Health + Medicine
Rapid advances in health-related nanoscience are creating a new frontier for precision medicine. Lensless microscopy, on-chip diagnostic sensors and screening devices, nanoparticle drug delivery methods, targeted antibiotics and cancer drugs, and high-throughput drug discovery are at the forefront of translating interdisciplinary research into individualized treatments. Diverse teams of CNSI nanoscientists are pursuing answers to the most serious and perplexing medical questions in illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes; neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and autism; and bacterial behaviors and functions that have come into recent focus with the explosion of knowledge on the importance of the human body’s unseen bacterial universe – the microbiome. CNSI’s collaborative atmosphere encourages medical researchers to engage with engineers, chemists, and physicists to address complex problems by leveraging pooled talent and resources. The proximity of CNSI to UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research encourages powerful collaborations among world-class scientists.
Nanomedicines for Cancer
CNSI scientists are developing new techniques to utilize nanotechnology for targeted deliver of therapeutic drugs tuned to specifically target cancer sites in the body. For example, Andre Nel and colleagues’s work in pancreatic cancer has led to the development and preclinical testing of a smart nanocarrier, the “silicasome”, which is capable of delivering optimal amounts of chemotherapeutic agents directly to tumors with decreased side effects and increased efficacy. The approach is remarkably clever and powerful, and it has attracted significant attention in the field as well as the interest of investors. This has led to the recent launch of our newest startup company, Westwood Biosciences Inc., which is focused on bringing silicasome technology to the clinic as rapidly as possible, and on expanding its applications to numerous other types of cancer.
Precision Antibiotics
Research in the development of precision antiobiotics, led by CNSI Director Jeff F. Miller, has resulted in the creation of a “programmable” nanoparticle-based platform for rapidly producing precision antibiotics that can kill bacterial pathogens that are resistant to current drugs. Last August, the US had its first case of a bacterial infection that was resistant to every available antibiotic. This is a global trend that is increasing unabated, and both big and small pharma are failing to innovate. Our technology is the product of an integrated approach involving CNSI electron imaging and nanoengineering capabilities, and it represents a paradigm shift in the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases.
Stem Cell Nanomedicine
The goal of our newest CNSI initiative, conducted in partnership with the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Center, is to create nanotechnologies and nanomaterials for manipulating stem cell development and guiding tissue regeneration. Using a modest amount of seed money we have launched a multidisciplinary team to work on a new scaffold designed to accelerate healing after acute cardiac injury, in a manner that minimizes scarring and regenerates healthy heart tissue. This is one of several efforts we hope to launch that leverages synergy between stem cell medicine and nanosciences to deliver minimally invasive therapies for currently intractable diseases.
Recent Health + Medicine News
November 28, 2022 | UCLA-Led Research Unearths Obscure Heat Transfer Behaviors
UCLA researchers and their colleagues have discovered a new physics principle governing how heat transfers through materials, and the finding contradicts the conventional wisdom that heat always moves faster as pressure increases. Up until now, the common belief has held true…
November 16, 2022 | Ribbon cutting celebrates $5 million gift to translate promising research from lab to clinic
This past spring, a $5 million gift from the Alfred E Mann Family Foundation established the Alfred E Mann Family Foundation Research Acceleration Fund at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA and the Alfred E Mann...
November 15, 2022 | 11 CNSI members among most highly cited researchers for 2022
Eleven CNSI Members are among nearly forty UCLA faculty scholars that have been named as the world’s most influential scientific researchers. In its latest annual list, Clarivate Analytics names the most highly cited researchers — the scholars whose work was most...
November 10, 2022 | Handheld Diagnostic Lab Offers Point-of-Care Solution for Future Pandemics
UCLA Samueli School of Engineering professor Dino Di Carlo of bioengineering and associate professor Sam Emaminejad of electrical and computer engineering co-authored a study, which was published this week in Nature. The paper outlined how the lab kit works and...
November 8, 2022 | Scientists say eye-disease drug may also help fight COVID
An interdisciplinary research team led by UCLA found that a drug already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for eye disease, verteporfin, stopped the replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Their laboratory study identified the Hippo...
November 2, 2022 | UCLA Engineering Professor Named American Physical Society Fellow
Mona Jarrahi, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been named a fellow of the American Physical Society. The fellowship program recognizes researchers who have made significant contributions in the...
November 1, 2022 | Deep learning-based virtual staining of tissue facilitates rapid assessment of breast cancer biomarker
In a recent work published in BME Frontiers, a UCLA research team developed a computational staining approach powered by deep learning, which performs the HER2 staining without requiring any chemicals. The research team captured the autofluorescence information of the...
October 31, 2022 | Electrons, Cameras, Action!
The California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA has changed or added five cameras connected to its suite of six transmission electron microscopes. Taken together, the upgrades will dramatically reduce noise in imaging while increasing efficiency and offering options to meet the distinct needs of different types of investigations. These instruments are available to users from UCLA and beyond at the EICN.
October 12, 2022 | Upgraded cellular and volumetric imaging available to users at UCLA facility
To expand the understanding of fundamental processes in living things, researchers often need to capture images of biological dynamics spooling out over fractions of a second or volumetric data over periods of days. Investigators looking to create knowledge about such...