Volume 15 Issue 4, April 2020

The identification and isolation of individuals with COVID-19 can help to flatten the epidemic curve and win us time to wait for the vaccine development and production, and antiviral drug therapies.

Chloroquine — an approved malaria drug — is known in nanomedicine research for the investigation of nanoparticle uptake in cells, and may have potential for the treatment of COVID-19.

Although we seem to understand how nanoscience can impact the environment, we seem to be far off using nanotechnology for environmental remediation, says Chris Toumey.

Nanoparticles covered with a mix of positively and negatively charged ligands aggregate into supraparticles in the lysosomes of cancer cells, disrupting the integrity of the lysosomal membrane and killing the cells without involving any anticancer drugs.

Lipid nanoparticles containing genetic drugs can be bioengineered to tune their biodistribution and induce organ-specific gene regulation.

This Review surveys strategies to control chemical reactivity of species under different types of nanoconfinement.

The spontaneous relaxation of misfit strain achieved on graphene-coated substrates enables the growth of heteroepitaxial single-crystalline films with reduced dislocation density.

The surface of CdSe nanoplatelets can exhibit a paramagnetic behaviour that influences the polarization properties of the optical emission.

Interfacing TMD monolayers with graphene enables the demonstration of bright, single and narrow-line photoluminescence arising solely from TMD neutral excitons.

Large-area, high-quality AB-stacked bilayer and ABA-stacked trilayer graphene films have been achieved, with fine control of Ni content, on single-crystal Cu/Ni(111) alloy foils.

Light-sensitive azobenzene compounds can be engineered to stably partition into the plasma membrane, thus causing its thinning in the dark and relaxation upon light stimulation. In neurons, the resulting light-dependent change in membrane capacitance induces a transient hyperpolarization followed by rebound depolarization and action potential firing.

Mechanically robust, centimetre-sized, molecularly thin nanoporous carbon membranes were fabricated via the thermal crosslinking of core–rim structured monomers, offering a high reverse electrodialysis short-circuit current with a giant output power density of 67 W m⁻².

The addition of selective organ targeting molecules to nanoparticles allows the specific targeting of extrahepatic tissues, enabling gene editing of distinct cell populations outside the liver.

Extracellular potassium levels in the brain can be correlated to neural activity. A selective potassium sensor, in which cations other than potassium are shielded by a membrane, can measure potassium concentration changes in the brain of freely moving mice undergoing epileptic seizures.

Mixed-charge nanoparticles preferentially assemble inside the lysosomes of cancer cells, which causes lysosomal membrane disruption and lysosome-dependent cell death in cancer but not in healthy cells.