The Nanoscale Science Ph.D. Program is an interdisciplinary program of research and teaching that promotes the understanding, development and manipulation of structures and phenomena that have nanoscale dimensions.

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Our research is focused towards unraveling the physical processes that link NC states with the surrounding medium. We will use time-resolved laser spectroscopies and develop computational modeling techniques to build a comprehensive dynamical picture of these materials. While there has been significant research on the intrinsic properties of NCs, there has been much less work done to understand how these properties might be combined in an extended structure. The specific techniques we will use (based around time-resolved photoluminescence measurements) coupled with new models of electron transfer processes in nanocrystals should be able to offer significant new insights into these problem.

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Congratulations to Mycia Cox!

Mycia 11 Lets congratulate Princess Mycia Cox, fellow nanoscale PhD student, for defending her Ph.D. dissertation, entitled: "Design and fabrication of low loss and low index optical metamaterials" last week. She completed the work under the supervision of Dr. Michael Fiddy (Electrical and Computer Engineering).

Nanovehicles for Intracellular Protein Delivery

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NANOVEHICLES FOR INTRACELLULAR PROTEIN DELIVERY

Juan L Vivero-Escoto
Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
The Center for Biomedical Engineering and Science, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Protein therapeutics holds significant promise for improving human health [1,2]. Our organism contains thousands of proteins, which perform essential functions in growth, development and metabolism regulation. Many diseases arise from the alterations in the functions of intracellular proteins [1]. Therefore, the administration of therapeutic proteins has shown great potential in the treatment of many diseases, including cancer and diabetes. Protein therapeutics has emerged since the 1980s and represents currently a significant part of biopharmaceuticals [2]. For example, Lantus®, an engineered protein (insulin) was one of the top ten selling biopharmaceuticals in 2009 [1]. Moreover, protein drugs with much better therapeutic performance are developed every year. The pharmaceutical research and manufacturers of America (PHRMA) listed 78 therapeutic proteins in 813 new biotechnology medicines related to more than 100 diseases in 2011, including virus infectious, cancer and autoimmune diseases [3]. The high intracellular activity and specificity of proteins compared to more conventional, low molecular weight drugs often allows for a better treatment of diseases. Moreover, protein drugs may be safer than gene therapy because no random or permanent genetic changes are involved [4].

A Quick Publication

derek nathan The Nanoscale Science Ph.D. Program at UNC charlotte would like to congratulate Derek Peloquin and Nathan Behm for getting their team project work published in a peer-reviewed journal. The advance copy of their article, “High-throughput microwave synthesis and characterization of NiO nanoplates for supercapacitor devices” is available online at the Springer’s Journal of Materials Science(DOI: 10.1007/s10853-012-6929-6). As Nathan remarks, “It’s cool to have a publication out of one semester work.”