Research Highlights

Foundry scientists have created bright, stable and bio‐friendly nanocrystals that act as individual investigators of their local environment. These ideal light‐emitting probes represent a significant step in scrutinizing the behaviors of proteins and other components in complex systems such as a living cell. Learn More

Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures Facility

Foundry scientists Paul Ashby and Babak Sanii are employing sub‐Angstromresolution sensing of tiny cantilevers to create a gentle physical probe for surfaces of materials such as living cells. Learn more

Theory of Nanostructured Materials Facility

Foundry scientist Steve Whitelam and colleagues have clarified the pattern‐forming abilities of actin, a protein used by amoebae and human cells alike as their means of propulsion. Polymerization of the actin networks within the soil‐dwelling amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum generates a complex pattern‐forming dynamic that starts with the appearance of static spots of actin on the cell cortex. Within minutes, these spots begin to move randomly, and eventually give rise to traveling waves of actin. These waves resemble the `leading edges' known to propel a cell. Whitelam and colleagues proposed a possible physical mechanism for this dynamics by extending a generic reaction‐diffusion model to account for the orientation of actin fibers within Dictyostelium's actin networks. The resulting model mimics the transition from stationary spots to moving spots to waves seen in vivo. Learn more

Inorganic Nanostructures Facility

A recent breakthrough at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is bringing together two sectors that people love to fixate on: nanotechnology and carbon sequestration. Learn more

Biological Nanostructures Facility

Foundry scientists have used a donut-shaped protein to custom-build nanotubes. This nano-sized protein building block will let scientists alter the nanotube's length and as a result, its chemical properties. These proteins could be one day used as scaffolds to help build devices or as drug-delivery vehicles to target disease at the molecular scale. Learn more

Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis Nanostructures Facility

Foundry scientist Brett Helms and colleagues at the Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands, developed nanosized analogs of the widely popular M13 bacteriophage, a virus that targets bacteria. These analogs were used to image collagen, a protein that provides mechanical support in tissue and whose degradation or turnover plays a crucial role in angiogenesis, myocardial infarction, and atherosclerosis. Learn more

Foundry researchers have developed simple recipes to whip up 'cage-like' container structures for the creation of complex molecular machines. Unlike their macroscale counterparts, these interlocked molecules require no tinkering and can be programmed to rotate, switch and perform mechanical work. The cage itself could hold ions or small biological molecules, making it potentially useful for sensing applications. Learn more