STROBE in the News

STROBE’s Markus Raschke received a Phase II STTR to continue work with STROBE industry partner, Anaysis.

82 Grants Will Support Scientific Innovation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced that the Department of Energy will award 82 grants totaling $99 million to 69 small businesses in 26 states.  Funded through DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, today’s selections are for Phase II research and development.

UCLA researchers have produced the clearest 3-D images to date of the virus that causes cold sores, herpes simplex virus type 1, or HSV-1. The images enabled them to map the virus’ structure and offered new insights into how HSV-1 works. A report on the research was published online by the journal Science. The scientists used cryo electron microscopy, or cryoEM, to obtain the first atomic model of the virus particle, which is made up of more than 3,000 protein molecules comprising tens of millions of atoms.

Washington D.C., 14th March 2018 – An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD, has today presented Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) prestigious ‘St. Patrick’s Day Science Medal’ to Professor Margaret Murnane, Professor of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Colorado; and David McCourt, Founder and CEO of Granahan McCourt Capital, for their significant contribution to academia, research and industry.

Now in its fifth year, the SFI St. Patrick’s Day Science Medal recognises the outstanding contributions of Prof Margaret Murnane and David McCourt in their respective areas, as well as their role in supporting and engaging with the research ecosystem in Ireland. The Medal is awarded annually to a distinguished Irish scientist, engineer or technology leader living and working in the USA.

So Ginsberg and her colleagues devised a measurement that transforms an optical “super-resolution” microscopy known as STED (stimulated emission depletion) into a tracker of excitons on these short scales in an organic semiconductor. The technique makes it possible, for the first time, to relate the characteristics of exciton migration efficiency to nanoscale structures within light harvesting materials. “We ended up using the spatial profile of light pulses and the way that they interact with the material in order to excite very small and localized regions that have very sharp boundaries,” she said.

Professor Shimon Weiss leads team to develop nanosensors that can be directly inserted into a cell’s lipid membrane and be used to measure membrane potential.

The devices, which are based on inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles, could potentially record action potentials from multiple neurons as well as electrical signals on the nanoscale – for example, across just one synapse. Their paper, “Membrane insertion of—and membrane potential sensing by—semiconductor voltage nanosensors: Feasibility demonstration” was published in the January, 12, 2018 issue of Science Advances.

UCLA researchers have provided the first description of the structure of the herpes virus associated with Kaposi’s sarcoma, a type of cancer.

Researchers in the US have developed nanosensors that can be directly inserted into a cell’s lipid membrane and be used to measure membrane potential. The devices, which are based on inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles, could potentially record action potentials from multiple neurons as well as electrical signals on the nanoscale – for example, across just one synapse.

Image Courtesy: Y Kuo and S Sasaki / University of California, Los Angeles