome and not always effective. (more...)

Synthesis of materials inside templates has emerged as a useful and versatile technique to generate three-dimensional nanostructures. Previous approaches use templates consisting of microporous membranes, zeolites, and crystalline colloidal arrays. These have been used to construct elaborate electronic, mechanical, or optical structures. Porous Si is an attractive candidate as a template because the porosity and average pore size can be readily tuned by adjustment of the electrochemical preparation conditions. Additionally, elaborate 2- and 2.5-dimentional photonic crystals are readily prepared in porous Si. (more...)

UC San Diego researchers have developed a new nanotechnology, smart dust, that has state-of-the-art applications in almost every field of use, including biological sensing, screening, and communications technology. The invention utilizes micron-sized particles of silicon that have been etched and then chemically modified in such a way that each individual particle has its own addressable identity. This feature allows one to use thousands of the particles together, each with its own “tag,” for high-sensitivity chemical or biological sensing, diagnostics, and low- and high-throughput screening of biomolecular compounds. (more...)

There are presently many examples of 1-, 2-, and 3-dimensional objects constructed using so-called self-assembly reactions. For example, covalent bonds formed between alkanethiols and gold substrates have been used to pattern surfaces; or hydrogen bonding interactions between DNA base pairs have been used to assemble nanoparticles into complex assemblies. Researchers at UC San Diego have developed a novel technique that allows for the production of optical films with spatially resolved, chemically-distinct layers. Although there is literature precedent for a range of surface modifications on porous silicon, the method can dually functionalize the sensors that impart to them their ability to self-assemble and orient selectively at an interface. The main requirement of the chemical modification reaction used in the functionalization steps is that they be stable to the hydrofluoric etchant used in generating subsequent porous silicon layers. It is anticipated that a number of chemical and electrochemical modification strategies developed for porous silicon can be used with this procedure. (more...)

This invention teaches the preparation and use of porous Si films containing a controlled distribution of pore sizes for a unique bio-sensing application. Use of this invention to achieve the simultaneous separation and detection of a protein in a nano-machined silicon matrix is described. Gating of the response by adjustment of pH below and above the isoelectric point of the protein has also been demonstrated, and provides an additional means of bio-molecule separation and identification. This invention is useful for the determination of protein size and for the detection of weakly-bound complexes. In addition, the invention can controllably trap and release proteins from a microporous matrix and is useful for drug delivery applications, as porous Si has been shown to be bio-compatible and readily bio-resorbable. (more...)

Combinatorial chemistry is arguably the most important development in the drug discovery process in over a decade. However, the detection of significant biological events in high throughput screening involves many burdensome tasks, and often includes the separation of the products of reaction before detection can take place. (more...)

UC San Diego researchers have developed a chromatographic approach to selectively or simultaneously adsorb and remove ingested food or drug components that are highly caloric and/or harmful. The separation technique has been demonstrated in a simulated stomach environment for specific fat, oil, sugar and chocolate samples and can be generalized to most forms of these food components as well as others such as caffeine and various similarly common drugs and chemicals. The invention can find application in the field of nutrition and weight management/loss with specific advantages foreseen relative to its capacity to separate out fat and other undesirable components, inhibit absorption of these components by the body and/or their exposure to the digestive system, and provide a controlled mechanism to eliminate these components. The invention can in principle be fine-tuned to discriminate between different types of fats and carbohydrates. It can also be applied for poison control within a hospital or bio-defense context. This technology is available for licensing, sponsored research, or both. (more...)

Detection and quantification at the level of single molecules is the ultimate goal of analytical assays. This sensitive, platform technology could transform diverse fields, from environmental monitoring and medical diagnostics to the fundamental studies of chemical and biochemical processes. The early potential of synthetic, ion channel-forming peptides was has not been realized; one factor of many has been the inability to translate the technology to low cost, large scale production of stable and portable devices. The absence of generalized modalities for sensing a broad range of analytes left few incentives to clear the hurdles. (more...)

Multifunctional nanoparticles have the potential to deliver both therapeutics and diagnostics to tissues simultaneously using a single nanodevice. To date, several types of hybrid nanosystems have been developed and used in vitro for magnetic cell separation and targeting. However, the in vivo utility of these nanocomposites may be limited due to poor stability or short systemic circulation times. Furthermore, existing technologies do not adequately allow for co-delivery of a therapeutic and an agent enabling advanced diagnostic imaging. (more...)

Amphiphilic vesicles are artificial cells with applications in drug delivery (including biomolecular nanomedicine such as DNA, peptides, proteins), combinatorial chemistry, nanoscale chemical reaction chambers, biomolecular devices (power, optical, electrical), and various biosensors. (more...)

  Microfluidic constructs have proven to have many important applications. Small sample sizes can be sufficient to give a large number of laboratory results, for instance, in "lab-on-a-chip" technologies, such as those developed by Caliper. Testing and processing previously available only in specialized laboratories under highly controlled conditions with expert technicians are now available for field work using these new technologies. However, these highly minimized fluid managing devices are typically very expensive, and so are of limited availability to many potential applications<P> Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley achieve patterned Agarose micro-structures using photolithography and oxygen plasma. The resulting Agarose micro-structures can be then rehydrated back into the original form, if the proper conditions are maintained during processing. (more...)

New medical systems are needed to weather the storm of rising healthcare costs. In particular, Point-of-Care (POC) technologies have the potential to keep costs at bay by enabling affordable preventative diagnostics and personal chronic disease monitoring. Many of these POC technologies use detection schemes that rely on the specific marking of target analyte with labels, such as catalytic enzymes, optical markers or magnetic beads. The latter are very useful as labels for bio-assay applications because a) cells exhibit few if any magnetic properties, b) signals from magnetic beads are stable with time, c) magnetic detection functions regardless of the opacity of the sample, and d) magnetic labeling provides added functionality such as magnetic filtration and manipulation. Integrated detection of magnetic beads has been demonstrated using MR spin valves. Researchers at the University of California have developed a fully integrated system capable of detecting single super-paramagnetic beads using CMOS. The system greatly simplifies detection protocol complexity and reduces overall system cost. (more...)

Fluorocarbon (FC) film deposition by plasma techniques has been used in numerous electrical, mechanical and biomedical applications due to the desirable physicochemical properties of FC films (i.e. low dielectric constant, surface energy, friction and wettability) as well as good hemocompatibility. To take advantage of these attributes, researchers at UC Berkeley have investigated the dependence of FC film thickness, surface morphology and chemical behavior on the plasma power. These studies have resulted in the development of a method for synthesizing FC films on biopolymers such as low-density polyethylene. (more...)

Patterning of biomolecules is important in areas like biological analysis, diagnostics and genomics. In addition, molecular patterning could be useful for spatial control of various surface properties such as hydrophobicity and surface charge. Currently, molecules are patterned using lithography, stamping, or using scanning tips. Lithography requires either specially synthesized light-sensitive molecules or exposure to developing solutions for photoresists, which are usually incompatible with sensitive molecules. The other two processes involve a mechanical transfer of molecules between a stamp or a scanning tip and the surface to be patterned and are therefore highly sensitive to surface tension, transport on the tip and other surface phenomena. These techniques also require specialized scanning tips or alignment equipment. While these techniques are useful for patterning two-dimensional patterns on surfaces with sub-micron resolution, no technique exists for patterning within confined regions such as small microchannels or nanochannels. Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a new technique for patterning molecules that is compatible with sensitive molecules and can be used in confined areas. The process can be used for applications in microfluidics and nanofluidics, where patterning using other techniques is not possible. The method is also useful for patterning of surface properties such as surface charge. Other applications include patterning biomolecules such as antibodies inside of nanopipettes and patterning sensitive biomolecules on flat surfaces. (more...)

A variety of nanostructures have been developed for use in biomolecular detection. The nanosphere is the most widely used structure because of unique, highly desirable properties that make it a superior detection platform for life science research, in vitro diagnostic testing, and in vivo imaging. Other structures such as nanotips, nanorings, and nanocups have also been demonstrated for use in high resolution SERS spectroscopy and imaging. These structures provide significant field enhancement in experiments and in simulations but they have proved to be difficult to fabricate consistently. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a new nanostructure that is biocompatible and incorporates the advantages of nanotips, nanospheres, and nanorings. Unlike present nanosphere-based SERS spectroscopy and imaging, which uses a wavelength of 500-600 nm, the new structure can be excited at near the infrared range. Excitation at longer wavelengths provides deeper penetration into tissue with minimal photothermal damage, and excitation of the nanostructure does not cause fluorescence of other biomolecules. The structure developed at Berkeley has a much stronger field emitting or "antenna" effect than previously seen even from nanotips and nanorings. The excited "hotspot" of the structure has been demonstrated to have an enhancement factor larger than 10^10. Batch fabrication is straightforward and does not require e-beam lithography. These characteristics make the improved nanostructure ideal for application in molecular medicine and in ultrasensitive Raman, biomolecular, and cellular imaging. http://biopoems.berkeley.edu (more...)

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed highly sensitive ultraviolet light sensors based on zinc oxide nanowires. Upon exposure to light of wavelength below 400 nm, the electrical resistivity of the semiconducting nanowires decreases by 4-5 orders of magnitude. ?Nanowire UV photodetector and optical switches?, H. Kind, H. Yan, M. Law, B. Messer, P. Yang, Adv. Mater. 14, 158, 2002 (more...)