Proteins contain carboxyl groups. These charged groups make it difficult for any protein to enter a human (or other eukaryotic) cell. Modifying proteins to enter cells could revolutionize medicine, e....
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Germanium (Ge), a group-IV semiconductor material, is crucial to many established and potential technologies. In optoelectronics, Ge has been used as a photodetector material for on-chip data distribu...
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The ability to study single cells has become indispensable, helping researchers identify characteristics and behaviors otherwise hidden using population averages. By obtaining multiple measures per ce...
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A whispering gallery mode (WGM) is a type of electromagnetic wave that travels around a concave surface. Such waves can propagate at the edge of a very small structure called an optical microcavity. W...
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Exhaust emission and fuel economy standards have put increased pressure on the auto industry to improve the efficiency of internal combustion engines. While higher standards help protect the environme...
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Spectrometers are optical instruments used to measure light. They work by detecting spectral lines and measuring their wavelength or intensity. Spectrometers have many applications, including telecomm...
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Intrinsic and extrinsic fluorescent markers can help surgeons target and rapidly identify tumorous tissue. The signals given off by these markers are relatively faint and normally viewed with a fluore...
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Although current microscopic optical systems are highly sensitive, they are generally bulky and expensive, and most have a severely limited field of vision. One alternative is adaptive microlenses tha...
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Proteomics is a relatively new discipline that is a large scale study of proteins. It includes systematically identifying the sequence, characterizing the structure and evaluating the function of all ...
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Surface mounted and exposed sensors are used in objects commonly found in a modern society that range from simple temperature monitors to complex airbag ejection systems. But sensors located on the su...
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Cellular interactions and signaling in multicellular organisms involve complex pathways that can be difficult to study when using macroscale in vitro culture systems, in part because traditional macro...
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Protein characterization has become an integral part of modern biology, even inspiring a new discipline known as proteomics, or the classification of proteins based on the genome of an organism.  MS ...
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Load bearing structures experience stresses and/or strains that deform the material from which they are made. Regardless of a building component’s size, exposure to or tolerance for stress and strai...
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Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) is a technique capable of identifying large numbers of proteins in complex biological samples. In the process, peptides are ionized and an initial survey scan (i.e., a...
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‘Variable-focus’ lenses are lenses that have adjustable focal lengths. Liquid-based, miniaturized lenses of this type are useful in photonics, display systems and biomedical tools. However, they a...
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Isolating analytes from complex biological samples is one of the most crucial steps in many areas of biological research and clinical diagnostics. Paramagnetic particles (PMPs) or beads are important ...
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Terahertz (THz) electromagnetic radiation penetrates cloth, paper and partially into the skin without the damaging effects of X-rays. Portable electronic devices capable of generating this radiation w...
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Electrodes routinely are used in electrochemical sensing, fuel cells, batteries and numerous other applications. Critically, the surface of an electrode must be clean before sensing elements can be at...
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Tracking emissions, sensing earthquakes and monitoring patient brain waves are just a few of the applications that rely on changing, real-world information. In typical systems, sensors pass on raw dat...
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Confocal microscopy is used to view biological tissue through intervening tissues or structures. Multiphoton confocal microscopy uses a focused beam of photons to provide high-resolution images of tis...
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In ultrasonic welding, work pieces are clamped between a horn and anvil and then joined using high-frequency vibration energy. Friction and heat between the surfaces causes them to soften and meld tog...
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Mass spectrometry (MS) is a vital tool for identifying and tallying the different proteins, peptides and other molecules in a sample. To determine relative abundance, reagent tags are used to label th...
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For diagnosis and research it often is necessary to isolate a subset of cells from a sample that contains bodily fluids, contaminants, tissue and other types of cells. For example, determining a pati...
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Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are made of layered semiconductor materials and are suited for a variety of applications, ranging from environmental monitoring to explosives detection and missile-avoida...
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For many applications – from remote sensing to laser displays – it is necessary to convert the frequency of light via nonlinear interaction in semiconductor materials. Waveguide devices accomplish...
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