IMNano
By IMNano
Our podcasts cover a wide range of topics that include nanotechnology, discuss our own journeys, and review current research in a fun way !
Special Feature: Our "Lit" Update features a recent paper from the scientific literature that we review and discuss using layman terms
*opinions expressed in this podcast are solely our own.
IMNanoFeb 02, 2021
Ep 69 - Revolutionary Enzyme Ready to Cleave Unbreakable Bond
The Nobel Prize winning scientists, Frances Arnold, has done it again! Her team have use directed evolution to engineer enzymes that can break down the strong carbon-silicon bonds found in many products we use everyday!
Reference: Nicholas S. Sarai et al. ,Directed evolution of enzymatic silicon-carbon bond cleavage in siloxanes.Science383,438-443(2024). DOI:10.1126/science.adi5554
Intro/Outro music:
Music by minwbu from Pixabay
Ep 68 - Nanolife interview with Dr Thomas Mortelmans
Time for a nanolife interview with the one and only Dr Thomas Mortelmans who delves deep into his medical biosensor and how he came out his various inventions!
Check out his main biosensor work that we talk about here:
ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2022, 5, 1, 517–526
doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.1c03309 And you can follow and connect with Tom here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-mortelmans-ph-d-066a9a83/
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0677-5857
- ,
Ep 67 - Shine perpendicular light on me! Or parallel!
In this lit update we talk about a carbon nanotube sensor discovery that shows the current in a carbon nanotube device can pass parallel or perpendicular to the tubes and the results will be different!
Reference:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c02555 Nano Lett. 2023, 23, 21, 9817–9824
Ep 67 - Year in Review - 2023!
Let's review what we have accomplished, some of the missed research we didn't get to cover, and our favorite research in 2023!
Intro/Outro music:
Music by minwbu from Pixabay
Ep 66 - Meet the Expert - Stéphanie Abo - Circadian Disruption and Health
Lit-Update Meet the Expert! where we get to dig deep into papers with the scientist themselves!
Have you ever wondered how changes to your normal schedule affects your health? Tune in to learn more about circadian disruption and health from Stéphanie Abo based on her paper "Can the Clocks Tick Together Despite the Noise? Stochastic Simulations and Analysis" published in SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems.
Stéphanie is a PhD Candidate in mathematical and computational biology at the University of Waterloo. Her academic research primarily explores the interaction between the circadian clock and metabolism in healthy and disease states (e.g., diabetes, bacterial infections). I use both data-driven and mechanistic modelling technique (PDEs, ODEs, stochastic DEs, kinetic theory and mean-field limits, agent-based modelling, and statistical methods).
References: Abo, S. M. C.; Carrillo, J. A.; Layton, A. T. Can the Clocks Tick Together Despite the Noise? Stochastic Simulations and Analysis. SIAM J. Appl. Dyn. Syst. 2023, 22, 850-877 DOI:10.1137/22M147788X.
Intro/Outro music:
Music by minwbu from Pixabay
Ep 65 - Carbon quantum dots
Talking about the 2023 Nobel prize in physics used in this recent paper "Functional Group Modulation in Carbon Quantum Dots for Accelerating Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction" Zhikang Liu, Weidong Hou, Huazhang Guo, Zeming Wang, Liang Wang, and Minghong WuACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2023 15 (28), 33868-33877
Ep 64 - Failed Experiments? Important for machine learning and the scientific process!
Failed experiments are usually hidden in our notebooks and computer, not shared in the literature, but they're important for the scientific process! In this podcast, we'll discuss how it's also important for machine learning assisted chemical experiments.
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Ep 63 - Nanospray as a new way to make COF films
In this lit update we discuss some super cool new research that uses aerosol jet printing to apply a solution of COF/carbon nanotubes to make nanocomposites. Tune in the for breakdown!
References:
Bradshaw, Nathan P., Zoheb Hirani, Lidia Kuo, Siyang Li, Nicholas X. Williams, Vinod K. Sangwan, Lindsay E. Chaney, Austin M. Evans, William R. Dichtel, and Mark C. Hersam. "Aerosol‐Jet‐Printable Covalent Organic Framework Colloidal Inks and Temperature‐Sensitive Nanocomposite Films." Advanced Materials (2023): 2303673.
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Ep 62 - Human-muscle inspired graphene and liquid crystal elastomer fiber
Strong heat-activated artificial muscle to move artificial hands and robotic worms?! Tune in to learn more how scientists from Korea and France used graphene and liquid crystal elastomer to develop this human-muscle inspired technology!
Reference:
Kim, I.H., Choi, S., Lee, J. et al. Human-muscle-inspired single fibre actuator with reversible percolation. Nat. Nanotechnol. 17, 1198–1205 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-022-01220-2
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Ep 61 - NanoLife Interview with Darren Yip on Startups and Quality Control
Ep 60 - Meet the Expert behind the paper - Brittany Smith and "All-Carbon Thin-Film Transistors Using Water-Only Printing"
New series:
Lit-Update Meet the Expert! where we get to dig deep into papers with the scientist themselves!
Our first special guest is Brittany Smith, a PhD Candidate from Duke University, engineer, and marine life expert who is working towards developing technology to benefit marine life and the environment. She will be discussing her latest paper "All-Carbon Thin-Film Transistors Using Water-Only Printing" published in Nano Letters!
All-Carbon Thin-Film Transistors Using Water-Only Printing Shiheng Lu, Brittany N. Smith, Hope Meikle, Michael J. Therien, and Aaron D. FranklinNano Letters 2023 23 (6), 2100-2106DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c04196
Intro/Outro music:
Music by minwbu from Pixabay
Ep 59 - Nanoplastics transporting polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (cancerous)!
Plastics plastics plastics...when they break down into nanoplastics in the ocean, can they transport cancerous polycyclic hydrocarbons to our body?
Reference:
Erik B. Schiferle, Wenxu Ge, and Björn M. ReinhardACS Nano 2023 17 (6), 5773-5784DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c12224
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Ep 58 - Lit update - water, ice, molecules are nice!
We are talking about the weird and wonderful water today and it's amazing new property involving water vapours at ice cold temperatures!!
References:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05749-7
https://www.sun.ac.za/english/Lists/news/DispForm.aspx?ID=9860
Ep 57 - Nanopore to understand protein-protein interaction
Mimicking nanopore transport using nanopore quartz tube to understand protein-protein interactions!
Reference:
Nanopore Detection Using Supercharged Polypeptide Molecular Carriers
Xiaoyi Wang, Tina-Marie Thomas, Ren Ren, Yu Zhou, Peng Zhang, Jingjing Li, Shenglin Cai, Kai Liu, Aleksandar P. Ivanov, Andreas Herrmann, and Joshua B. Edel Journal of the American Chemical Society 2023 145 (11), 6371-6382 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c13465
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Ep 56 - Lit update on nanobubbles Q-beta virus like particles and gold, oh my!!
It's like three nanotech things all in one! Fascinating research geared towards nano cancer therapeutics
References:
Enhanced Nanobubble Formation: Gold Nanoparticle Conjugation to Qβ Virus-like Particles Perouza Parsamian, Yaning Liu, Chen Xie, Zhuo Chen, Peiyuan Kang, Yalini H. Wijesundara, Noora M. Al-Kharji, Ryanne Nicole Ehrman, Orikeda Trashi, Jaona Randrianalisoa, Xiangyu Zhu, Matthew D’Souza, Lucas Anderson Wilson, Moon J. Kim, Zhenpeng Qin, and Jeremiah J. Gassensmith ACS Nano Article ASAP
Ep 55 nanotube twins built from water loss
Amazing work where imine condensation reactions lead up to building molecular nanotube enantiomers using something known as Covalent Organic Pillars COP!
References:
Tian, Y., Guo, Y., Dong, X. et al. Synthesis of covalent organic pillars as molecular nanotubes with precise length, diameter and chirality. Nat. Synth (2023).
Making molecular nanotubes by cross-linking stackable rings. Nat. Synth (2023).
Ep 54 - Discovering new polymer structures using machine learning
We previous learned about how nanotech can help advance AI. Now, let's learn about how AI helps scientists to discover new morphologies of directed self-assembled copolymers!
References:
G. S. Doerk et al., Autonomous discovery of emergent morphologies in directed self-assembly of block copolymer blends. Science Advances. 9, eadd3687 .
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Ep 53 - Lit update - Let's talk nanotech, ai and chatgpt
In this lit update we don't really talk about the paper in detail but we had a lot of fun discussing on how relevant or not nanotech is to the ai and language model space. Check it out!
References:
Finocchio, Giovanni, et al. "Roadmap for Unconventional Computing with Nanotechnology." arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.06727 (2023). https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.06727
Gongora, Aldair E., et al. "Autonomous experimentation in nanotechnology." Intelligent Nanotechnology. Elsevier, 2023. 331-360.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780323857963000123
J Jones, MR Snowdon, S Rathod, P Peng - Flexible and Printed Electronics, 2023. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2058-8585/acb0df/meta
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Ep 52 - Scientists make mistakes too!
Ep 51 - NanoLife - 2022 Recap!
Ep 50 - Nanolife Interview with Prof. Ben Meekins - pursuing academic career and being a science communicator
Interested in pursuing an academic career in North America? And simultaneously sharing all the fun of science online? Tune in to this nanolife interview with Prof. Ben Meekins, the mastermind behind OpenSciencePresentations!
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Ep 49 - DNA Nanocages for virus capture!
Incoming lit update! Check out new research that shows nanocages made from DNA are able to capture a wide range of viruses!
References:
Broad-Spectrum Virus Trapping with Heparan Sulfate-Modified DNA Origami Shells so fresh no official journal page, etc.https://cen.acs.org/articles/100/i41/DNA-nanoshells-trap-broad-spectrum.html
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Ep 48 - Imaging atoms in normal everyday environment!
Atoms, they're everywhere! They're the building blocks of everything but you can't see them with your naked eye, now you can!
Sumaiya, S. A.; Liu, J.; Baykara, M. Z. True Atomic-Resolution Surface Imaging and Manipulation under Ambient Conditions via Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy. ACS Nano 2022.
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Ep 47 -Nobel prize winning gene editing technology CRISPR modified for sensing!
Have you heard of CRISPR, the ground breaking gene editing technology? The one that got Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020? This technology was repurposed by researchers from Fudan University to detect cell free DNA! Tune in to learn more!
References:
Yang, B.; Kong, J.; Fang, X. Programmable CRISPR-Cas9 microneedle patch for long-term capture and real-time monitoring of universal cell-free DNA. Nat Commun 2022, 13, 1-16.
Xue, C.; Greene, E. C. DNA Repair Pathway Choices in CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated Genome Editing. Trends in Genetics 2021, 37, 639-656.
Young, L. S.; Yap, L. F.; Murray, P. G. Epstein-Barr virus: more than 50 years old and still providing surprises. Nat Rev Cancer 2016, 16, 789-802.
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TEASER - Ep 47 -Nobel prize winning gene editing technology CRISPR modified for sensing!
Have you heard of CRISPR, the ground breaking gene editing technology? The one that got Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020? This technology was repurposed by researchers from Fudan University to detect cell free DNA! Tune in to learn more!
Ep 46 Lit update: Transistor how-to
Fun lit update on Monika's favorite topic haha!!
References
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41928-022-00798-8#Sec5
https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2022/07/leading-experts-suggest-guidelines-assessing-emerging-transistor
Ep 45 - Nanoparticle based cancer treatment efficiency during menstruation
Breast and ovarian cancer are some of the most common cancer for females worldwide. As cancer treatment technology continue to advance, scientists in Israel learned that the physiological processes during the different menstruation phases can affect the efficiency of breast and ovarian cancer treatment!
Reference:
Poley, M.; Mora-Raimundo, P.; Shammai, Y.; Kaduri, M.; Koren, L.; Adir, O.; Shklover, J.; Shainsky-Roitman, J.; Ramishetti, S.; Man, F.; de Rosales, Rafael T. M.; Zinger, A.; Peer, D.; Ben-Aharon, I.; Schroeder, A. Nanoparticles Accumulate in the Female Reproductive System during Ovulation Affecting Cancer Treatment and Fertility. ACS Nano 2022, 16, 5246-5257.
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TEASER - Ep 45 - Nanoparticle based cancer treatment efficiency during menstruation
Did you know that the physiological processes during the different menstruation phases can affect the efficiency of breast and ovarian cancer treatment? Tune in to learn how scientist in Israel learned about this!
Ep 44 - SEASON 2 - Nano life - Safety!!
Today we will be talking about safety in nanoscience and technology labs!!!
Reference:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-019-0375-x
https://www.labsafety.org/lab-safety-terrifying-statistics
https://cen.acs.org/safety/lab-safety/10-years-Sheri-Sangjis-death/97/i1
https://www.chemistryworld.com/podcasts/tert-butyl-lithium-or-t-buli/3007986.article
Episode 43 - Special NanoLife Interview - Science in literary arts, PhD Life, and Science Communication with Simone Pengue
We conclude the end of Season 1 with a special interview episode with soon-to-be Dr. Simone Pengue, who is pursuing his PhD in biophysics and an avid science communicator. This passion led him to be the Grand Prize winner of the Prix Media Newcomer 2021 for the FORGOTTEN DATA: the Leftovers of Science documentary. He will share his experiences as a science journalist while being a PhD candidate at the University of Basel as well as decoding scientific phenomenon in literary arts.
Below are the links to some of his work!
Forgotten Data Documentary: trailer and full movie
Dante’s Divine Comedy and quantum mechanics (main manuscript in Italian and abstract in English)
Background of his PhD Project:
Music by:
TEASER #2 - Ep 43: NanoLife Interview with Simone Pengue
In his spare time, Simone enjoys finding parallels between literary arts work and scientific phenomenon. It's a real life scientific mystery adventure!
TEASER #1 - Ep 43: NanoLife Interview with Simone Pengue
Data classification, organization, and utilization is a pretty dry topic but Simone successfully made an engaging documentary about it! What made him explore this topic in the first place?
Ep 42 - Superhydrophobic nanofluid coatings
Today we will be discussing superhydrophobics coatings using nanofluids, and what is special about this research is that that is comes from easily accessible materials such as silica!
References:
https://www.azonano.com/news.aspx?newsID=39211
Esmaeilzadeh, P. et al. (2022). Tuning the Wetting Properties of SiO2-Based Nanofluids to Create Durable Surfaces with Special Wettability for Self-Cleaning, Anti-Fouling, and Oil–Water Separation. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.
Ep 41 - Sensitive nanofiber based immunoassay
Many researchers now are working on miniaturizing and simplifying laboratory processes so that they can be easily used in places such as bed-side hospitals, pharmacies, and ambulances. In this lit update, researchers from UC Davis developed a sensitive nanofiber based immunoassay patch! Tune in to learn more!
Reference:
Cunyi Zhao, Bofeng Pan, Minyuan Wang, Yang Si, Ameer Y Taha, Gangyu Liu, Tingrui Pan, and Gang Sun. ACS Sensors 2022 7 (5), 1458-1466. DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.2c00208
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TEASER - Ep 41 - Sensitive nanofiber based immunoassay
Tune in to this episode to learn more about how researchers simplify and miniaturize laboratory techniques to be used outside the lab!
TEASER - Changing the color of a liquid crystal that took 100 years to prove its existence!
In this week's lit update, we are discussing the recently discovered "Ferroelectric Nematic Liquid Crystals" and in this work, the researchers have uncovered ways for types of these chiral liquid crystals to change colors with the use of an electric field! Neat!
Ep 40 - Changing the color of a liquid crystal that took 100 years to prove its existence!
In today's lit update, we are discussing the recently discovered "Ferroelectric Nematic Liquid Crystals" and in this work, the researchers have uncovered ways for types of these chiral liquid crystals to change colors with the use of an electric field! Neat!
References:
Feng, C., Saha, R., Korblova, E., Walba, D., Sprunt, S. N., & Jákli, A. (2021). Electrically Tunable Reflection Color of Chiral Ferroelectric Nematic Liquid Crystals. Advanced Optical Materials, 9(22), 2101230.
Lavrentovich, O. D. (2020). Ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal, a century in waiting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(26), 14629-14631.
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Ep 39 - Water deposits on glass after cooking activities
Did you know that cooking with oil lead to thin oil film deposits on indoor surfaces? These oily deposits can attract water, which can cause bacterial growth and chemical reactions! Tune in to learn what scientists from University of San Diego and University of Texas learned about how the chemical composition of the oil deposits affect how water films form on glass!
Reference:
Victor W. Or, Michael R. Alves, Michael Wade, Sarah Schwab, Richard L. Corsi, and Vicki H. Grassian Environmental Science & Technology 2022 56 (3), 1594-1604 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c06260
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TEASER - Water deposits on glass after cooking activities
Did you know that cooking with oil lead to thin oil film deposits on indoor surfaces? These oily deposits can attract water, which can cause bacterial growth and chemical reactions! Tune in to the upcoming episode to learn what scientists from University of San Diego and University of Texas learned about how the chemical composition of the oil deposits affect how water films form on glass!
Ep 38 - Shrimp shell derived sponge to stop excessive bleeding!
Excessive bleeding during surgery or trauma must be stopped immediately before it becomes deadly. In this lit update, scientists from Nankai University developed a chitosan, derived from shrimp shells, microchannelled sponge-like hemostats using 3D printing that can stop bleeding within 2 minutes!
Reference:
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TEASER - Shrimp shell derived sponge to stop excessive bleeding!
Tune in to the new episode to learn how shrimp shells can be used to prevent excessive bleeding!
Ep 37 - Lit Update on Lithium-Air Breathing Batteries!?
In today's awesome lit update, we talk about lithium-air-breathing batteries! (LABs!) Wait, what?!
Now these lithium air-breathing batteries, often known as LABs or LOBs as in Lithium-Oxygen Batteries don’t actually have lungs! Their operation is based on the metal-air interface to function.
Tune in to learn more and check out the full research here: Kim, Hyun‐Soo, Boran Kim, Hyunyoung Park, Jongsoon Kim, and Won‐Hee Ryu. Auto‐Oxygenated Porphyrin‐Derived Redox Mediators for High‐Performance Lithium Air‐Breathing Batteries. Advanced Energy Materials (2022): 2103527.
TEASER! Lithium Air Breathing batteries?!
Teaser for our upcoming episode discussing new research on lithium - air batteries!
Kim, Hyun‐Soo, Boran Kim, Hyunyoung Park, Jongsoon Kim, and Won‐Hee Ryu. "Auto‐Oxygenated Porphyrin‐Derived Redox Mediators for High‐Performance Lithium Air‐Breathing Batteries." Advanced Energy Materials (2022): 2103527.
Ep 36 - Personalized medicine of the future?
We constantly hear that personalized medicine is the medicine of the future but when will this become a reality? Researchers in this field are constantly making progress and one of the most recent developments is from researchers in Israel and China who made wearable microneedle sensors for continuous sodium monitoring!
Reference:
Zheng, Y. et al. A Wearable Microneedle-Based Extended Gate Transistor for Real-Time Detection of Sodium in Interstitial Fluids. Advanced Materials 34, 2108607 (2022).
Intro/Outro music:
TEASER - Personalized medicine of the future?
We constantly hear that personalized medicine is the medicine of the future but when will this become a reality? Researchers in this field are constantly making progress and one of the most recent developments is from researchers in Israel and China who made wearable microneedle sensors for continuous sodium monitoring!
Ep35 - Nanolife Interview with Amanda Xu - Transitioning from Academia to Industry
Our first interview of 2022 has us in conversation with soon-to-be Dr Amanda Xu, who is simultaneously pursuing her PhD along side having a fulltime position as a Coating Specialist at Evercloak. Amanda takes us on her journey and discusses the skills needed to be a research specialist in industry, as well as all the experience that can be gained from undergoing graduate work. She is also an avid baker, so check out her Instagram on how she unwinds.
Her graduate school research focuses on Langmuir-Blodgett films of 2D materials and here is a link to the 2008 paper she mentions in the pod to check out! Cote, L. J., Kim, F., & Huang, J. (2009). Langmuir− Blodgett assembly of graphite oxide single layers. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131(3), 1043-1049.
Happy listening and stay curious!
TEASER - Interview with Amanda Xu - Transitioning from Academia to Industry
Ep 34 - the ice skater's interface can help with osteoarthritis!
Very interesting and lit work regarding the ice interface that inspired a treatment for osteoarthritis that can lubricate the joints and reduce friction!
Reference:
Lei Yang, Lingyu Sun, Han Zhang, Feika Bian, Yuanjin Zhao. Ice-Inspired Lubricated Drug Delivery Particles from Microfluidic Electrospray for Osteoarthritis Treatment. ACS Nano, 2021; 15 (12): 20600
TEASER - ice skating? nano? osteoarthritis?!
Teaser for our upcoming episode were we discuss recent research work from Nanjing University Medical School!
Lei Yang, Lingyu Sun, Han Zhang, Feika Bian, Yuanjin Zhao. Ice-Inspired Lubricated Drug Delivery Particles from Microfluidic Electrospray for Osteoarthritis Treatment. ACS Nano, 2021; 15 (12): 20600
Ep33 - Camel noses as a muse for humidity sensors!
In this lit update, we discuss camels!! Well, we talk about how a humidity sensor was inspired by camels, and that this sensor can detect water with a very high sensitivity. It also shows "brain-like" or neuromorphic behavior! How neat!
References:
Li, Caicong, Jie Liu, Hailong Peng, Yuan Sui, Jian Song, Yang Liu, Wei Huang et al. "A Camel Nose-Inspired Highly Durable Neuromorphic Humidity Sensor with Water Source Locating Capability." ACS nano (2021).