Nano-engineered drugs that stop harmful bacteria and viruses could be on the horizon.
Health
Nanobiotics: model predicts how nanoparticles interact with proteins
Twisted vibrations enable quality control for chiral drugs and supplements
Terahertz light creates twisting vibrations in biomolecules such as proteins, confirming whether their compositions and structures are safe and effective.
Joerg Lahann receives funding to improve cancer-fighting technologies
U-M ChE’s Joerg Lahann, the Wolfgang Pauli Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering, has received funding for a joint industry-academic cancer research project with Gradalis. The research focuses on finding methods to utilize a patient’s cancer cells to create personalized therapeutics to treat cancer.
Greg Thurber receives World ADC George R. Pettit Individual Input to the Field Award
U-M ChE associate professor, Greg Thurber, has been recognized with the George R. Pettit Individual Input to the Field Award. He was presented with the award at the 2021 World Antibody Drug Conjugate (World ADC) Conference.
New protein engineering method could accelerate the discovery of COVID-19 therapeutics
The method could one day be used to develop nanobodies against other viruses and disease targets as well.
Light-twisting ‘chiral’ nanotechnology could accelerate drug screening
A new approach makes liquid-crystal-like beacons out of harmful amyloid proteins present in diseases such as Type II diabetes.
Study suggests method to starve pancreatic cancer cells
Rather than attacking cancer cells directly, new cell-model research probes weaknesses in pancreatic cancer’s interactions with other cells to obtain nutrients needed for tumor growth.
How rod-shaped particles might distract an out-of-control immune response
When white blood cells don’t know when to stop, an injection of rod-shaped particles may draw them away from a site of excessive inflammation.
Engineering immunity: Profiling COVID-19 immune responses and developing a vaccine
As COVID-19 looks more like a disease of the immune system, a Michigan engineer is working with doctors to look at how immune responses differ between mild and severe cases.
U-M-approved face shield design guides makers addressing the PPE shortage through 3D printing
As Ann Arbor’s maker community sprang into action making face shields, Michigan Medicine and the U-M College of Engineering offered a recommended design that is effective and straightforward to produce.
Containment efforts appear to step down the spread of COVID-19 from the exponential norm
Deaths in China reflect a slower expansion of the new coronavirus, suggesting a fractal network.
U-M spinoff offers free coronavirus test kits to researchers
The kits help researchers understand where the virus came from and how it operates.
Cancer: Faster screening to hit “undruggable” targets
Coiled proteins could stop cancer and other diseases from overriding signals within cells.
Patient cancer cells reliably grow on new 3D scaffold, showing promise for precision medicine
While previous structures guessed at the environment that cells would want, the new design lets the cells build to their own specifications.
Kirigami can spin terahertz rays in real time to peer into biological tissue
The rays used by airport scanners might have a future in medical imaging.
Biopsy alternative: “Wearable” device captures cancer cells from blood
New device caught more than three times as many cancer cells as conventional blood draw samples.
Toward protein nanomachines: just add charge
Added electrical charges can harness a protein’s shape and chemical properties to build interesting structures.
Findings in mice show pill for breast cancer diagnosis may outperform mammograms
A new kind of imaging could distinguish aggressive tumors from benign, preventing unnecessary breast cancer treatments.
Nightmare bacteria: Michigan Engineers discuss how to combat antibiotic resistance
Drug-resistant bugs are on the rise and new approaches are needed.
Microscale 3D printing for medicine
New “jet writing” technique can make detailed 3D structures with clinically relevant materials for future implants and cancer studies.
