NANO @ IOWA
News from the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute at UI
September 23, 2015
Items in red are new this issue.
(Others are carried forward from previous issues.)
1. Upcoming conferences and seminars including nanoscience and nanotechnology:

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=

2015 SNO Conference
Portland, OR
November 8-10, 2015
http://susnano.org/SNO2015/conferenceOverview2015.html

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/

Society of Toxicology 55th Annual Meeting and ToxExpo
New Orleans, LA
March 13-17, 2016
https://www.toxicology.org/events/am/AM2016/

International Nanotechnology Conference and Expo
Baltimore, MD
April 4-6, 2016
http://nanotech.madridge.com/
2. Upcoming grant opportunities and funding requests in nanoscience and nanotechnology:

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

Nano-Bio Phenomena and Processes in the Environment
National Science Foundation
PD 15-1179
Deadline dates: October 1 – 20, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501030&amp%3BWT.mc_id=USNSF_25&a
mp%3BWT.mc_ev=click

Environmental Sustainability
National Science Foundation
PD 15-7643
Deadline dates: October 1 – 20, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501027

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

Fiscal Year 2016 National Environmental Information Exchange Network
Environmental Protection Agency
EPA-OEI-16-01
Deadline Date: November 13, 2015
http://www2.epa.gov/exchangenetwork/fiscal-year-2016-national-environmental-informationexchange-network-grant-program

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

OVPRED Internal Funding Initiatives (IFI)
University of Iowa
Deadline dates: December 15, 2015 and March 22, 2016
http://research.uiowa.edu/researchers/find-funding/internal-funding-initiatives-ifi

Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF)
National Science Foundation
15-608
Deadline dates: January 4 – 19, 2016
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15608/nsf15608.htm?WT.mc_id=USNSF_25&WT.mc_ev=clic
k

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

NIST Measurement Science Research: Material Measurement; Physical Measurement;
Engineering; Fire Research; Information Technology; Communications Technology;
Neutron Research; Nanoscale Science
National Institute of Standards and Technology
2015-NIST-MSE-01
Deadline Date: June 1, 2016
http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=277027

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:

University of Iowa joins national Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
The University of Iowa has been added as a partner to the Center for Sustainable
Nanotechnology, a multi-institutional research center based at the University of WisconsinMadison. Professor Sara Mason in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts &
Sciences is one of three computational chemists to join the center.
http://now.uiowa.edu/2015/08/small-particlefrontier?utm_source=IANowStaff&utm_medium=nano&utm_campaign=IANowStaff-8-31-2015
4. Highlights of some new interesting nanoscience and nanotechnology research and articles:

Team develops method for scaling up production of thin electronic material
Sheets of graphene and other materials that are virtually two-dimensional hold great promise
for electronic, optical, and other high-tech applications. But the biggest limitation in unleashing
this potential has been figuring out how to make these materials in the form of anything larger
than tiny flakes. Now researchers at MIT and elsewhere may have found a way to do so. The
group has determined a way to make large sheets of one such material, called molybdenum
telluride, or MoTe2. The team says their method is also likely to work for many similar 2-D
materials, and could make widespread applications feasible. The findings have been published
in the Journal of the American Chemical Society by a team including MIT postdoc Lin Zhou;
professors Mildred Dresselhaus, Jing Kong, and Tomás Palacios; and eight others at MIT, the
China University of Petroleum, Central South University in China, the National Tsing-hua
University in Taiwan, and Saitama University and Tohoku University in Japan. "This material has
a similar bandgap to silicon"—a characteristic needed in order to make transistors and solar
cells—"and in single-layer form it has a direct bandgap," Zhou says, which allows better light
emission. "It also has strong absorption for solar radiation," which is key to making practical
solar cells, she says.
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-team-method-scaling-production-thin.html

Nanoscaffolds as a modular platform for biosensor assembly
Tumor markers are biological substances, usually proteins, that provide early indication of
cancerous or benign tumors in the body. The markers have a story to tell about what’s going on
behind the scenes, but they need help translating it — help that comes from biosensors, which
convert biological elements into signals that can be detected and analyzed.
Modern nanofabrication methods have contributed to recent progress in biosensor technology,
but challenges remain in developing biosensor assembly platforms that meet important
preparation and performance criteria. Now, a team of researchers from the University of
Delaware has developed a new approach that meets at least three of these criteria: system
modularity, good signal amplification, and easy purification.
http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=41381.php

Science provides new way to peer into pores
Rice University scientists led a project to "see" and measure the space in porous materials, even
if that space is too small or fragile for traditional microscopes. The Rice lab of chemist Christy
Landes invented a technique to characterize such nanoscale spaces, an important advance
toward her group's ongoing project to efficiently separate "proteins of interest" for drug
manufacture. It should also benefit the analysis of porous materials of all kinds, like liquid
crystals, hydrogels, polymers and even biological substances like cytosol, the
compartmentalized fluids in cells. The research with collaborators at the University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Kansas State University appears in the American Chemical
Society journal ACS Nano. It's easy to use a fluorescent chemical compound to tag, or "label," a
material and take a picture of it, Landes said. "But what if the thing you want a picture of is
mostly nothing? That's the problem we had to solve to understand what was going on in the
separation material." The team aims to improve protein separation in a process called
chromatography, in which solutions flow through porous material in a column. Because
different materials travel at different speeds, the components separate and can be purified.
"We learned that in agarose, a porous material used to separate proteins, the clustering of
charges is very important," Landes said. While the protein project succeeded, "when we matched
experimental data to our theory, there was something additional contributing to the separation
that we couldn't explain."
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-science-peer-pores.html

Gold ‘Sponge’ Sensor Can Handle Messy Samples
Sponge-like nanoporous gold could be key to new devices for detecting disease-causing agents
in humans and plants, say researchers. Two recent papers demonstrate that the team could
detect nucleic acids using nanoporous gold, a novel sensor-coating material, in mixtures of
other biomolecules that would gum up most detectors. This method enables sensitive detection
of DNA in complex biological samples, such as serum from whole blood. “Nanoporous gold can
be imagined as a porous metal sponge with pore sizes that are a thousand times smaller than
the diameter of a human hair,” says senior author Erkin Şeker, assistant professor of electrical
and computer engineering at University of California, Davis. The findings appeared online in the
journal Analytical Chemistry in April and August. “What happens is the debris in biological
samples, such as proteins, is too large to go through those pores, but the fiber-like nucleic
acids that we want to detect can actually fit through them. It’s almost like a natural sieve.”
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1752443-gold-sponge-sensor-can-handle-messy-samples/
About NANO @ IOWA
NANO @ IOWA is a biweekly electronic newsletter to inform faculty, staff and students about important
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