SciTech #ScienceSunday Digest - 31/2016.
SciTech #ScienceSunday Digest - 31/2016.
Permalink here: http://www.scitechdigest.net/2016/07/assembling-protein-nanostructures.html
Assembling protein nanostructures, Superatom molecules, Printable Lego Microfluidics, Advanced 3D printing, Cockroach milk, Drone 3D mapping, Microbial production systems, Telomerase therapeutics, WiFi contact lens, Nanostructures control light.
1. Large Self-Assembling Protein Nanostructures
A DARPA project has used computational methods to screen hundreds of thousands of different protein combinations to find those candidates that self assemble into cages, and then successfully produced these structures inside living cells http://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2016-07-21. Progress appears to be quite rapid with the group successfully creating a 120-subunit icosahedron out of self-assembling proteins inside a genetically engineered cell, being the largest of a diverse family of different protein cages that have now been produced. The team claims this work “opens the door to a new generation of genetically programmable protein-based molecular machines.” It’ll be interesting to see how they further functionalise these things.
2. Building Molecules Out of Superatoms
Superatoms, nanoscale clusters of atoms that behave as a single atomic entity, offer a fascinating and huge space of new materials exploration. In recent work, simple molecules or supermolecules, are being created out of superatoms http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2016/07/molecule-clusters-superatoms-superatomic-structure. These supermolecules have well defined surface definition, bonding, and electrochemistry and were made with cobalt selenide superatoms, demonstrating a versatile platform for exploring the space of superatom molecules and properties. Interesting, fundamental materials platform. Meanwhile super-ions are boosting perovskite solar cell performance http://phys.org/news/2016-07-materials-based-clusters-atoms-super-ions.html.
3. Modular Lego Microfluidics
3D printable Microfluidic Evolutionary Components (MECs) represent a powerful new modular microfluidics experimentation and prototyping platform https://3dprint.com/143152/3dp-modular-lab-instruments/. So far there is a library of 200 different MECs for different microfluidic functions such as pumps, valves, storage, mixing, etc that can be 3D printed and connected together via standard interfaces to create custom circuits to perform as novel chemical and biological research instruments. This has the potential to be transformative for both DIYers and industrial research labs, able to accelerate innovation, and deliver unexpected results.
4. Pushing the Envelope with 3D Printing
The Lawrence Livermore Lab is pushing 3D printing this week. First, they can now hierarchically build ultralight flexible metallic structures with fractal lattices that have feature scales in the nm to cm range https://www.llnl.gov/news/new-study-unlocks-potential-ultra-lightweight-and-flexible-3d-printed-metallic-materials, although the technique first prints in polymer that is removed after coating in metal. Second, newer metal 3D printers are being used to build lasers, supports, and optics, and including diagnostic sensors to confirm the part will perform as predicted once finished https://www.llnl.gov/news/3d-printing-could-revolutionize-laser-design.
5. Cockroach Milk?
It turns out that certain cockroaches produce a type of protein-crystal “milk” to feed it’s young, and this protein complex happens to four times as nutritious as cows milk, contains proteins with all essential amino acids, as well as fats and sugars like a complete food http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-show-why-we-should-all-start-drinking-cockroach-milk. The gene sequence has now been identified and efforts are underway to engineer yeast to produce bulk volumes artificially. Maybe a future version of the Soylent food replacement powder / drink will include a dose of cockroach milk protein as a more robust and well-rounded food supplement?
6. High-Res 3D Mapping via Drones
Lockheed Martin has developed Hydra Fusion, a system that allows drones to quickly and easily produce 3D topographic maps of landscapes and features https://www.newscientist.com/article/2098120-stitching-a-drones-view-of-the-world-into-3d-maps-as-it-flies/. People have been trying to do this for a while of course, and the article mentions a number of other efforts in this space in addition to applications including estimating mining ore volumes, toxic material released, crop growth, construction project progress, rail movements, and others. I wonder if Google will ever commission a Drone-view project to embed high-res 3D topography across Maps/Earth like it does for Street-view?
7. Advanced Microbial Production Systems
Another DARPA project has resulted in the creation of a microbe bioreactor for producing different pharmaceuticals as needed http://news.mit.edu/2016/portable-device-produces-biopharmaceuticals-on-demand-0729. The device is a microfluidic chip containing a population of genetically engineered yeast cells that respond to different simple feedstocks to produce doses of either human growth hormone or interferon, plus systems for keeping the cells alive and filtering media. Different cells might be used to produce a huge range of different drugs from the same chip in future; I see this as another step on the path towards mature productive nanosystems. Meanwhile smart building bricks have been created with microbial fuel cells embedded to produce electricity, clean water, and create detergents http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/news.aspx?id=3428.
8. Telomerase Therapeutics for Aging
Recent human clinical trials have shown that dosing patients with the synthetic male hormone danazol actually works to stimulate the production of the telomerase enzyme, and causing telomeres to be extended in cells at a rate about 3-fold greater than the rate they would normally be lost http://www.sciencealert.com/a-new-hormone-treatment-can-reverse-cell-ageing-in-humans. This is a commonly available drug, used off-label in many cases, but check the wikipedia listing for possible side effects. Still, might be an interesting temporary drug to try in order to gain a few extra healthy years, similar to Bioviva’s telomerase gene therapy. A recent review of Telomerase as a therapeutic target provides far more detail and nuance https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2016/07/a-review-of-telomerase-as-a-therapeutic-target/.
9. WiFi Enabled Smart Contact Lens
New antennas (and antenna materials) and wireless communication protocols employing the phenomenon of backscattering allow tiny unpowered devices to convert Bluetooth signals into power that is then used to produce WiFi signals for data transmission https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602035/first-wi-fi-enabled-smart-contact-lens-prototype/. The devices basically use the equivalent of Bluetooth white noise generated by a nearby device to broadcast WiFi data to a range of a little over 24 inches, which is sufficient for these types of applications. Prototypes include functional contact lenses and implantable devices.
10. Advanced Light Manipulation for Displays and Data
First, new metasurfaces comprised of precisely arranged nano-scale blocks arrayed as pixels can manipulate light to produce colour holograms http://phys.org/news/2016-07-high-efficiency-holograms-metasurface-nanoblocks.html; by changing the orientation of the blocks it is easy to produce different holographic images with different colour properties as desired. Second, new on-chip laser architectures produce vortex lasers with corkscrew encoding to achieve 10 times greater data capacity http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2016/07/034.html.
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Permalink here: http://www.scitechdigest.net/2016/07/assembling-protein-nanostructures.html
Assembling protein nanostructures, Superatom molecules, Printable Lego Microfluidics, Advanced 3D printing, Cockroach milk, Drone 3D mapping, Microbial production systems, Telomerase therapeutics, WiFi contact lens, Nanostructures control light.
1. Large Self-Assembling Protein Nanostructures
A DARPA project has used computational methods to screen hundreds of thousands of different protein combinations to find those candidates that self assemble into cages, and then successfully produced these structures inside living cells http://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2016-07-21. Progress appears to be quite rapid with the group successfully creating a 120-subunit icosahedron out of self-assembling proteins inside a genetically engineered cell, being the largest of a diverse family of different protein cages that have now been produced. The team claims this work “opens the door to a new generation of genetically programmable protein-based molecular machines.” It’ll be interesting to see how they further functionalise these things.
2. Building Molecules Out of Superatoms
Superatoms, nanoscale clusters of atoms that behave as a single atomic entity, offer a fascinating and huge space of new materials exploration. In recent work, simple molecules or supermolecules, are being created out of superatoms http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2016/07/molecule-clusters-superatoms-superatomic-structure. These supermolecules have well defined surface definition, bonding, and electrochemistry and were made with cobalt selenide superatoms, demonstrating a versatile platform for exploring the space of superatom molecules and properties. Interesting, fundamental materials platform. Meanwhile super-ions are boosting perovskite solar cell performance http://phys.org/news/2016-07-materials-based-clusters-atoms-super-ions.html.
3. Modular Lego Microfluidics
3D printable Microfluidic Evolutionary Components (MECs) represent a powerful new modular microfluidics experimentation and prototyping platform https://3dprint.com/143152/3dp-modular-lab-instruments/. So far there is a library of 200 different MECs for different microfluidic functions such as pumps, valves, storage, mixing, etc that can be 3D printed and connected together via standard interfaces to create custom circuits to perform as novel chemical and biological research instruments. This has the potential to be transformative for both DIYers and industrial research labs, able to accelerate innovation, and deliver unexpected results.
4. Pushing the Envelope with 3D Printing
The Lawrence Livermore Lab is pushing 3D printing this week. First, they can now hierarchically build ultralight flexible metallic structures with fractal lattices that have feature scales in the nm to cm range https://www.llnl.gov/news/new-study-unlocks-potential-ultra-lightweight-and-flexible-3d-printed-metallic-materials, although the technique first prints in polymer that is removed after coating in metal. Second, newer metal 3D printers are being used to build lasers, supports, and optics, and including diagnostic sensors to confirm the part will perform as predicted once finished https://www.llnl.gov/news/3d-printing-could-revolutionize-laser-design.
5. Cockroach Milk?
It turns out that certain cockroaches produce a type of protein-crystal “milk” to feed it’s young, and this protein complex happens to four times as nutritious as cows milk, contains proteins with all essential amino acids, as well as fats and sugars like a complete food http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-show-why-we-should-all-start-drinking-cockroach-milk. The gene sequence has now been identified and efforts are underway to engineer yeast to produce bulk volumes artificially. Maybe a future version of the Soylent food replacement powder / drink will include a dose of cockroach milk protein as a more robust and well-rounded food supplement?
6. High-Res 3D Mapping via Drones
Lockheed Martin has developed Hydra Fusion, a system that allows drones to quickly and easily produce 3D topographic maps of landscapes and features https://www.newscientist.com/article/2098120-stitching-a-drones-view-of-the-world-into-3d-maps-as-it-flies/. People have been trying to do this for a while of course, and the article mentions a number of other efforts in this space in addition to applications including estimating mining ore volumes, toxic material released, crop growth, construction project progress, rail movements, and others. I wonder if Google will ever commission a Drone-view project to embed high-res 3D topography across Maps/Earth like it does for Street-view?
7. Advanced Microbial Production Systems
Another DARPA project has resulted in the creation of a microbe bioreactor for producing different pharmaceuticals as needed http://news.mit.edu/2016/portable-device-produces-biopharmaceuticals-on-demand-0729. The device is a microfluidic chip containing a population of genetically engineered yeast cells that respond to different simple feedstocks to produce doses of either human growth hormone or interferon, plus systems for keeping the cells alive and filtering media. Different cells might be used to produce a huge range of different drugs from the same chip in future; I see this as another step on the path towards mature productive nanosystems. Meanwhile smart building bricks have been created with microbial fuel cells embedded to produce electricity, clean water, and create detergents http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/news.aspx?id=3428.
8. Telomerase Therapeutics for Aging
Recent human clinical trials have shown that dosing patients with the synthetic male hormone danazol actually works to stimulate the production of the telomerase enzyme, and causing telomeres to be extended in cells at a rate about 3-fold greater than the rate they would normally be lost http://www.sciencealert.com/a-new-hormone-treatment-can-reverse-cell-ageing-in-humans. This is a commonly available drug, used off-label in many cases, but check the wikipedia listing for possible side effects. Still, might be an interesting temporary drug to try in order to gain a few extra healthy years, similar to Bioviva’s telomerase gene therapy. A recent review of Telomerase as a therapeutic target provides far more detail and nuance https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2016/07/a-review-of-telomerase-as-a-therapeutic-target/.
9. WiFi Enabled Smart Contact Lens
New antennas (and antenna materials) and wireless communication protocols employing the phenomenon of backscattering allow tiny unpowered devices to convert Bluetooth signals into power that is then used to produce WiFi signals for data transmission https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602035/first-wi-fi-enabled-smart-contact-lens-prototype/. The devices basically use the equivalent of Bluetooth white noise generated by a nearby device to broadcast WiFi data to a range of a little over 24 inches, which is sufficient for these types of applications. Prototypes include functional contact lenses and implantable devices.
10. Advanced Light Manipulation for Displays and Data
First, new metasurfaces comprised of precisely arranged nano-scale blocks arrayed as pixels can manipulate light to produce colour holograms http://phys.org/news/2016-07-high-efficiency-holograms-metasurface-nanoblocks.html; by changing the orientation of the blocks it is easy to produce different holographic images with different colour properties as desired. Second, new on-chip laser architectures produce vortex lasers with corkscrew encoding to achieve 10 times greater data capacity http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2016/07/034.html.
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