Vice President for Research John P. Oliver recently announced the awardees from a research program earmarked by Wayne State University. Awards totaling nearly $1 million will enhance collaborative efforts in the nanosciences, providing faculty with seed funding with which to develop data for subsequent grant applications for federal funding.

“Wayne State has great strengths in the area of nanoscience, and I felt it was critical to build on the excellent research and training we are carrying out in this field,” commented Dr. Oliver. “The research of our awardees will support rapid progress in this area of immense scientific opportunity.”

Seven proposals will receive funding from this program. They are:

Dr. Gregory Auner of Livonia, professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, was awarded $50,000 for the project, “Nano-Microsystem Integration Program.” The emerging area of micro- and nano- science and engineering is leading to an unprecedented comprehension of the fundamental building blocks of nature. This technology will most profoundly affect the nature of science, engineering and medicine in the 21st century. The nano-microsystem integration program is developing new methods for combining nano-sized structures with microsystems to create working devices for the future. Applications include medical diagnosis devices, neural implants, drug delivery microsystems for cancer treatment, and implants to help the blind.

Dr. Stephanie Brock of Ferndale, associate professor, Department of Chemistry, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was awarded $123,434 for the project, “Stimulus Controlled Nanosystems for Cancer Imaging and Treatment.” The goal of this research project is to prepare biomedical sensors that would serve to detect solid tumors in the body non-invasively, so that they could be subsequently treated. The sensors combine a fluorescent nanoparticle (quantum dot) that is bound to a so-called “smart polymer,” itself tethered with a fluorescent molecule. The smart polymers respond to stimuli, such as changes in pH or temperature, by adopting either an open (coil) conformation, or forming a tight ball (globule). This will either bring the quantum dot and fluorescent molecule together, in which case all luminescence will be quenched, or hold them apart, in which case the quantum dot luminescence will be detected. Since the microenvironment of many tumors is acidic, we hope to “light these up” selectively with our biosensors, thereby permitting tumors to be easily located within the body. The simplicity and non-invasive nature of the method is expected to permit routine screening, thus permitting detection of tumors early in their growth when they can still be easily treated.

Dr. Nebojsa Duric of Bloomfield Hills, professor, Radiation Oncology, School of Medicine and Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, was awarded $150,000 for the project titled, “Nano-Technology based In-Vivo Imaging Core.” This project aims to bring together a core of faculty from across the WSU campus to create a coherence among the different nano-imaging initiatives and could formally act as a bridge between the imaging scientists and nanoscience researchers across campus. It will facilitate and promote research in this area by providing a wide array of support through pooling of existing resources. Research components that will be involved include dendrimer-based drug deliver and imaging; ultrasound contrast agents/drug deliver; magnetic nano-particles for MRI; novel contrast agents for optical imaging; and vaccine and adjuvant delivery strategies.

Dr. Peter Hoffmann of St. Clair Shores, assistant professor, Department of Physics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was awarded $275,000 for the project, “Single Nanoparticle Control and Spectroscopy.” Dr. Hoffmann’s project will focus on nanoparticles that are increasingly used in many applications and can be harmful or beneficial. For example, nanoparticles are explored as carriers for drugs that need to go to specific sites in the body, such as cancer cells. However, very little is known how these particles actually enter cells, how they react with biomolecules or how they are transported through the body. To find this out requires new tools to visualize how particles interact with cells and biomolecules, such as proteins. Dr. Hoffmann will work to develop new instruments that can image and measure the properties of both biomolecules and nanoparticles. In particular, the new instrumentation will be able to measure how nanoparticles move and what forces are acting between nanoparticles and biomolecules. This is achieved by combining laser spectroscopy and scanning probe microscopy (SPM). SPM works by measuring how a very sharp tip interacts with the sample, while laser spectroscopy can be used to measure the shape, speed or attachment of biomolecules.

Dr. Rangaramanujam Kannan of Novi, associate professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Science, was awarded $179,760 for the project, “Nanotherapeutics.” Dr. Kannan’s project which consists of researchers from the College of Engineering, Kresge Eye Institute, Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, and the School of Medicine, is developing targeted drug delivery devices using nanomaterials. The potential applications for treatment include cancer, asthma, cerebral palsy and the development of retinal prostheses. Their research efforts may lead to drug treatments that improve the therapeutic effectiveness of drugs and reduce side effects significantly. Their research efforts using this technology may also one day lead to the development of ‘mart’ retinal implants that can help restore eye sight.

Dr. Golam Newaz of Ann Arbor, professor of Mechanical Engineering and associate director of the Institute for Manufacturing Research, College of Engineering, was awarded $50,000 for the project, “Nanobiocompatibility of Neural Implants.” This collaborative project aims to focus on an important medical problem, the biocompatibility of materials used in medical devices and implants, particularly for neural implants. The technology of medical devices and implants comprises about 10% of existing medical practice in the United States and impacts the quality and duration of life for tens of millions of patients. Materials based therapies are highly diverse: devices may be intracorporeal (pacemakers) or extracorporeal (hemodialyzers); temporary (blood oxygenators) or permanent (artificial hips); life sustaining (heart valves) or disability-directed (cochlear ear). Biocompatibility of materials is a critical enabling technology for nearly all medical devices/implants and is a major factor limiting the use of new materials for the development of novel medical devices. Yet, we have only a rudimentary understanding of the properties of materials that render them biocompatible and even less of an understanding of the molecular and cellular responses to foreign materials. A major advance will occur for this field as well as for medical care, if we can gain an understanding at the nanoscale of the interplay of materials and the molecular/cellular responses of the host. The proposed research at the nanoscale, will take advantage of WSU\'s strength in advanced materials research, while leveraging and synergizing with existing strengths in biomedical science and engineering, neurosurgery, electrical engineering and chemical engineering. By focusing on the interaction of the molecular events of the nanofeatures of materials, the Dr. Newaz and his research team will aim to develop the knowledge base, design rules, fabrication processes and novel materials necessary to make the next generation of medical devices and implants with particular focus to neural implants.

Dr. Claudio Verani of Sterling Heights, assistant professor, Department of Chemistry, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was awarded $100,000 for the project, “Design, Surface Deposition and Ordering Characterization of Organic and Metallorganic Molecular Electronics.” This project will focus on the development of new molecules called switches that can exist in two or more stable states. In collaboration with faculty from Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, they will pursue the understanding of the mechanisms of molecular switching. They aim to deposit these molecular switches on surfaces in a controlled and organize way; the switches are designed and synthesized and have their properties measured before they are deposited as films of controlled thickness for further studies using several laser-based methods. This research points toward the development of devices useful for information storage; nano-sized computers with molecular components are the ultimate goal.

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world.