May 18, 2009 - Cornell's Nanobiotechnology Center (NBTC) and colleagues in Ireland are co-hosting an International Workshop on Nanotechnology Enabled Sensors and Diagnostics, June 4-5 at Dublin City University, Ireland.

Six NBTC faculty members and seven postdoctoral associates and graduate students will present research advances in such areas as: ultrasensitive sensors and diagnostic devices; micro- and nanofabricated devices for single-cell studies; and nanoparticle-based sensors and diagnostics.

April 14, 2009 - When Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) first appeared in 2003, international cooperation helped contain the virulent coronavirus, which caused respiratory illness in more than 8,000 people and killed almost 10 percent of them. Better understanding of such viruses will help control similar diseases when they strike again.

Now, Cornell researchers have discovered key properties in coronaviruses that help explain how these viruses invade their hosts and cross species barriers. The SARS virus, for example, originated in bats, jumped to civets (weasel-like mammals) in Chinese markets and then to humans. Other coronaviruses cause the common cold and croup in humans.

April 1, 2009 - A new method developed by Cornell biological engineers offers an efficient way to make proteins for use in medicine or industry without the use of live cells. The proteins made in this way include many that cannot be produced by current biotechnology.

Current methods employ vats of genetically modified bacteria or mammalian cells that churn out proteins for such pharmaceuticals as insulin or human growth hormone. But there are many proteins that bacteria or cells cannot tolerate. Anti-microbials, for example, are meant to kill bacteria and so would kill the host. And many key proteins that are important in regulating the normal life of a cell would also kill the host if overproduced inside a cell.

March 26, 2009 - To prevent pesticides from drifting away and potentially posing risks to the environment, Cornell researchers have devised a solution: Apply the pesticides by encapsulating them in biodegradable nanofibers, which keeps them intact until needed and minimizes loss to drift or being washed away from the plants they are intended to protect.

"Our technology will decrease the amount of pesticides applied, which is good for the environment," said research associate Chunhui Xiang, Ph.D. '08, who worked on the new technology with Margaret Frey, associate professor of fiber science and apparel design in the College of Human Ecology, as well as Cornell experts in horticultural sciences and entomology. "All the materials are biodegradable and from renewable resources."

February 18, 2009 - Brightly glowing nanoparticles known as "Cornell dots" are a safe, effective way to "light up" cancerous tumors so surgeons can find and remove them.

According to research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), Cornell dots, also known as C dots, are biologically safe and stable and small enough to be easily transported across the body's structures and efficiently passed through the kidneys and out in urine.

A single dot consists of several dye molecules encased in a silica shell that can be as small as 5 nanometers in diameter (a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, about three times the diameter of a silicon atom). The silica shell, essentially glass, is chemically inert. Coating the dots with polyethylene glycol, a process called PEGylation, further protects them from being recognized by the body as foreign substances, giving them more time to find targeted tumors.

February 17, 2009 - A lollipop at the end of a doctor's visit may ease the sobs of a crying child, but now, researchers hope to use other sugary structures to heal patients.

A team of physicians and scientists from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Ithaca campus may have developed a way to create engineered tissue that is well accepted by the body. Results from the project were published online Feb. 9 in the journal Soft Matter (DOI: 10.1039/b819905a).

Currently, engineered tissues are used to take the place of damaged tissue due to injury, burns or from surgical procedures. However, they are limited in size and often die from a lack of blood supply that provides life-giving nutrients.

January 27, 2009 - Anyone who has ever battled a stuck zipper knows it's a good idea to see what's stuck, where and how badly -- and then to pull hard.

Michael Hall A DNA molecule containing a nucleosome is unzipped using a microsphere held in an optical trap, allowing precise mapping of histone-DNA interactions within the nucleosome. Yellow dots indicate the locations of strong interactions, determined to near-base pair accuracy. A Cornell research team's experiments involve the "unzipping" of single DNA molecules. By mapping the hiccups, stoppages and forces along the way, they have gained new insight into how genes are packed and expressed within cells.

The research, published online Jan. 11 in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology (doi: 10.1038/nsmb.1526), was led by Michelle Wang, associate professor of physics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Collaborators on the project included physics graduate student Michael Hall and John Lis, the Barbara McClintock Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics.

Go to the Cornell Chronicle article

March 31, 2008 - Yesterday, hundreds of kids — some just knee-high and others soon to be college applicants — ran up and down Duffield Atrium with all sorts of goody bags in tow.

But their goody bags were not filled with party favors; instead they were labeled with scientific facts and filled with things like multicolored filter paper and edible but unfamiliar small red blobs.

Examining the looks on their faces, one might think they kids were attending a party, but in fact it was the first Nanoday at Cornell, where families came to learn about nanotechnology.

Each goody bag came from a different hands-on exhibit in Duffield Hall, with 20 different tables in all, ranging from making your own silly putty using simple chemical reactions to visualizing DNA in a small tube. The activities appealed to kids with familiar things, like silly putty, but also taught them about the nanotechnology involved in making them.

About 1,000 elementary, middle and high schoolers, parents and teachers attended Cornell’s Nanoday, a week-long national event that began Saturday and was headed by the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network to raise awareness and educate the public about nanoscale science.

Go to The Cornell Daily Sun news article

March 27, 2008 - Prions that cause disorders such as mad cow disease are notoriously difficult to detect in people or animals before symptoms arise. Now researchers are attempting to develop sensors that can detect prions by having them bind to a tiny ‘tuning fork’ that changes its tune when prions are present.

Prions are abnormally structured proteins that are able to convert normal proteins into the abnormal form. They are infectious and cause a number of neurodegenerative diseases. Historically, the only way to accurately detect the presence of prions in people has been to take a blood sample, inject it into a test animal, wait several months and then kill the animal and sample its brain tissue. Aside from being slow, expensive and somewhat grisly, this method is not particularly effective, with a correct diagnosis only 31% of the time.

Go to the Nature news article