NANO @ IOWA
News from the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute at UI
March 4, 2015
Items in red are new this issue.
(Others are carried forward from previous issues.)
1. Upcoming conferences and seminars including nanoscience and nanotechnology:

SUN-SNO-GUIDENANO Sustainable Nanotechnology Conference
Venice, Italy
March 9-11, 2015
http://www.susnano.org/conferenceOverview2015SNO-SUN-GN.html

U.S.-EU: Bridging nanoEHS Research Efforts Joint Workshop
Venice, Italy
March 12-13, 2015
http://us-eu.org/Calendar/eu-u-s-bridging-nanoehs-research-efforts-joint-workshop/

Society of Toxicology 54th Annual Meeting
San Diego, CA
March 22-26, 2014
http://www.toxicology.org/AI/MEET/AM2015/

Interfacial Effects of Imprinted Polymers and Metallic Nanomaterials on Small
Molecule Binding: A Raman and SERS Study
Wenjing Xi, Department of Chemistry, University of Iowa
S107 Pappajohn Business Building, The University of Iowa
Monday April 6, 2015 12.30-1.30pm

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute Spring Symposium
Chemistry Building, The University of Iowa
Friday April 10, 2015 9.30am-3.00pm
http://nanotech.uiowa.edu/events/nanoscience-and-nanotechnology-symposium
Register here!: http://nanotech.uiowa.edu/nni-spring-2015-symposium-registration

SENN 2015 – International Congress on Safety of Engineered Nanoparticles and
Nanotechnologies
Helsinki, Finland
April 12-15, 2015
http://www.ttl.fi/PARTNER/SENN2015/Pages/default.aspx

ASME 2015 4th Global Conference on Nanengineering for Medicine and Biology
Minneapolis, MN
April 19-22, 2015
http://www.asmeconferences.org/NEMB2015/

SETAC Europe 25th Annual Meeting
Barcelona, Spain
May 3-7, 2015
http://barcelona.setac.eu/general_info/welcome!/?contentid=790&pr_id=766&last=769&sub=7
90

Third Annual Conference on Governance of Emerging Technologies: Law, Policy, and Ethics
Scottsdale, Arizona
May 26-28, 2015
http://conferences.asucollegeoflaw.com/get2015/
2. Upcoming grant opportunities and funding requests in nanoscience and nanotechnology:

Project on Advanced Systems and Concepts for Countering WMD (PASCC)
Naval Postgraduate School
NPS-BAA-14-003
Deadline Date: March 31, 2015
http://www.nps.edu/Research/workingwithnps.html

Seed Grants for Environmental Health Research on Contamination, Environmental Toxins
Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination, University of Iowa
Deadline Date: April 6, 2015
http://www.cheec.uiowa.edu/seedgrant/rfp.html

Innovative Research in Cancer Nanotechnology
National Institutes of Health
FOA Number: PAR-14-285
Deadline Date: April 15, 2015; October 15, 2015
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-14-285.html

Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute
Department of Defense
FOA Number: FOA-RQKM-2015-0014
Deadline Date: May 29, 2015
http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=271891

Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers Program
National Science Foundation
nsf13-594
Deadline Dates: Letter of Intent June 26, 2015; Full proposal September 25, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5501&org=NNCO&sel_org=NNCO&from=f
und

Science, Technology, and Society
National Science Foundation
15-506
Deadline Date: August 3, 2015
http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5324

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

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

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:

Spring 2015 Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Symposium
Online registration is now open! Friday April 10, 2015 all-day symposium with keynote
speaker Dr Philip Demokritou, Associate Professor, Director, Laboratory for Environmental
Health NanoScience (LEHNS), and Director, Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology
Harvard School of Public Health who will talk on “In-vitro Dosimetry of Nanomaterials: Too
complicated to consider, too important to ignore”.
The schedule will be 9.30a.m.-12.30p.m. Talks, 12.30-1.30p.m. Lunch and 1.30-3.00p.m.
Poster Session. The symposium will take place in the Chemistry Building.. Please find the
registration form: http://nanotech.uiowa.edu/nni-spring-2015-symposium-registration
4. Highlights of some new interesting nanoscience and nanotechnology research and articles:

Free-standing monolayers made from protein-bound gold nanoparticles
Free-standing nanoparticle films are of great interest for technical applications, such as the
development of nanoelectronic devices. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Korean scientists
have introduced very flexible and stable monolayers of gold nanoparticles made by a selfassembly process based on protein aggregation. The films were used to coat wafers up to 10
cm in diameter. The success of this new strategy relies on a small protein called α-synuclein,
which is responsible for regulation of dopamine release in the brain, among other things.
Incorrectly folded forms of this protein, which aggregate into poorly soluble fibril structures,
seem to be involved in the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's. As
devastating as this misfolding protein is to the brain, it has shown itself to be quite useful in
the production of extensive films made of gold nanoparticles.
http://phys.org/news/2015-02-free-standing-monolayers-protein-bound-gold-nanoparticles

Ultra-thin nanowires can trap electron ‘twisters’ that disrupt superconductors
Superconductor materials are prized for their ability to carry an electric current without
resistance, but this valuable trait can be crippled or lost when electrons swirl into tiny tornadolike formations called vortices. These disruptive mini-twisters often form in the presence of
magnetic fields, such as those produced by electric motors. To keep supercurrents flowing at
top speed, Johns Hopkins scientists have figured out how to constrain troublesome vortices by
trapping them within extremely short, ultra-thin nanowires. Their discovery was reported Feb.
18 in the journal Physical Review Letters. "We have found a way to control individual vortices to
improve the performance of superconducting wires," said Nina Markovic, an associate professor
in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the university's Krieger School of Arts and
Sciences.
http://www.ecnmag.com/news/2015/02/ultra-thin-nanowires-can-trap-electron-twistersdisrupt-superconductors

Silver nanoparticles adorn graphene to utilize light efficiently
The most ubiquitous form of energy around us, light, is surprisingly underutilised. This is
largely because photo-based devices are very inefficient at absorbing and then converting light
into a useful electrical signal. Now researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IIS) have
designed a novel device based on graphene and metal nanoparticles that shows greatly
enhanced response to light and is colour sensitive. This may foster applications like colour
based ultra-sensitive photodetectors, efficient solar cells and detection of single molecules.
Increasing the light-matter interaction is one of the foremost scientific quests today. It holds
the key to a wide range of contemporary pursuits like solar energy generation, hybrid lightelectronic devices, cancer detection and many more. Many scientists have come up with
numerous designs and methods to increase light absorption efficiency but much scope for
improvement still remains. Writing in the journal Advanced Materials ("Ultrahigh Field
Enhancement and Photoresponse in Atomically Separated Arrays of Plasmonic Dimers"), the IISc
team show a device with a large number of silver nanoparticle pairs sitting on top of each other,
all separated precisely by just one-third of a nanometer using graphene. All light interaction
related properties are found enhanced in this device structure. Photocurrent (current generated
due to light), for example, generated in this device is 200 times more than in one without silver
nanoparticles.
http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=39214.php

New nanodevice defeats drug resistance
Chemotherapy often shrinks tumors at first, but as cancer cells become resistant to drug
treatment, tumors can grow back. A new nanodevice developed by MIT researchers can help
overcome that by first blocking the gene that confers drug resistance, then launching a new
chemotherapy attack against the disarmed tumors. The device, which consists of gold
nanoparticles embedded in a hydrogel that can be injected or implanted at a tumor site, could
also be used more broadly to disrupt any gene involved in cancer. "You can target any genetic
marker and deliver a drug, including those that don't necessarily involve drug-resistance
pathways. It's a universal platform for dual therapy," says Natalie Artzi, a research scientist at
MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), an assistant professor at Harvard
Medical School, and senior author of a paper describing the device in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences the week of March 2.
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-nanodevice-defeats-drug-resistance.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
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute at UI (NNI).
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