Hybrid Graphene‐Gold Nanoparticle‐Based Nucleic Acid Conjugates for Cancer‐Specific Multimodal Imaging and Combined Therapeutics
Intelligent Drug Delivery Platform Developed for Personalized Cancer Treatment
Scheme: An intelligent drug delivery platform composed of thin carbon (graphene)-coated gold nanoparticles is developed for target-specific multimodal cancer therapies and imaging. Image credit: Letao Yang and Ki-Bum Lee.
A team from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers has created an intelligent drug delivery platform that effectively induces apoptotic signaling and may help the personalized treatment of cancer patients.
Stem cell functions and fates are dynamically orchestrated by various biomolecular as well as physical signals in a spatially and temporally controlled manner. Achieving precise control of stem cell fates and functions is of great significance for studying physiological mechanisms, identifying pathogenic pathways, and developing enhanced treatments of devastating diseases. To better investigate and further regulate these complex biological processes, photo-responsive nanomaterials have gained increasing research interests for achieving cell behavior control due to their exceptional photo-physical properties. Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) have gained extensive attention as near-infrared (NIR)-responsive nanomaterials owing to excellent photostability, minimal tissue scattering, and especially anti-stokes ultraviolet (UV) as well as visible emissions, showing great potential in various applications.
Scientists can turn proteins into never-ending patterns that look like flowers, trees or snowflakes, a technique that could help engineer a filter for tainted water and human tissues.
Stem cells have attracted increasing research interest in the field of regenerative medicine because of their unique ability to differentiate into multiple cell lineages. However, controlling stem cell differentiation efficiently and improving the current destructive characterization methods for monitoring stem cell differentiation are the critical issues.
Chemoresistance is a major challenge facing the effective treatment of cancers. To overcome resistance to chemotherapy, microRNA (miRNA), which are short (20−22 nucleotides) noncoding RNA molecules, has shown to be an attractive strategy. A growing body of evidence shows that modulation of miRNA levels in cancer can mitigate the development and progression of cancer. 
Seeking a better way to capture radioactive iodides in spent nuclear reactor fuel, Rutgers–New Brunswick scientists have developed an extremely efficient “molecular trap” that can be recycled and reused.
The construction of stimulus-responsive supramolecular complexes of metabolic pathway enzymes, inspired by natural multi-enzyme assemblies (metabolons), provides an attractive avenue for efficient and spatio-temporally controllable one-pot biotransformations.
