Caltech Researchers Develop Printable Nanoparticles for Wearable Biosensors

Caltech Researchers Develop Printable Nanoparticles for Wearable Biosensors

Monday, February 3, 2025 / No Comments

 

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a breakthrough method for mass-producing wearable biosensors using inkjet-printed nanoparticles. These cutting-edge sensors offer real-time monitoring of essential biomarkers, including vitamins, hormones, metabolites, and medications—paving the way for more personalized healthcare.

The technology, led by Professor Wei Gao and his team in the Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering, utilizes core-shell cubic nanoparticles that function like artificial antibodies. These particles are designed to selectively recognize specific molecules, allowing the sensors to detect biomarker levels in bodily fluids such as sweat.

The new biosensors have already demonstrated their potential in medical applications. Patients with long COVID have used the sensors to track metabolites, while cancer patients at City of Hope benefited from real-time monitoring of chemotherapy drug levels. The ability to personalize drug dosages based on individual responses could revolutionize treatment for chronic illnesses.

How It Works

Each nanoparticle features a nickel hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF) core, which generates an electrical signal when exposed to sweat or other bodily fluids. The surrounding polymer shell is customized to recognize specific molecules, such as vitamin C. When a targeted molecule binds to the shell, it blocks fluid contact with the core, weakening the electrical signal. This change in signal strength allows for precise measurement of biomarker levels.

The flexible, long-lasting sensors can track multiple biomarkers simultaneously. In recent trials, sensors were printed to monitor vitamin C, tryptophan (an amino acid), and creatinine (a kidney function marker). Researchers also developed sensors to measure three different chemotherapy drugs, providing crucial insights into drug metabolism.

Future Applications

Beyond wearable patches, the team is exploring implantable sensors for continuous drug monitoring beneath the skin. These advancements could lead to more personalized treatment plans, ensuring patients receive the right medication doses at the right time.

The study, published in Nature Materials, was supported by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, and other organizations. The Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech also played a key role in supporting the research.

A New Era of Personalized Medicine

"This technology opens the door to continuous, noninvasive health monitoring," said Gao. "We’re moving toward a future where wearable sensors provide real-time data to improve medical care for chronic diseases, cancer treatment, and beyond."

With its potential to transform diagnostics and treatment, this innovation marks a significant step toward the future of personalized healthcare.

China Breaks Records in Renewable Energy Expansion, Surpassing 2030 Goals

China Breaks Records in Renewable Energy Expansion, Surpassing 2030 Goals

Tuesday, January 28, 2025 / No Comments

China has set a new global benchmark for renewable energy development, installing an unprecedented 357 gigawatts of wind and solar power in 2024, according to the country’s National Energy Administration. The achievement represents a 45% increase in solar capacity and an 18% rise in wind energy compared to 2023.

This milestone allows China to surpass its goal of generating 1,200 gigawatts from renewable energy by 2030—a target originally set by President Xi Jinping—six years ahead of schedule.

The sheer scale of this expansion is equivalent to building 357 full-sized nuclear power plants in a single year. It underscores China’s growing influence in the global energy transition, despite remaining the largest contributor to carbon emissions due to its dependence on coal for electricity, cement, and manufacturing.

“While China’s overall emissions are the largest of any single country, they have recognized—at least in part—that rapidly building renewables is essential for energy and climate security,” said Daniel Jasper, senior policy advisor at Project Drawdown.

Data from Carbon Brief shows a slight decrease in China's carbon dioxide emissions during the last 10 months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. Experts, however, caution that it is too early to determine if this marks a long-term turning point.

Meanwhile, the United States saw its own clean energy surge in 2024, with the installation of 268 gigawatts of solar and wind power. However, the U.S. clean energy sector faces challenges under President Donald Trump’s administration, which issued executive orders halting wind energy permits and prioritizing fossil fuel projects.

China's dominance extends beyond its borders. As the world's leading exporter of renewable energy equipment, including batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and electrolyzers for hydrogen fuel, the country has also driven down global costs for clean energy solutions.

With renewable energy now cheaper than fossil fuels in most cases, China is positioning itself as a global leader in the energy transition, solidifying its role in shaping the future of clean energy.

MIT Researchers Achieve Record-Breaking Fidelity in Superconducting Qubit Control

MIT Researchers Achieve Record-Breaking Fidelity in Superconducting Qubit Control

Tuesday, January 21, 2025 / No Comments

 

A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has made a significant breakthrough in the field of quantum computing by developing new control methods that enable record-setting fidelity in superconducting qubits. This advancement has the potential to significantly reduce the resource overhead needed for error correction in quantum systems.

Quantum computing, which relies on the principles of quantum mechanics to perform calculations exponentially faster than classical computers, faces challenges due to the sensitivity of qubits to noise and control imperfections. These factors introduce errors, which limit the complexity and stability of quantum operations.

MIT researchers from the Department of Physics, the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) have focused on improving qubit performance. In their recent work, they used a superconducting qubit called fluxonium and developed two innovative control techniques, achieving a single-qubit fidelity of 99.998 percent—setting a new world record. This result builds on past achievements, including a 99.92 percent two-qubit gate fidelity demonstrated by a former MIT researcher, Leon Ding.

The research paper’s senior authors include David Rower PhD ’24, a former physics postdoc in MIT’s Engineering Quantum Systems (EQuS) group and now a research scientist at Google Quantum AI; Leon Ding PhD ’23 from EQuS, now leading the Calibration team at Atlantic Quantum; and William D. Oliver, the Henry Ellis Warren Professor of EECS, professor of physics, leader of EQuS, director of the Center for Quantum Engineering, and RLE associate director. The paper, titled “Suppressing Counter-Rotating Errors for Fast Single-Qubit Gates with Fluxonium,” was recently published in the journal PRX Quantum.

Tackling Decoherence and Counter-Rotating Errors

One of the main challenges in quantum computation is decoherence—the loss of quantum information due to environmental noise. Superconducting qubits, like fluxonium, are especially prone to decoherence, which hinders the realization of high-fidelity quantum gates. To address this, MIT researchers have developed techniques that make quantum gates faster, minimizing the impact of decoherence.

However, faster gates can introduce another type of error—counter-rotating errors—caused by the interaction between qubits and electromagnetic waves. Traditional single-qubit gates use resonant pulses that induce Rabi oscillations. When these pulses are applied too rapidly, they lead to inconsistent results due to unwanted errors from counter-rotating effects.

David Rower explains, “Initially, Leon had the idea to utilize circularly polarized microwave drives, but we realized that this alone wasn’t sufficient to fully eliminate counter-rotating errors.”

The breakthrough came when the team introduced a concept they call “commensurate pulses.” By carefully timing the application of pulses according to specific intervals determined by the qubit frequency, they were able to correct counter-rotating errors in a consistent and automatic manner. This technique requires no additional calibration overhead and can be applied to any qubit that suffers from counter-rotating errors.

“This project makes it clear that counter-rotating errors can be dealt with easily,” says Rower. “It’s a simple yet effective method, and it works across various superconducting qubits, including fluxonium.”

The Promise of Fluxonium

Fluxonium is a type of superconducting qubit that combines a capacitor and Josephson junction with a large “superinductor,” which protects the qubit from environmental noise. This design results in high coherence and accuracy in logical operations.

Despite its advantages, fluxonium qubits typically have lower frequencies, leading to longer gates. However, the MIT team’s work demonstrates that fluxonium can achieve extremely fast and high-fidelity gates.

Leon Ding, one of the paper’s co-authors, states, “Our experiments show that fluxonium not only performs well in physical exploration but also delivers exceptional engineering results. It’s proving to be a promising qubit for quantum computing.”

The researchers aim to continue their work to refine these techniques further and uncover new limitations, potentially leading to even faster and more reliable quantum gates.

“This research demonstrates how deep collaboration between physics and electrical engineering can lead to remarkable advancements,” says William Oliver. “Our results push the boundaries of what is possible in quantum computing and provide a pathway toward practical, fault-tolerant quantum computation.”

This research was supported by funding from the U.S. Army Research Office, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, and other U.S. government agencies.

Related Contributors

The research team includes MIT’s Helin Zhang, Max Hays, Patrick M. Harrington, Ilan T. Rosen, Simon Gustavsson, Kyle Serniak, Jeffrey A. Grover, and Junyoung An, as well as researchers from MIT Lincoln Laboratory: Jeffrey M. Gertler, Thomas M. Hazard, Bethany M. Niedzielski, and Mollie E. Schwartz.

This advancement in quantum control methods represents a major step forward in the quest to realize high-fidelity quantum computing, which could lead to transformative applications in fields such as cryptography, machine learning, and beyond.

MIT Physicists Achieve Breakthrough in Measuring Quantum Geometry of Electrons

MIT Physicists Achieve Breakthrough in Measuring Quantum Geometry of Electrons

Tuesday, January 14, 2025 / No Comments

MIT physicists, in collaboration with international researchers, have made a groundbreaking discovery by directly measuring the quantum geometry of electrons in solids, a feat previously thought impossible. Their findings, published in the November 25, 2024, issue of Nature Physics, open new avenues for understanding and controlling the quantum properties of materials.

Using a method called angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), the team adapted the technique to measure the quantum geometry of a kagome metal, a material known for its exotic quantum properties. This approach provided direct insights into the wave function, a fundamental aspect of quantum physics that describes an electron’s wave-like behavior. The discovery paves the way for studying quantum geometry in a wide range of materials, with potential applications in quantum computing, advanced electronics, and magnetic devices.

Riccardo Comin, the Class of 1947 Career Development Associate Professor of Physics at MIT, who led the research, described the work as a "blueprint for obtaining previously inaccessible information about quantum materials." Mingu Kang PhD ’23, the study's first author and now a Kavli Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University, emphasized that this achievement resulted from close collaboration between experimentalists and theorists.

The research was carried out under unique circumstances during the Covid-19 pandemic. Kang, based in South Korea at the time, collaborated with theorists in the region, while Comin conducted critical experiments at the Italian Light Source Elettra. Despite the challenges, the team’s efforts culminated in a significant milestone in quantum material science.

The study also highlights the importance of global partnerships, with contributions from Seoul National University, Stanford University, Cornell University, and the University of Trieste, among others. The work was supported by various organizations, including the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, and the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation.

This groundbreaking research not only advances the fundamental understanding of quantum materials but also opens doors to new technological possibilities, marking a significant step forward in the field of condensed matter physics.

Revolutionary Nanofiltration Process Reduces Aluminum Waste and Boosts Sustainability

Revolutionary Nanofiltration Process Reduces Aluminum Waste and Boosts Sustainability

Wednesday, January 8, 2025 / No Comments

 

MIT engineers have introduced a groundbreaking nanofiltration process that promises to revolutionize the aluminum manufacturing industry by tackling its significant environmental challenges. Aluminum, the second-most-produced metal globally, is expected to see a 40% surge in demand by the end of the decade, further exacerbating the environmental burden of its production. 

Traditional methods produce significant waste, particularly cryolite sludge, a byproduct of the electrolysis process used to extract aluminum from alumina. This sludge, which contains residual aluminum ions along with impurities like sodium and potassium, is typically discarded, contributing to hazardous waste streams and resource inefficiency. The innovative membrane developed by MIT researchers selectively captures more than 99% of aluminum ions from cryolite waste, enabling their recovery and reuse in the production process.

 This approach not only reduces waste but also enhances production efficiency by recycling aluminum that would otherwise be lost. The membrane’s positively charged coating uniquely repels highly charged aluminum ions while allowing other ions to pass through, maintaining performance even in highly acidic conditions. 

Scaled-up implementations of this technology could dramatically decrease the need for fresh aluminum mining, fostering a circular economy and reducing environmental harm. The research, published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, underscores the potential of advanced filtration technologies to meet rising industrial demands sustainably while mitigating their ecological footprint. This innovation is a significant step toward cleaner aluminum production and highlights the broader possibilities of nanotechnology in addressing global sustainability challenges.

Revolutionary All-Optical Nanoscale Force Sensors Unveiled

Revolutionary All-Optical Nanoscale Force Sensors Unveiled

Thursday, January 2, 2025 / No Comments

A team of researchers led by Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science has made a transformative breakthrough in force-sensing technology. By creating luminescent nanoscale sensors capable of detecting mechanical forces, the innovation opens new frontiers in fields such as robotics, cellular biophysics, medicine, and even space exploration.

These sensors, described in a study published in Nature, are designed as luminescent nanocrystals that respond to mechanical pressure by changing their intensity or color. What sets them apart is their ability to operate using light alone, allowing fully remote read-outs with no need for physical connections or wires. This "all-optical" capability means the sensors can function in environments that were previously inaccessible to conventional force sensors.

Unparalleled Sensitivity and Dynamic Range

The sensors demonstrate remarkable sensitivity and a dynamic range far exceeding existing technologies. They provide a 100-fold improvement in force sensitivity over current nanoparticles that rely on rare-earth ions for optical response. Furthermore, their dynamic range spans over four orders of magnitude in force, making them uniquely equipped to measure forces from piconewtons to micronewtons.

Jim Schuck, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia, remarked, "We expect our discovery will revolutionize the sensitivities and dynamic range achievable with optical force sensors, and will immediately disrupt technologies in areas from robotics to cellular biophysics and medicine to space travel."

Versatility Across Scales and Systems

These new nanosensors can function across scales, enabling their use from subcellular systems to macroscopic engineered environments. For example, they could be deployed in developing embryos, migrating cells, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), or advanced batteries. This versatility eliminates the need for multiple sensor types, as a single nanosensor can continuously monitor forces across these varied scales.

"What makes these force sensors unique—apart from their unparalleled multiscale sensing capabilities—is that they operate with benign, biocompatible, and deeply penetrating infrared light," explained Natalie Fardian-Melamed, a postdoctoral scholar and co-lead author of the study. "This allows one to peer deep into various technological and physiological systems and monitor their health from afar."

Leveraging the Photon-Avalanching Effect

The researchers built these nanosensors by exploiting the photon-avalanching effect. In this phenomenon, the absorption of a single photon triggers a cascade of emitted photons, amplifying the sensor's response to external stimuli. The core technology relies on nanocrystals doped with rare-earth ions, such as thulium. By adjusting the spacing between these ions, the team achieved unprecedented sensitivity to mechanical forces.

This discovery was initially unexpected. While tapping on the nanoparticles with an atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip, the researchers observed a dramatic response in the photon avalanching behavior. "We discovered this almost by accident," Schuck noted. "We suspected these nanoparticles were sensitive to force, but their response far exceeded our expectations."

Customized Sensor Designs for Specific Applications

Following their initial findings, the team developed specialized nanosensors tailored to respond to forces in different ways. Some sensors change the color of their luminescence under applied force, while others begin photon avalanching only when force is applied. These advancements provide unprecedented flexibility for sensing applications.

Real-World Impact and Future Directions

The researchers are now focusing on applying these sensors to practical systems. For instance, they aim to study force dynamics in developing embryos, an area with significant implications for developmental biology and medicine. Additionally, they plan to integrate self-calibrating capabilities into the sensors, allowing them to function autonomously.

Schuck highlighted the broader significance of the discovery, citing the work of Nobel Laureate Ardem Patapoutian, who emphasized the challenges of probing environmentally sensitive processes. "These sensors allow one to sensitively and dynamically map critical changes in forces and pressures in real-world environments that are currently unreachable with today's technologies," he said.

With their combination of high sensitivity, wide dynamic range, and adaptability, these nanosensors represent a transformative advancement in force-sensing technology, with the potential to redefine the limits of engineering, biology, and physics.

Journal Reference:

Natalie Fardian-Melamed, et al. Infrared nanosensors of piconewton to micronewton forces. Nature, 2025; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08221-2

For more information, visit Columbia University’s official release

Wireless Micro Antennas Harness Light to Monitor Cellular Signals

Wireless Micro Antennas Harness Light to Monitor Cellular Signals

Friday, December 20, 2024 / No Comments

MIT researchers have unveiled a groundbreaking biosensing technology using organic electro-scattering antennas (OCEANs), which eliminate the need for wires and amplifiers in monitoring cellular electrical activity. These tiny antennas, constructed from the polymer PEDOT:PSS, detect changes in electrical signals by altering their optical properties, enabling them to scatter light in proportion to the surrounding electrical environment.

 Arrays of these antennas, each only a micrometer wide, allow for high-resolution, wireless measurement of electrical signals with extreme sensitivity, capable of detecting voltages as low as 2.5 millivolts. The antennas are fabricated through a scalable process that uses focused ion beams to create nanoscale holes in a glass substrate, followed by a polymer growth phase driven by electric currents. Designed for in vitro studies, OCEANs can continuously record signals for over 10 hours, providing biologists with a powerful tool to study cellular communication and responses to environmental changes. By facilitating wireless and high-throughput data collection, this innovation holds promise for advancing the understanding of biological processes, improving diagnostics, and enabling precise evaluation of therapeutics.

 Future developments include testing with live cell cultures, reshaping antennas to penetrate cell membranes, and exploring integration into nanophotonic devices for next-generation sensing applications. Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Swiss National Science Foundation, this research opens new avenues for bioengineering and biotechnology, pushing the boundaries of how electrical signals in biological systems can be studied and harnessed.

MIT Develops Ultrafast Photonic Processor to Transform AI Computing

MIT Develops Ultrafast Photonic Processor to Transform AI Computing

Thursday, December 5, 2024 / No Comments

 

MIT researchers have unveiled a groundbreaking photonic processor that leverages light to perform computations, offering unparalleled speed and efficiency for artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Unlike traditional electronic processors, which rely on electrical signals, this novel technology uses photons, enabling ultrafast processing while drastically reducing energy consumption. This advancement is particularly significant as the computational demands of AI models, such as those used in deep learning, continue to grow exponentially.

The photonic processor employs innovative methods to transmit and manipulate data using optical signals, allowing it to execute operations at speeds previously unattainable by conventional hardware. Its ability to handle parallel computations with greater efficiency makes it a game-changer for applications requiring immense processing power, such as real-time language translation, large-scale data analysis, and advanced robotics.

One of the processor's key advantages is its potential to overcome the heat limitations associated with electronic chips. By reducing reliance on electrical signals, the photonic approach minimizes heat generation, enabling more sustainable and scalable AI development. This technology could pave the way for next-generation computing systems that are not only faster but also more environmentally friendly.

MIT's innovation represents a significant leap in AI hardware, promising to bridge the gap between the increasing computational needs of modern AI and the limitations of current electronic processing systems.