Current methods can image individual atoms in complex structures if the structures are crystalline, comprising many identical structures in a regular array. A new method resolves individual atoms in nanoparticles comprising several irregularly arranged crystalline grains.

Tryptophan residues introduced at various positions in a protein chain identify folding intermediates that are too short-lived to be structurally characterized otherwise.

A variety of protein cage structures have been constructed by designing specific protein domains to self-assemble as atomically precise protein building blocks in defined geometries.

A set of 310 short single-stranded DNA tiles, plus a few additional short sequences for the edges, has been used to form more than a hundred large, complex DNA objects.

Templates made from polymer nanofibers enable the formation of long-lived silicon nanostructures that store ten times as much charge as do graphite battery terminals.

Nanoparticles targeted to cancer cells by antibodies cannot achieve enough specificity to kill drug-resistant cancer cells while sparing normal cells, but can achieve enough specificity to produce nanobubbles only in cancer cells, so the drug only enters cancer cells.

Doping carbon nanotubes with boron while they are being formed produces a novel molecular architecture formed by boron induced kinks and linkages. These nanosponges can be used repeatedly to absorb and retrieve or burn spilled oil.

Calculations using density functional theory have demonstrated that graphene can be made piezoelectric by adsorbing atoms or molecules on one surface, or by adsorbing different atoms or molecules on each surface.

Gold nanostars targeted to a protein over-expressed in most cancer cells are shuttled by that protein directly to the cancer cell nucleus where illumination with a laser light releases a drug that deforms the nucleus and kills the cell.

Creating a superlattice by placing graphene on boron nitride may allow control of electron motion in graphene and make graphene electronics practical.

Clinical trials in patients with advanced or metastatic tumors using targeted nanoparticles to deliver a standard chemotherapeutic drug showed tumor shrinkage, even in the case of cancers for which that drug is not normally effective.

A set of rationally engineered transcriptional regulators for yeast will make it easier to build complex molecular machine systems in yeast, some of which may become useful additions to pathway technologies for atomically precise manufacturing and productive nanosystems.

A combination of a molecular motor protein and a nanopore protein has been harnessed for rapidly sequencing single DNA molecules.

A hand-sized adhesive inspired by the skin and tendon morphology of a gecko provides an easily reversible force capable of holding 700 pounds on a glass surface.

In a rat model of ischemic damage, nanoparticle delivery of a growth factor and a coreceptor promotes regrowth of damaged blood vessels in seven days.

New protein repellent coating enhances the speed of carbon nanotube-based biosensors, pointing the way to faster, cheaper medical diagnostics.

Functioning DNA nanorobots to deliver specific molecular signals to cells were designed by combining DNA origami, DNA aptamers, and DNA logic gates.

New computational methods to explore the rapidly expanding collection of high resolution three-dimensional RNA structures reveal new RNA structural motifs, identifying additional building blocks for complex RNA nanostructures.

A set of machine learning programs can now predict properties of small organic molecules as accurately as can calculations based upon the Schrödinger equation, but in milliseconds rather than hours.

Artist’s conception of a nanopore drilled into a layer of graphene to speed up DNA sequencing. One of the greatest promises of near-term nanotechnoloogy is cheaper DNA sequencing to speed the development of personalized medicine. There are not only genetic differences between different patients, but also genetic differences between, for example, different cancers of the [...]