Maria Cristina Miranda-Vergara has been awarded the 2017 Leiva Graduate Fellowship in Precision Medicine.

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The University of Notre Dame and (SJRMC), a member of the Trinity Health system, announced Wednesday that they are collaborating on research aimed at earlier detection of sepsis in patients. Sepsis, a potentially fatal illness in which the body has a severe inflammatory response to bacteria or other microorganisms, is the leading cause of death from infection in the world and is the costliest condition to U.S. hospitals.

“T��� goal of this research is to give our physicians a more effective indication of when a patient who appears stable has actually entered the early stages of sepsis cascade, a severe inflammatory response that can lead to death,” Al Gutierrez, president and CEO of SJRMC, said. “This early detection is critical to improving patient survival rates.”

Currently, diagnosis of septic shock depends on a set of physiological measures, such as temperature and heart rate, and indirect indicators, like the amount of lactic acid in the blood. More specific molecular markers have proven elusive.

“Finding the right markers for sepsis, and differentiating them from all the other components of blood or saliva, is a significant challenge,” said , research assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Notre Dame and a leader in the University’s new program in .

“T��� direction for this research is to identify biomarkers by focusing on accurate quantification of components in the sepsis cascade that are modified in unusual ways, and then to develop tests that can deliver accurate answers to doctors quickly and at the point of care.”

The first phase of the study is being funded by SJRMC, and the will help with collection and tracking of tissue samples of septic and nonseptic patients for analysis.

“This work has the potential to contribute important information about cellular and biochemical changes in the early stages of this common and severe condition,” said Stephen Anderson, chief medical officer at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center.

“It demonstrates the high caliber of biomedical research being done here in our area.”

In recent years, Notre Dame and SJRMC have increased the number of their collaborations. The medical center has funded joint research projects between Notre Dame’s and Loyola University’s Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center in Chicago, helped the Harper Institute with the acquisition of a new tool to provide personalized care for area cancer patients, and supported the work of Notre Dame’s in Haiti and other underdeveloped countries.

“This program adds to a significant history of research collaboration between the Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center and Notre Dame. We are very grateful for this strong, collaborative relationship as we continue to develop our capability to have our research discoveries benefit patients in need,” said , vice president for research at Notre Dame.

Contact: Matthew Champion, 574-631-1787, mchampio@nd.edu

New research published in the journal shows that a group of scientists, led by faculty at the University of Notre Dame, has made concrete progress toward the development of the first-ever inhibitory therapeutic for Type I hypersensitive allergic reactions.

“Our allergy inhibition project is innovative and significant because we brought a novel molecular design approach to selectively inhibit mast cell degranulation — the key event in triggering a food allergic response — which has the potential to improve the quality of life for affected patients,” said , assistant professor of at Notre Dame and an investigator in the University’s initiative.

Allergic reactions are caused when a person’s immune system reacts to normally harmless substances in the environment. An allergic reaction can be the source of a simple itch or sneezing; however, Type I hypersensitive allergic reactions can go as far as a life-threatening anaphylactic shock. Mast cells, which are a type of white blood cell, function to protect the body from harmful pathogens such as parasites. In Type I hypersensitive allergic conditions, mast cells show a response to otherwise harmless substances (allergens) and result in severe, even potentially lethal, symptoms. The most common examples to Type I hypersensitivity are food allergies, such as to peanuts or shellfish, which affect 15 million Americans and approximately 8 percent of children.

Through the new research, Bilgicer and his group designed a special molecule, called a heterobivalent inhibitor (HBI), which when introduced into a person’s bloodstream can, in essence, out-compete allergens like egg or peanut proteins in their race to attach to mast cell receptors.

“Unlike current treatments, such as epinephrine, which help a body endure through an allergic reaction, our HBIs, if introduced into the bloodstream, would actually stop further progression of the allergic reaction from taking place,” said Bilgicer.

“We are figuring out the optimum binding sites on the mast cell receptors to attach to, in order to prevent allergens from interacting with them and to prevent the allergic reaction before it even starts in the first place.”

The team has demonstrated the effectiveness of their inhibitor molecule on allergic reaction using animal models of allergy. Their next set of targets are a variety of allergens that affect humans — including peanuts, penicillin and dust mites — and they will design HBIs that would be successful inhibitors for each.

The University of Notre Dame’s Advanced Diagnostics & Therapeutics initiative creates technologies and tools to combat disease, promote health and safeguard the environment. AD&T’s investigators focus on the common purpose of advancing micro- and nanoscale research to improve lives around the world.

Contact: Basar Bilgicer, bbilgicer@nd.edu

Originally published by Arnie Phifer at on Oct. 7, 2013.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a multidisciplinary team of University of Notre Dame researchers a grant of $500,000 to develop a new technology for tracking the movement of genetically engineered (GE) organisms and their byproducts in the environment.

“Understanding and monitoring the dispersal of these organisms is a critical component of the safe and responsible use of transgenic technology,” said principal investigator , a research assistant professor in Notre Dame’s initiative and researcher in the University’s (ECI).

“Even though research has demonstrated that GE organisms can escape their intended range, and GE byproducts can disperse off of agricultural fields and throughout river networks, we currently lack the ability to rapidly and adequately track them,” said , professor of biological sciences at Notre Dame and co-principal investigator (co-PI) on the project.

Genetically engineered organisms are plants, animals or microbes whose genetic material has been artificially altered, often through the insertion of genes from another species, for such reasons as to increase drought tolerance or enhance growth rates.

However, since the expansion of genetic engineering in the 1970s, there has been sometimes strong disagreement about many aspects of use of GE organisms, including their safety and the consequences of GE material entering the environment.

To help address the lack of understanding in these areas, the team will tackle two of the most pressing needs in GE detection: the detection and monitoring of the potential dispersal of GE fish and the byproducts of GE maize.

“One of our first targets of study will be GE salmon, which is currently under review from the FDA,” said , professor of biological sciences and co-PI.

“GE salmon is an Atlantic salmon that has been modified by the addition of a growth hormone regulating gene from a Pacific Chinook salmon and a promoter from an ocean pout. These transferred genes enable the salmon to grow year-round instead of only during spring and summer and increases the speed at which the fish grows, without affecting its ultimate size or other qualities.”

, Galla Professor of Biological Sciences and director of ECI, said, “Concerns have been raised about the possible escape of the GE salmon from rearing facilities and how that could affect native stocks, given previous studies showing that GE salmon are able to outcompete or hybridize with wild fish.”

The team will also look at how crop byproducts from GE maize that has been modified to be resistant to the European corn borer enters streams and rivers near the agricultural fields where it has been planted and harvested.

For both GE salmon and GE maize, the team will adapt current light transmission spectroscopy (LTS) technologies, developed at Notre Dame, which have the ability to identify and accurately measure in real-time the size, shape and number of nanoparticles suspended in fluid at higher sensitivity and with greater size resolution than competing technologies.

“We will harness GE-specific DNA or protein variation to identify biomarkers with a known size that will bind in the presence of the target GE organism or byproduct, which is easily detectible by LTS,” said one of the LTS developers, , professor of physics and another co-PI on the project.

“T��� LTS technology exhibits the potential to be a field-ready device that can generate rapid and highly accurate detection results, even when a target is at low densities,” said , physics professor and co-developer of the LTS instrument.

Emma Rosi-Marshall, co-PI and scientist at the Cary Institute for Ecosystem 91��Ƶ in Millbrook, N.Y., will host the first field studies on the efficacy of the detection effort using a state-of-the-art artificial stream facility to study environmental DNA and protein detection in the natural world.

Contact: Scott Egan, scott.p.egan@nd.edu

Originally published by Arnie Phifer at on Sept. 25, 2013.

In August 2011, researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture were presented with a serious, and potentially very costly, puzzle in Kennewick, Wash. Since Kennewick lies within a region near the heart of Washington state’s $1.5 billion apple-growing region, an annual survey of fruit trees is performed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) to look for any invading insects. This time the surveyors discovered a crabapple tree that had been infested by a fruit fly that they couldn’t identify.

It was possible that the fly’s larvae, eating away inside the crabapples as they grew toward adulthood, belonged to a relatively harmless species that had simply expanded its traditional diet. In that case, they posed little threat to the surrounding apple orchards in central Washington.

But the real fear was that they represented an expansion in the range of the invasive apple maggot fly, known to biologists as Rhagoletis pomonella. If so, then this would trigger a costly quarantine process affecting three counties in the state.

“In one of the world’s leading apple-growing regions, a great deal of produce and economic livelihood rested on quickly and accurately figuring out which one of the flies was in that tree,” says , professor of biological sciences and a member of the (AD&T) at the University of Notre Dame. “And for these flies, it can sometime turn out to be a difficult thing to do.”

As Feder and his team, including graduate student and AD&T research assistant professor , discuss in a new study in the , the WSDA sent larvae samples to Wee Yee, research entomologist at the USDA’s Yakima Agricultural Research Laboratory in Wapato, Wash. One larva was sent to Notre Dame for genetic analysis. The study sought to compare Notre Dame’s genetic analysis to Yee’s visual identification after the larvae had developed into adults. Fortunately, the fly identified, Rhagoletis indifferens, is not known to infest apples. The Notre Dame group further demonstrated that it is possible to genetically identify the correct fly species within two days, compared to the four months required to raise and visually identify the fly.

A separate study led by the Feder lab details how the apple maggot fly was recently introduced into the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S., likely via larval-infested apples from the East. The flies have subsequently reached as far north as British Columbia, Canada, and as far south as northern California. So far, though, the apple maggot has not been reported infesting any commercial apple orchards in central Washington.

“T��� correct identification of the larvae infesting crabapple trees saved the local, state and federal agencies thousands of dollars in monitoring, inspection and control costs,” Yee said. “T��� cost to growers if the apple maggot had been found to be established in the region would have been very substantial (easily over half a million dollars), but the rapid diagnostic test developed at Notre Dame suspended the need to proceed with the rulemaking process, saving staff and administrative costs.”

The Feder team is continuing to refine the genetic assays to develop a portable test that would be valuable in apple-growing regions, as well as ports of entry where fruit infested by nonlocal insect species can be rapidly detected, to prevent the spread of the insect.

Contact: Kirk Reinbold, 574-631-1470, Kirk.Reinbold.2@nd.edu

Researchers from the University of Notre Dame have engineered nanoparticles that show great promise for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM), an incurable cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow.

One of the difficulties doctors face in treating MM comes from the fact that cancer cells of this type start to develop resistance to the leading chemotherapeutic treatment, doxorubicin, when they adhere to tissue in bone marrow.

“T��� nanoparticles we have designed accomplish many things at once,” says , assistant professor of and , and an investigator in Notre Dame’s (AD&T) initiative.

“First, they reduce the development of resistance to doxorubicin. Second, they actually get the cancer cells to actively consume the drug-loaded nanoparticles. Third, they reduce the toxic effect the drug has on healthy organs.”

The nanoparticles are coated with a special peptide that targets a specific receptor on the outside of multiple myeloma cells. These receptors cause the cells to adhere to bone marrow tissue and turn on the drug resistance mechanisms. But through the use of the newly developed peptide, the nanoparticles are able to bind to the receptors instead and prevent the cancer cells from adhering to the bone marrow in the first place.

The particles also carry the chemotherapeutic drug with them. When a particle attaches itself to an MM cell, the cell rapidly takes up the nanoparticle, and only then is the drug released, causing the DNA of cancer cell to break apart and the cell to die.

“Our research on mice shows that the nanoparticle formulation reduces the toxic effect doxorubicin has on other tissues, such as the kidneys and liver,” adds , a research assistant professor with the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and AD&T.

“We believe further research will show that the heart is less affected as well. This could greatly reduce the harmful side-effects of this chemotherapy.”

The group had to tackle three important problems associated with all nanoparticle-based therapies, explains , one of the leading researchers of the project.

“T���re was some complex bioengineering involved in developing the particles. We were able to precisely control the number of drug and targeting elements on each nanoparticle, achieve homogeneous nanoparticle size distribution and eliminate the batch-to-batch variability in particle production.”

Before advancing to human clinical trials, the team plans further research and testing to improve the design of the nanoparticles and to find the optimum amount and combination of chemotherapy drugs for this new treatment.

The research is described in greater detail in a recent edition of Nature’s . It was supported by funding from the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.

Contact: Başar Bilgiçer, 574-631-1429, bbilgicer@nd.edu

A recent paper by , a research scientist in the (NDnano) at the University of Notre Dame, provides an example of a nanotechnology-related safety and ethics problem that is unfolding right now.

The world of nanotechnology, which involves science and engineering down at billionths-of-a-meter scales, might seem remote.

But like most new advances, the application of that technology to everyday experience has implications that can affect people in real ways.

If not anticipated, discussed or planned for, some of those implications might even be harmful.

The problem that Eggleson describes is that hospital-acquired infections are a persistent, costly and sometimes fatal issue. A patient goes in for one condition, say an injury, but ends up being infected by a microorganism picked up in the hospital itself. That microorganism might even have developed a resistance to conventional drug treatments.

The solution is that engineers are developing new and innovative ways of coating medical materials with nano-sized particles of silver, an element that has long been known for its antimicrobial properties. These particles are being applied to hard surfaces, like bedrails and doorknobs, and to fabrics, such as sheets, gowns and curtains, by a growing number of medical supply companies. And these new materials are proving effective.

“Nanosilver coatings have made life-saving differences to the properties of typical hospital items,” Eggleson says. “Just this last December, a textile made by a Swiss company was the first nano-scale material approved as a pesticide by the EPA.”

The possible new danger is that the vast majority of bacteria and other microorganisms are actually neutral, or even beneficial, to human life and a healthy environment. For example, some bacteria are needed to maintain appropriate levels of nitrogen in the air, and others, living inside the human body, are critical to both vitamin synthesis and digestion.

So overuse of nanosilver products, especially outside of clinical environments, could pose a danger to needed microorganisms, and enable resistant strains to flourish.

“Under most conditions, the preservation of microbial biodiversity is a benefit,” explains Eggleson.

“In fact, those who would use these potent new antimicrobial technologies for frivolous uses, such as for odor control, work directly against the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative’s goal of responsible nanotechnology development.”

Eggleson came to the Center for Nano Science and Technology last year to study and prompt discussion of problems like these.

“NDnano is expanding its scope into studies of the societal impact of nanotechnology,” explains , Frank M. Freimann Professor of Electrical Engineering at Notre Dame and director of the center. “This is the background for bringing Kathy on board.”

To facilitate such discussion, Eggleson initiated a monthly meeting group, called the Nano Impacts Intellectual Community, which brings together Notre Dame researchers from across campus, visiting scholars and authors from outside the university, and leaders from the local area to probe nanotechnology topics in depth.

The group has tackled such issues as the ethics of nanomedicine, the commercialization of nanotechnology products, and the interdisciplinary nature of nanotechnology research.

“I appreciate being a part of this on-going conversation,” says Glenn Killoren, an attorney at Barnes & Thornburg LLP and a regular Nano Impacts attendee. “Nanotechnology isn’t just something that happens in research labs anymore. It’s a small but growing part of our lives, and both scientists and non-scientists need to think about its effects.”

Eggleson and NDnano faculty have also met with a number of local middle school and high school teachers who feature nanotechnology in their lesson plans. Moreover, the center supports Ivy Tech Community College-North Central’s program to train aspiring nanotechnology technicians.

“We try to do as much as we can to engage the community this exciting area,” says Eggleson.

NDnano is one of the leading nanotechnology centers in the world. Its mission is to study and manipulate the properties of materials and devices, as well as their interfaces with living systems, at the nano-scale.

The center’s expanding work on the societal impacts of nanotechnology has been made possible, in part, by one of the university’s (SRIs), which represent a commitment of internal funds and other resources, supplementing funding from external grants and gifts, to advance excellence in research.

In addition, Nano Impacts is supported by the Office of the Provost’s Initiative on Building Intellectual Community.

Contact: Kathleen Eggleson, 574-631-1229, eggleson.1@nd.edu

Researchers from the University of Notre Dame, the University of Iowa and Cornell University have been awarded collaborative grants totaling $1.1 million from the National Science Foundation to answer a fundamental question: As a new species evolves, how, and to what extent, do other species that depend on it evolve as well?

In this case, the targets of study are a fruit fly — specifically the apple maggot fly — and some of its deadliest predators, parasitic wasps.

“T���se may not sound like big players in the animal kingdom,” says , a research assistant professor with Notre Dame’s initiative and a co-principal investigator on the study, “but there are more species of plant-eating insects and the predators that attack them than any other group of life forms on Earth.

“Shedding light on how changes in one species will affect the other could add to our understanding of a key aspect of evolution, and may help U.S. farmers control pests in their orchards.”

For millions of years, the larvae of the North American fruit fly Rhagoletis pomonella were content to grow in and feed on haws, the fruit of the native hawthorn tree.

Then, in the early 19th century, farmers from Europe began the widespread planting of apple trees. Some flies began to lay their eggs in the new fruit, and others stuck with the old.

This started a process in which, over the last 150 to 200 years, the fruit flies have been gradually evolving from a single variety into two distinct and separate species. Biologists call this process speciation.

Of particular interest to , professor in the and Notre Dame’s principal investigator, are how the three species of wasps that prey on the apple maggot fly, and who use the bodies of the flies they kill as hosts for their own young, will respond.

“We want to determine whether the evolution of a new species provides an opportunity for other organisms to take advantage of this and speciate in kind,” he says.

“Understanding whether speciation has rippling effects through ecosystems by amplifying the creation of other new species has important implications for understanding the basis for biodiversity.”

This knowledge may also have practical benefits for U.S. agriculture.

Rhagoletis flies are serious pests of not only apples, but cherries, blueberries and several other economic crops, and they cost growers tens of millions of dollars each year in monitoring, quarantining and control activities.

For example, in the state of Washington, which leads in the U.S. in apple production, if apple maggots are captured within a half-mile of an orchard on two consecutive inspections, the entire orchard must be destroyed.

“T��� question of whether the fly’s predators have formed new species can affect integrated pest management strategies,” explains Egan.

“If different wasp species attack each fly, then biocontrol efforts would need to rear and release each of the wasps separately to control each of the fly pests.

“In contrast, if the wasps are all part of the same interbreeding population, then a one-size-fits-all strategy focused on mass release of a single cultured wasp strain may succeed.”

Using the wasps to help limit the spread of apple maggot flies could have large-scale economic benefit. 91��Ƶ show that slowing their spread by just 10 percent per year could save the apple industry $8 million annually.

Contact: Jeffrey Feder, 574-631-4159, Jeffrey.L.Feder.2@nd.edu

University of Notre Dame professor has been invited to serve on the committee conducting a comprehensive strategic review of the U.S. government’s (NNI).

The NNI encompasses the nanotechnology-related activities of 25 Federal agencies and coordinates a portfolio of basic and applied research activities focused on advancing the economic and national security interests of the United States. The 2012 federal budget provides $2.1 billion for the NNI, and cumulative investment in the NNI since 2001 totals over $16.5 billion.

This of the NNI, mandated by the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, will be conducted through the National Academies and submitted to the White House’s National Science and Technology Council.

The reviewers’ tasks include examining the role of the NNI in transferring technologies to the private sector, assessing how the NNI measures progress toward its goals, and analyzing NNI’s management and coordination of nanotechnology research across both civilian and military federal agencies.

Porod, the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Electrical Engineering at Notre Dame and director of the University’s (NDnano), brings valuable expertise and experience—particulary in nanoelectronics, materials science and engineering, and research management—to the review team.

He is the co-inventor of the “quantum-dot cellular automata” concept, which is a new way of representing information by electronic charge configurations at the molecular level, and is a pioneer in “nanomagnet logic,” one of the emerging device technologies being pursued by the Semiconductor Research Corporation’s .

As the director of NDnano, Porod oversees research programs in such areas as nanomaterials, new energy harvesting technologies, and the interface between biological systems and nano-scale structures.

The Triennial Review Phase II committee is comprised of and is expected to deliver its report by February 2013.

NDnano is one of the leading nanotechnology centers in the world. Its mission is to study and manipulate the properties of materials and devices, as well as their interfaces with living systems, at the nano-scale.

Imagine if the next coat of paint you put on the outside of your home generates electricity from light—electricity that can be used to power the appliances and equipment on the inside.

A team of researchers at the University of Notre Dame has made a major advance toward this vision by creating an inexpensive “solar paint” that uses semiconducting nanoparticles to produce energy.

“We want to do something transformative, to move beyond current silicon-based solar technology,” says , John A. Zahm Professor of Science in Chemistry and Biochemistry and an investigator in Notre Dame’s (NDnano), who leads the research.

“By incorporating power-producing nanoparticles, called quantum dots, into a spreadable compound, we’ve made a one-coat solar paint that can be applied to any conductive surface without special equipment.”

The team’s search for the new material, described in the journal , centered on nano-sized particles of titanium dioxide, which were coated with either cadmium sulfide or cadmium selenide. The particles were then suspended in a water-alcohol mixture to create a paste.

When the paste was brushed onto a transparent conducting material and exposed to light, it created electricity.

“T��� best light-to-energy conversion efficiency we’ve reached so far is 1 percent, which is well behind the usual 10 to 15 percent efficiency of commercial silicon solar cells,” explains Kamat.

“But this paint can be made cheaply and in large quantities. If we can improve the efficiency somewhat, we may be able to make a real difference in meeting energy needs in the future.”

“That’s why we’ve christened the new paint, Sun-Believable,” he adds.

Kamat and his team also plan to study ways to improve the stability of the new material.

NDnano is one of the leading nanotechnology centers in the world. Its mission is to study and manipulate the properties of materials and devices, as well as their interfaces with living systems, at the nano-scale.

This research was funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

Contact: Prashant V. Kamat, pkamat@nd.edu, 574-631-5411

Pharmaceutical systems company Triskell has announced its intention to relocate its headquarters from Sarasota, Fla., to South Bend to take advantage of the research and commercialization benefits associated with the University of Notre Dame. The company will lease office and lab space in the University’s commercial accelerator, .

Triskell provides multi-functional solutions for the rapid and efficient development of tablet and capsule formulations. The company plans two product lines, known as the MultiProcessor and the MultiAnalyzer. The MultiProcessor will perform the process and characterization tasks associated with developing solid dosage forms.

The MultiAnalyzer includes a variety of probes that will monitor the processes in real-time, so as to provide Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) that ensure the high quality of products. The FDA is encouraging the use of PAT throughout the industry.

As envisioned, a core part of the MultiAnalyzer will be new terahertz technologies for spectroscopy and imaging being designed by , research assistant professor in (AD&T) and the ; , assistant professor of electrical engineering, and collaborators at Purdue University’s Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy and 91��Ƶ of Chemical Engineering.

“Moving our headquarters is a big decision for a young company,” says Triskell Founder Jean LeFloch, a 1975 Notre Dame graduate. “I found this region to be the best environment for my company to establish itself and grow. In addition to the perfect suitability of Innovation Park and the availability of a crucial research program on campus, the strong synergy that exists between the Michiana business community, the University of Notre Dame, and AD&T clearly elevated South Bend to the top of the sites I was considering.”

“T��� commitment of AD&T’s faculty and leadership made the final argument for the move,” he adds. LeFloch spent more than 20 years designing and marketing automated tableting systems for the global pharmaceutical industry.

Triskell will focus on smaller scales to address the cost and space-sensitive needs of smaller manufacturers and researchers, especially those in emerging pharmaceutical markets in Latin America, the Pacific Rim and Asia, most notably China.

“Research into the applications of terahertz energy is relatively new, but Notre Dame is a leader in the field,” adds Kirk Reinbold, managing director of AD&T. “We are excited to see our technologies act as catalysts for economic development activities.”

There may soon be other companies coming out of the University that follow Triskell’s path into terahertz markets. For example, LeFloch, Liu and Reinbold are currently mentoring Dina Imbabazi, a student in Notre Dame’s (ESTEEM), as she prepares a business plan for a terahertz spectrometer company that also builds on Liu’s research.

Triskell intends to start work at Innovation Park in early 2012.

Contact: Kirk Reinbold, 574-631-1470, kreinbol@nd.edu

Researchers from the University of Notre Dame have announced a breakthrough approach to allergy treatment that inhibits food allergies, drug allergies and asthmatic reactions without suppressing a sufferer’s entire immunological system.

The therapy centers on a special molecule the researchers designed, a heterobivalent ligand (HBL), which when introduced into a person’s bloodstream can, in essence, out-compete allergens like egg or peanut proteins in their race to attach to mast cells, a type of white blood cell that is the source of type-I hypersensitivity (that is, allergy).

“Unlike most current treatments, this approach prevents allergic reactions from occurring in the first place,” says Basar Bilgicer, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and chemistry and biochemistry and principal investigator in Notre Dame’s initiative.

Michael Handlogten, lead scientist on the paper and a graduate student in Bilgicer’s group, explained that among the various chemical functionalities he analyzed to be used as the scaffold HBL synthesis, ethylene glycol, an FDA-approved molecule, proved to be the most promising.

The research appears as the cover article in the Sept. 23, 2011, issue of the journal .

Mast cells are part of the human body’s defense against parasites (such as tapeworms), and when working normally they are attracted to, attach to, and annihilate these pathogens. But type-I hypersensitivity occurs when the cells react to non-threatening substances. More common allergies are due to ambient stimulants, and an allergic response may range from a mild itch to life-threatening anaphylactic shock.

Tanyel Kiziltepe, a research professor in Advanced Diagnostics & Therapeutics, adds that “anaphylaxis can be caused by certain food allergens, insect stings, antibiotics and some medicines, and we believe HBL has a very high potential to be developed as a preventative medication."

While many medicines treat allergies by weakening a person’s entire immune system, this approach only disrupts the process whereby white blood cells bond with allergens in the first place.

“It also does not leave patients open to an increased risk for infections or the development of cancers,” explains Bilgicer. “HBLs may be most useful in situations where it’s not possible to speak to or gauge someone’s sensitivity.”

“For example, in an emergency, on a battlefield, or in a remote location, doctors may not be able to ask a patient about an allergy before administering penicillin. An engineered HBL could be given along with the medicine and perhaps prevent a deadly reaction from occurring.”

In a normal allergic reaction, allergens bind to a white blood cell, or “mast” cell, and cause the release of inflammatory molecules. Researchers at Notre Dame have shown how non-allergenic molecules, known as heterobivalent ligands, can be designed to attach to mast cells first, preventing the allergic reaction in the first place.

Contact: Basar Bilgicer, bbilgicer@nd.edu, 574-631-3411

A $6.3-million grant from the Department of Defense’s Multidisciplinary Research Initiative (MURI) will allow a group of faculty researchers involved in two of the University of Notre Dame’s strategic research investments — and the — to develop new gallium nitride (GaN) based electronic devices that operate in the terahertz (THz) range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

, along with and , led the multi-institutional team to secure the highly competitive grant that also includes researchers from Ohio State University, Johns Hopkins University and Wright State University.

The research group receiving the grant includes electrical engineers, material scientists and physicists, each of whom brings different expertise from fields such as semiconductor devices, electromagnetic simulation and design, GaN growth and high-frequency device and materials characterization.

Altough GaN has been previously utilized for its optoelectronic properties in ultra-bright LEDs and the lasers that read Blu-ray Discs, there is still not a firm grasp on its physics. By attaining that understanding, the goal is that new GaN-based devices will be developed, enabling a wide range of new terahertz applications.

Despite also having studied the THz phenomena in the laboratory for years, scientist still lack the ability to generate the high-quality coherent sources necessary, limiting research to very low power levels. Moreover, the current sources are difficult to adapt for sensing systems operating outside of a laboratory, further limiting the ability to utilize all of the unique properties of THz frequency signals.

However, “the ability to generate, receive and process signals at terahertz frequencies can have a potentially significant impact on critical areas such as medical sensing, chemical agent screening, and military imaging and communications,” said Fay, principal investigator for the project, professor of electrical engineering and director of .

In 2010, Jena and Xing received separate Department of Defense funding through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for a project to create new GaN ultraviolet light sources that can be used by soldiers (and eventually civilians) to purify water in the field, further underscoring the opportunities being created by Notre Dame’s GaN research.

Notre Dame researcher also won a $7.3-million to develop fundamental knowledge that helps improve forecasting models of weather in mountainous terrain. These models will focus on aviation and defense operations planning in areas of complex topography, paying attention to severe weather phenomena and the nighttime boundary layer of the atmosphere.

For the first time, the University of Notre Dame is holding a competition to recognize outstanding undergraduates from any university or college who are engaged in research in nanoscience and engineering. This spring and summer, Notre Dame will provide research initiation awards of $500 for students who submit the most promising research proposals. Prizes for the best projects and presentations will be awarded at a conference held at Notre Dame this fall.

“We want to meet the best and brightest undergraduates interested in nanoscale science and engineering,” says , professor of electrical engineering at Notre Dame and director of the . “Our aim is to give these future leaders an opportunity to share their discoveries, to reflect on opportunities for graduate research, and to see how careers in science and engineering can be a service to others.”

The highlight of the competition will be the fall conference at Notre Dame, for which contest finalists will be provided travel support to the campus, where they will compete for first, second and third place prizes of $5,000, $3,000 and $1,000.

The deadline for spring research proposals is Feb. 15 (Tuesday). Summer proposals need to be submitted by May 1. Additional details and guidelines can be found at the .

The contest builds on the recent success of Notre Dame’s (NURF), a summer program in which students spend 10 weeks working on cutting-edge projects with faculty mentors, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students.

It also complements the , a collaborative effort between Notre Dame, Purdue University, and the State of Indiana to award a total of $57,000 to top researchers or entrepreneurs developing novel technologies or services based on nanotechnology. The winners of this contest, Indiana’s first business plan competition targeting startup ventures and emerging companies in the field, will be announced at Purdue on March 25.