More than one in 10 people in the world lack basic drinking water access, and by 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas, which is why access to clean water is one of the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges. Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have designed a…
Nanotech Transfer of Blood, Urine Samples without Refrigeration
Imagine a physician in a rural or remote area who needs to send a patient’s blood or urine sample to a hospital hundreds of miles away for testing. To preserve the sample’s quality, it must be refrigerated throughout transport, a costly process requiring tremendous energy which may be scarce. Using nanotechnology, a team of researchers…
New Enabling Technology Benefits Emerging Gene Therapies
For years, researchers have attempted to harness the full potential of gene therapy, a technique that inserts genes into a patient’s cells to treat aggressive diseases such as cancer. But getting engineered DNA molecules into cells is not an easy task. J. Mark Meacham, assistant professor of mechanical engineering & materials science at Washington University…
AI Implications: Engineer’s Model Lays Groundwork for Machine-Learning Device
In what could be a small step for science potentially leading to a breakthrough, an engineer at Washington University in St. Louis has taken steps toward using nanocrystal networks for artificial intelligence applications. Elijah Thimsen, assistant professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, and his collaborators have…