Home > News > From plastics to nanotechnology: Portland State professor Mingdi Yan among leaders in nanotech research
May 27th, 2009
From plastics to nanotechnology: Portland State professor Mingdi Yan among leaders in nanotech research
Abstract:
Imagine a future 25 years from now: Many forms of cancer have a cure, every house glistens with solar panels providing carbon-free energy. Water is filtered by nanoparticles.
It is a golden age of science and medicine.
That is the future that nanotechnology—the study of how to control matter on a molecular level—is working toward. This technology has quickly risen to the forefront of scientific research, with advances being made all the time, including at Portland State.
Portland State chemistry professor Dr. Mingdi Yan noted the shift of focus over the past few decades from revolutionary plastics to dynamically flexible nanoparticles.
Leading researchers, including Yan, believe that nanotechnology could hold the key to energy efficiency, cancer treatment, and much more. The United States has even invested federal funds in research initiatives to explore the new technology.
Yan's field of nanotechnology is "surface chemistry." She explains that all matter has a surface that can be seen but it also has other entities that interact with the surface.
According to the Web site for the National Nanotechnology Initiative, the federally funded research program, "Nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at dimensions between approximately 1 and 100 nanometers, where unique phenomena enable novel applications."
Yan explained that this seemingly complicated science is frequently applied to medical science.
Implants are the first thing that Yan mentioned. With medical implants the body attaches to a foreign material, and if the body rejects it, the implant doesn't work, she said.
However, if chemists can put a surface coat on the implant that tells the biological system "I'm OK", that would be a technological advance, Yan said.
In drug delivery, nanocoating can become a carrier attached to medicines that target specific tumors and essentially chaperones the drug to its target, she explained.
Source:
dailyvanguard.com
Bookmark:
| Related News Press |
News and information
Electrifying results shed light on graphene foam as a potential material for lab grown cartilage June 6th, 2025
Quantum computers simulate fundamental physics: shedding light on the building blocks of nature June 6th, 2025
A 1960s idea inspires NBI researchers to study hitherto inaccessible quantum states June 6th, 2025
Possible Futures
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers several steps closer to harnessing patient's own T-cells to fight off cancer June 6th, 2025
Researchers unveil a groundbreaking clay-based solution to capture carbon dioxide and combat climate change June 6th, 2025
Cambridge chemists discover simple way to build bigger molecules – one carbon at a time June 6th, 2025
A 1960s idea inspires NBI researchers to study hitherto inaccessible quantum states June 6th, 2025
Nanomedicine
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers several steps closer to harnessing patient's own T-cells to fight off cancer June 6th, 2025
Cambridge chemists discover simple way to build bigger molecules – one carbon at a time June 6th, 2025
Electrifying results shed light on graphene foam as a potential material for lab grown cartilage June 6th, 2025
Self-propelled protein-based nanomotors for enhanced cancer therapy by inducing ferroptosis June 6th, 2025
Materials/Metamaterials/Magnetoresistance
Researchers unveil a groundbreaking clay-based solution to capture carbon dioxide and combat climate change June 6th, 2025
A 1960s idea inspires NBI researchers to study hitherto inaccessible quantum states June 6th, 2025
Institute for Nanoscience hosts annual proposal planning meeting May 16th, 2025
Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters
Cambridge chemists discover simple way to build bigger molecules – one carbon at a time June 6th, 2025
Electrifying results shed light on graphene foam as a potential material for lab grown cartilage June 6th, 2025
Quantum computers simulate fundamental physics: shedding light on the building blocks of nature June 6th, 2025
A 1960s idea inspires NBI researchers to study hitherto inaccessible quantum states June 6th, 2025
Energy
KAIST researchers introduce new and improved, next-generation perovskite solar cell November 8th, 2024
Unveiling the power of hot carriers in plasmonic nanostructures August 16th, 2024
Groundbreaking precision in single-molecule optoelectronics August 16th, 2024
Water
Taking salt out of the water equation October 7th, 2022
Solar/Photovoltaic
KAIST researchers introduce new and improved, next-generation perovskite solar cell November 8th, 2024
Groundbreaking precision in single-molecule optoelectronics August 16th, 2024
Development of zinc oxide nanopagoda array photoelectrode: photoelectrochemical water-splitting hydrogen production January 12th, 2024
Shedding light on unique conduction mechanisms in a new type of perovskite oxide November 17th, 2023
 |
||
 |
||
| The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
 |
||
|
|
||
| Premium Products | ||
 |
||
|
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
 |
||
|
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||
|
|
||