NANO @ IOWA
News from the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute at UI
August 27, 2015
Items in red are new this issue.
(Others are carried forward from previous issues.)
1. Upcoming conferences and seminars including nanoscience and nanotechnology:

Development of metal organic nanotubes with unique water transport and storage
properties
Professor Tori Forbes, Department of Chemistry, University of Iowa
Friday September 4, 3.30-4.30 pm, W128 Chemistry Building, 251 North Capitol Street

ICEENN 2015: 10th International Conference on the Environmental Effects of Nanoparticles
and Nanomaterials
Vienna, Austria
September 6-10, 2015
https://nanoenvironment2015.univie.ac.at

4th International Conference and Exhibition on Materials Science & Engineering
Orlando, Florida
September 14-16, 2015
http://materialsscience.conferenceseries.com/#

Biochemistry seminar: Following nature's lead in constructing membrane protein
nanodisc complexes
Mark Fisher, PhD, Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University
of Kansas Medical Center
Thursday September 24, 10.30-11.30 am, Medical Education Research Facility, 2117, 375
Newton Road, University of Iowa

SPIE: Scanning Microscopies
Monterey, California
September 29 – October 1, 2015
http://spie.org/x104030.xml

International Symposium on Clusters and Nanomaterials (ISCAN)
Richmond, Virgina
October 26-29, 2015
http://www.iscan.vcu.edu

SETAC North America 36th Annual Meeting
Salt Lake City, Utah
November 1-5, 2015
http://www.setac.org/events/event_details.asp?id=489394&group=

5th International Conference on Nanotek and Expo
San Antonio, Texas
November 16-18, 2015
http://nanotechnologyexpo.conferenceseries.com/

International Electron Devices Meeting
Washington, D.C.
December 7-9, 2015
http://www.his.com/~iedm/

Nanotech 2016
Tokyo, Japan
January 27-29, 2016
http://www.nanotechexpo.jp/
2. Upcoming grant opportunities and funding requests in nanoscience and nanotechnology:

Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Department of Defense Multidisciplinary Research Program of the
University Research Initiative
Department of Defense
ONR-15-FOA-0011
Deadline Dates: September 8, 2015 (Letter of Intent); December 7, 2015 (Full proposal)
http://grantbulletin.research.uiowa.edu/dod-university-multidisciplinary-research-initiativemuri-including-collabrations-united-kingdom

NSF: Science of Science and Innovation Policy
National Science Foundation
PD 09-7626
Deadline Date: September 9, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501084

Nanomanufacturing
National Science Foundation
PD 14-1788
Deadline Dates: September 1 – September 15, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13347

OVPRED Internal Funding Initiatives (IFI)
University of Iowa
Deadline dates: September 15, 2015, December 15, 2015 and March 22, 2015
http://research.uiowa.edu/researchers/find-funding/internal-funding-initiatives-ifi

Bioengineering Research Grants
National Institutes of Health
PAR-13-137
Deadline Date: September 25, 2015
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-13-137.html

Use of the NASA Physical Sciences Informatics System
NASA
NNH15ZTT001N-15PSI_A
Deadline Date: September 30, 2015
http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary.do?method=init&solId={88074AD32C25-81A8-6EED-D87C6C7459D1}&path=open

Agricultural and Food Research Initiative – Foundational Program
USDA
USDA-NIFA-AFRI-004915
Deadline Date: September 30, 2015 (Letter of Intent)
http://nifa.usda.gov/funding-opportunity/agriculture-and-food-research-initiative-foundationalprogram

Nanomaterials Health Implications Research (NHIR): Comprehensive Evaluation of
Interactions between Engineered Nanomaterials and Biological System
National Institutes of Health
RFA-ES-15-013
Deadline dates: October 5, 2015 (Internal deadline); November 30, 2015 (Proposal deadline)
https://research.uiowa.edu/grantTrack/preselection.php?get=uiwins&GrantID=18105&Type=2

Nano-Biosensing
National Science Foundation
PD 14-7909
Deadline dates: October 1 – 20, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503353

Interfacial Processes and Thermodynamics
National Science Foundation
PD 14-1414
Deadline dates: October 1 – 20, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13362

Fluid Dynamics
National Science Foundation
PD 14-1443
Deadline dates: October 1 – 20, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13365

NSF: Environmental Health and Safety of Nanotechnology
National Science Foundation
PD 14-1179
Deadline dates: October 1 – 20, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501030

Electronics, Photonics and Magnetic Devices
National Science Foundation
PD 13-1517
Deadline Dates: October 1 – November 2, 2015
http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13379

Communications, Circuits, and Sensing-Systems
National Science Foundation
PD 13-7564
Deadline dates: October 1 – November 2, 2015
http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13381

NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program MRI Instrument Acquisition or Development
National Science Foundation
15-504
Deadline Dates: October 30, 2015 (Internal deadline); January 13, 2016 (Sponsor deadline)
https://research.uiowa.edu/grantTrack/preselection.php?get=uiwins&GrantID=18031&Type=2

Cultivating Cultures for Ethical STEM (CCE STEM)
National Science Foundation
15-528
Deadline Dates: December 8, 2015 (Internal deadline); February 16, 2016 (Sponsor deadline)
https://research.uiowa.edu/grantTrack/preselection.php?get=uiwins&GrantID=18060&Type=2

2015 Broad Agency Announcement Engineer Research and Development Center
Department of Defense
FOA Number: W912HZ-15-BAA-01
Deadline Date: January 31, 2016
http://nano.gov/node/1373

FY2016 Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, Water Systems (INFEWS)
National Science Foundation
15-108
Deadline Date: September 30, 2016
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15108/nsf15108.jsp#ref1

Army Research Laboratory BAA for Basic and Applied Scientific Research
Department of Defense
FOA Number: W911NF-12-R-0011
Deadline Date: March 31, 2017
http://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?page=8

Image-guided Drug Delivery in Cancer
National Institutes for Health (NIH)
FOA Number: PA-09-253
Deadline Dates: January 25, May 25, and September 25, annually
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-09-253.html

Exploratory/Developmental Bioengineering Research Grants
National Institutes for Health (NIH)
FOA Number: PA-12-284
Deadline Dates: January 25, May 25, and September 25, annually
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-12-284.html

Development of Multifunctional Drug and Gene Delivery Systems
National Institutes for Health (NIH)
FOA Number: PA-10-048
Deadline Dates: February 5, June 5, and October 5, annually
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-10-048.html

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Biology and Medicine
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
FOA Number: PA-11-148
Deadline Dates: February 5, June 5, October 5, annually
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-11-148.html

Bioengineering Nanotechnology Initiative
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
FOA Number: PA-10-149
Deadline Dates: April 5, August 5, December 5, annually
http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=53500

Cancer Diagnostic and Therapeautic Agents Enabled by Nanotechnology
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
FOA Number: PAR-10-286
Deadline Dates: April 5, August 5, December 5, annually
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-10-286.html
3. Recent news and updates from NNI:

CHEM:5118:0001 Nanomaterials course Fall 2015
Basic principles associated with nanoscience and nanotechnology; fabrication and synthesis,
size dependent properties, characterization, applications of materials at nanometer length
scales, recent technological breakthroughs in the field. Open to graduate standing or advanced
undergraduate standing in engineering and science. See link for more information.
https://isis.uiowa.edu/isis2/courses/details.page?_ticket=lwAeVZm9rxtZ-QI_qZ5_vZCDYvyiRaJ&id=796170&ci=157310
4. Highlights of some new interesting nanoscience and nanotechnology research and articles:

Kirigami graphene makes microscale devices
After discovering that graphene sheets bend and crumple just like paper researchers in the US
hit upon the idea of using the material in the ancient Japanese art of paper-folding to make
three-dimensional structures. Employing kirigami, a variant of origami that includes cutting, the
team created graphene hinges and springs. The team claims that the technique could be used
in the production of super-soft electronics and sensor devices. Graphene, the one atom thick
two-dimensional carbon allotrope, which won its discoverers the 2010 physics Nobel Prize, has
made headlines recently as it has made its way into everything from light bulbs to water
purification technologies. Prized for its superior conductivity and flexibility intensive research is
under way to employ it inflexible electronics to produce bendy displays and LEDs. While
investigating the mechanical properties of graphene, researchers from Cornell University, US,
found that their graphene sheets were stiff like crumpled paper. ‘We were quite surprised by
this,’ says Paul McEuen, who led the team. They had expected graphene to be far more flexible.
‘We could take atomic scale predictions of what [the stiffness] should be, and the answer we got
was very different from what we measured.’
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2015/07/kirigami-graphene-makes-microscale-devicessprings-hinges

Nanoparticles used to breach mucus barrier in lungs
Nanotechnology could one day provide an inhaled vehicle to deliver targeted therapeutic genes
for those suffering from life-threatening lung disorders. Researchers may have discovered first
gene delivery system that efficiently penetrates the hard-to-breach human airway mucus barrier
of lung tissue. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins
University Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Federal University of Rio
de Janeiro in Brazil have designed a DNA-loaded nanoparticle that can pass through the mucus
barrier covering conducting airways of lung tissue—proving the concept, they say, that
therapeutic genes may one day be delivered directly to the lungs to the levels sufficient to treat
cystic fibrosis (CF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and other life-threatening
lung diseases. "To our knowledge, this is the first biodegradable gene delivery system that
efficiently penetrates the human airway mucus barrier of lung tissue," says study author Jung
Soo Suk, Ph.D., a biomedical engineer and faculty member at the Center for Nanomedicine at
the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins. A report on the work appeared in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences on June 29.
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-nanoparticles-breach-mucus-barrier-lungs.html

Study explores nanoscale structure of thin films
The world’s newest and brightest synchrotron light source—the National Synchrotron Light
Source II (NSLS-II) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory—has
produced one of the first publications resulting from work done during the facility's science
commissioning phase. Published July 7 in the online edition of the International Union of
Crystallography Journal (a recently launched journal of the International Union of
Crystallography), the paper discusses a new way to apply a widely used local-structure analysis
tool—known as atomic pair distribution function (PDF) analysis—to x-ray scattering data from
thin films, quickly yielding high-quality information on the films' atomic structure. The work
creates new avenues for studies of nanocrystalline thin films. This work shows that NSLS-II—a
DOE Office of Science User Facility with ultra-bright, ultra-concentrated x-ray beams—is already
proving to be a game-changer in studies of thin films, which play a vital role in a large number
of technologies, including computer chips and solar cells.
http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=40962.php

All-purpose optical method for observing physical, chemical or biological processes at the
nanoscale
To gain even deeper insights into the smallest of worlds, the thresholds of microscopy must be
expanded further. Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the TU
Dresden, in cooperation with the Freie Universität Berlin, have succeeded in combining two
established measurement techniques for the first time: near-field optical microscopy and ultrafast spectroscopy. Computer-assisted technology developed especially for this purpose
combines the advantages of both methods and suppresses unwanted noise. This makes highly
precise filming of dynamic processes at the nanometer scale possible. The results were recently
published in the research journal Scientific Reports. Many important but complex processes in
the natural and life sciences, for example, photosynthesis or high-temperature
superconductivity, have yet to be understood. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that such
processes take place on a scale of a millionth of a millimeter (nanometer) and therefore cannot
be observed by conventional optical microscopic imaging. On the other hand, researchers must
be able to precisely observe very rapid changes in individual stages to better understand the
highly complex dynamics. The development of high-resolution temporal and spatial
technologies has therefore been promoted for decades. The new camera from Dresden
combines the advantages of two worlds: microscopy and ultra-fast spectroscopy. It enables
unaltered optical measurements of extremely small, dynamic changes in biological, chemical or
physical processes. The instrument is compact in size and can be used for spectroscopic
studies in a large area of the electromagnetic spectrum. Time increments from a few
quadrillionths of a second (femtoseconds) up to the second range can be selected for individual
images. "This makes our nanoscope suitable for viewing ultra-fast physical processes as well as
for biological process, which are often very slow," says the HZDR's Dr. Michael Gensch.
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-all-purpose-optical-method-physical-chemical.html
About NANO @ IOWA
NANO @ IOWA is a biweekly electronic newsletter to inform faculty, staff and students about important
news and events in nanoscience and nanotechnology. This newsletter is provided as a service of the
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