NANOSYSTEMS NEWS - the new issue
We kindly invite you to read the latest news from our cluster of excellence.
- Opening "Center for Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials (ZNN)"
- Effective exchange of Knowledge: "Wiki" for the NIM Ph.D. students
- We proudly present: the NIM Student Board
- NaNaX4 - The Conference Report
- Examples for Research Funding at NIM
- "Nanoscience reveals Oetzi´s Beauty Secret"
- Announcement: Symposium nano + Health
The perfect wave
Surface acoustic waves convert cell membrane into nano-conveyor
Membranes protect every single cell of our body and control exactly which substances are allowed to enter the cell. Illustrations often give the impression that membranes are stiff formations. In reality they are as viscous as olive oil and moreover highly dynamic: This fact was used by the research groups of Professor Joachim Rädler (LMU), Professor Achim Wixforth (Universität Augsburg) and Professor Matthias Schneider (Boston University) through collaboration within the cluster of excellence “Nanosytems Initiative Munich (NIM)”. The scientists discovered that exposure to standing surface acoustic waves (SAWs) influences the distribution of the membrane´s lipids. The physicists could demonstrate that the new method also works for the separation of lipid-bound proteins: it can concentrate the proteins at predefined parts of the membrane, separate various kinds of proteins and, by using SAWs, transport them similar to conveyor belts. This fact could be an important contribution for the realization of extremely small laboratories, so-called “Lab-on-a-Chip”. (NanoLetters, August 2010)
More informationHighly concentrated right into the target
Cancer cells are hard to stop. They proliferate without control and thereby affect the healthy tissue. One possible way to fight their growth is to infiltrate the cells with anticancer agents. In close collaboration, three research groups of the Cluster of Excellence “Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM)” developed a method using nanoparticles to smuggle concentrated colchicine into the cells. Colchicine, a natural plant toxin from autumn crocus blocks the cell division and therefore stops the proliferation of cancer cells. The scientists of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München used tiny porous silicate particles with an average size of about 50 nanometers. The porous silicate easily absorbs the colchicine and the particles are small enough to penetrate the cell membrane. To hinder the loss of agent on the particle’s way into the cell, the scientists developed a kind of protective layer. In only one synthesis step they were able to coat the nanoparticles with a lipid bilayer. Thereby the particles can effectively transport the colchicine through the cell membrane into the cell. This principle should be highly versatile, according to Prof. Bein:”Colchicine is only one example for many other agents that could be carried into the cells the same way”.
New Building for Nanoscience
Opening of the Center for Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials
Nanotechnology and nanomaterials are going to conquer our everyday life. A lot of useful applications already exist. However, the exploration of the nano cosmos is still in the early stages. On Monday, July 20, 2010, the Technische Universität München (TUM) opened the Center for Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials, an extension of the Walter Schottky Institute. The Center has a nationwide significance which is why the building was supported by the German and Bavarian Government.
The attraction of gold
Electric voltage controls the chemical bonding of DNA
There are two ways to create nanostructures: scientists either split larger structures into pieces or they combine tiny building blocks to build new systems. In order to succeed in the latter approach they have to pick up the separate parts and place them with nanometer precision. Biophysicists at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München have now developed a technique for the exact arrangement of separate DNA molecules on a gold electrode, without any extensive preparation needed, neither for the gold surface nor for the DNA.
NIM scientist Hermann Gaub, Professor for Biophysics, and his group members made use of electro chemistry. By switching an electric voltage applied to the gold electrode, the researchers are able to control, whether the DNA binds chemically with the gold atoms or not. A negative voltage lets the molecule bind to the surface. A positive voltage leaves it free.
The world´s smallest building site
Tensegrity model on the nanometer scale
Light as a veil the tent roof of the Munich Olympic stadium seems to rest on its columns. Its construction proves that stable building is possible even with low material expense. It is the optimal stress distribution that really matters: compression-resistent and tension-stable building elements have to be arranged and connected in a way so that pressure and tension can balance within the system. Thereby the whole object is able to stabilise itself. The english made-up expression for this principle is „tensegrity“, a combination of tension and integrity. The world´s smallest artificial tensegrity structures are Tim Liedl´s topic of research. Since 2009 Liedl is professor for physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and member of the Cluster of Excellence "Nanosystems Initiative Munich" (NIM). During a research period at the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Tim Liedl and his local colleagues were able to rebuild a tensegrity model on the nanometer scale for the first time.
Corresponding talk at series "Physik Modern" on July 22, 2010
"Open nanoparticle!"
Programmable DNA-based valve for nanoparticles
Medical drugs often have to be given highly dosed, because much of the active agent is lost during its way throuh the body. But in many cases the high dose of the agent leads to unwanted side effects. In order to keep the dose as low as possible, the agents should ideally be transported through the organism directly to the desired destination, and be released there. Therefore the agent may be enclosed in nanoparticles, being opened at specific conditions. The NIM chemists Prof. Thomas Bein and Prof. Thomas Carell at LMU München have now found an easy way to produce silica particles, which open at a specific temperature. (Angewandte Chemie online, 11. Juni 2010).
Dieter Braun gets ERC Starting Grant
The European Research Council (ERC) has selected the NIM researcher Professor Dieter Braun to receive an ERC Starting Grant, a highly payed research promotion for young scientists. The bio-physicist Dieter Braun works with his group at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München on Systems Biophysics. They are mainly interested in constructing biosystems to probe and evolve living matter. Prof. Braun is the third NIM PI to receive an ERC Starting Grant after Jens Michaelis and Matthias Schneider.
Evolutionary logistics
How the first molecules could have met up
More than 3 billion years ago, the first forms of life on earth came into existence. The first complex chemical structures developed and formed the basis for the later protozoa. According to a scientific theory, this first step to life presumably took place in the oceans. But to build up complex structures, the dissolved and low- concentrated reactants had to meet each other.
Now the LMU physicists Christoph Mast and Prof. Dieter Braun – both members of the NIM Cluster of Excellence - simulated the principle of these matching molecules in the lab. The scientists were thereby able to re-concentrate and also replicate dissolved genetic material purely by means of a temperature gradient. “Presumably similar thermal conditions have been existing inside of stone pores which lay close to warm submarine springs in the “Urmeer”, explains Braun. “Our examination is only a first step. For physicists like us it is extremely interesting to see how an equilibrium – as the homogenous distribution of molecules - has to be destabilized to breed live.
Interface between two worlds
Atoms coupled to a micromechanical oscillator
Ultracold atoms and mechanical oscillators belonged to separate worlds of physics so far. Researchers of the LMU have now coupled a Bose-Einstein condensate to the oscillations of a micromechanical oscillator for the first time. Such a controlled interaction could permit to control mechanical oscillators at the quantum level in the future, leading to applications in quantum information processing or as novel sensors for extremely small forces.
NaNaX4 - Nanoscience with Nanocrystals
Fruitful NaNaX4 conference at Tutzing / Munich
From April 11 - 15, 2010, 130 scientists from all over the world joined the NaNaX4 conference at the Evangelische Akademie at Tutzing close to Munich. For the fourth time researchers working in various fields of nanotechnology met to discuss their common objects of study: tiny crystals.
More than 50 talks and 80 posters build the basis for lively discussions. The focus lay on the chemistry and physics of semiconductor nanocrystals and metal nanoparticles in particular in conjunction with organics and biomolecules. Besides fundamental research the participants discussed the broad spectrum of applications in fields such as optoelectronics, energy conversion, biosensing, bioimaging as well as nanomedicine. Among the attendee was a remarkably high number of young researchers and graduate students from all over the world. During the conference dinner the organizing committee awarded poster-prizes to five of these young academics: Jessamyn Fairfield (University of Pennsylvania), Ilka Kriegel (LMU Munich), Stefan Pichler (University of Linz), Christian Schmidtke (University of Hamburg) and Yiming Zhao (Utrecht University).
Oetzi´s beauty secret
- Collagen fibrils
5300 years enclosure in a glacier could not harm the predominant part of the connective tissue of the tyrolean iceman “Oetzi”. Scientists from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich together with their colleagues from the European Research Academy (EURAC) at Bozen, Italy, demonstrated that the mummy´s collagen is almost identical with the collagen of a fresh skin sample. The reason for this exceptional conservation seems to be the freeze-drying of the Oetzi for thousands of years. In its’ recent publication, the group of PD Dr. Robert Stark, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, LMU, and member of the Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM), presents its’ studies on the molecular structure of collagen, the composition of molecule bundles, the collagen fibrils and on their elasticity. (Proceedings of Royal Society B online, March 31, 2010)
Beyond the Quantum Limit
MPQ-LMU scientists create multi-particle entanglement of atoms in a Bose Einstein condensate on a microchip. The microcosm, the realm of quantum physics, is ruled by probability and chance. The behaviour of quantum particles cannot be predicted with certainty but only with certain probabilities given by quantum physics. This results in a so-called quantum noise, which fundamentally limits the precision of the most refined atomic clocks and interferometers. The solution to this problem is the use of entangled atomic systems. A break-through has now been achieved by a team around Professor Theodor W. Hänsch and Professor Philipp Treutlein (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich and Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Philipp Treutlein is Professor at the Universität Basel since February 2010). For the first time the scientists succeeded in generating multi-particle entanglement on an atom-chip (Nature, Advance Online Publication, DOI: 10.1038/nature08988). This technique opens a way to significantly enhance the precision of chip-based atomic clocks or interferometers and could also form the basis for quantum computers on microchips. The Munich experiments have been carried out in cooperation with theoretical physicists around Dr. Alice Sinatra from the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris.
The next chip-generation
Organic molecules as components for nanoelectronics
Electronic engineering based on silicon chips in the range of only few nanometers has reached its limit. Within a new international project scientists from the Walter Schottky Institute (Technical University Munich, TUM) currently develop chips that are even smaller and more effective: they apply organic molecules as components of the new generation of chips.
A hot road to new drugs
The search for new therapeutic agents is time-consuming and expensive. Pharmaceutical companies may have to screen thousands of compounds for the ability to bind a target molecule before they hit upon a promising drug candidate. A group of Biophysicists at LMU Munich led by Professor Dieter Braun, a member of the Cluster of Excellence “Nanosystems Initiative Munich“ (NIM), and a partner in NanoTemper (an LMU spin-off), have now developed a unique technology called “microscale thermophoresis” that allows to measure intereactions under close-to-native conditions, thus improving the decision making process in drug development.
NANOSYSTEMS NEWS - the new issue
We kindly invite you to read the latest news from our cluster of excellence. In 2009, we discussed the status of NIM intensively and worked out strategies for its future. One important result has been the focusing on five research areas instead of ten. In particular, a new research area at the interface between nanoscience and energy research will be established.
In 2009 NIM has been invited by two renowned Nano Institutes to join an international symposium on “Nano and Health” in Los Angeles. The next workshop takes place in Munich in autumn 2010 and is organized by NIM. Another NIM-event will also emphasize the importance of nanoscience in Munich: in April 120 international scientists will meet at the conference “Nanoscience with Nanocrystals” (NaNax 4) in Tutzing near Munich. This and more you will read in the fourth edition of 
NanosystemsNEWS.
Nanoscience for everyone
NanoDay 2009 attracted interested public into Deutsches Museum - visit the online gallery!
What is behind the term Nanoscience was shown at the NanoDay 2009 by around 100 scientists of the Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM). The presentation took place on November 19 in the Center for New Technologies (ZNT) of the Deutsches Museum that had been opened by German President Horst Köhler only two days before. At more than 25 stands the scientists explained their current research projects to many interested visitors. The invisibly small subjects of science became literally tangible by particular experimental models like replacing electrons by chocolate eggs or by oversized wood patterns.
Joint workshop on "New Directions in NanoHealth"
NIM started collaboration with Nano Institutes in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Seoul - NIM will organize the next workshop
As a first joint action within a collaboration with the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), NIM took part in the 3rd Annual Symposium on Nanobiotechnology, which was held on "New directions in NanoHealth" in the auditorium of the CNSI (Photo) on the UCLA campus. As a great honour for NIM, the next joint workshop shall be held in October 2010 in Munich, organized by NIM.
Review: NIM Workshop October 2009
Three years after the start of NIM, the NIM scientists gathered in a workshop to present and discuss their current research. Over 300 participants listened to talks and visited the poster session on the five main NIM topics: Quantum Nanophysics, Hybrid Nanosystems, Biomolecular Nanosystems, Biomedical Nanotechnologies and Energy Conversion & Storage.
NIM physicists invent the smallest electric motor world-wide
The principle is easy: one starter and one motor atom in a ring of laser light - and a bit of fine tuning, in order to keep moving into the right direction.
The research group around the theoretical physicist Prof. Peter Hänggi from the University of Augsburg has invented a concept for the minimal version of an electric motor, which runs on merely two atoms. The study has recently been published in the renowned scientific journal Physical Review Letters. An ordinary electric motor is based on the principle that mechanical work is done by electrical energy. Hänggi and his co-authors Dr. Alexey Ponomarev and Dr. Sergey Denisov have now transferred this principle into the nano world, even to the level of
single atoms.
NIM / CeNS / SFB 486 Winter School 2009
The Winter School 2009 on "Nanosystems and Sensors" was held with international renowned speakers in
March 2009 in St. Anton, Arlberg, Austria.
Download the group picture in full resolution.Minister visited NIM groups
The new Bavarian Science Minister Dr. Wolfgang Heubisch (image: front) visited the LMU on 22nd January. He met the NIM Coordinator Professor Jochen Feldmann (image: right) and Professor Hermann Gaub, Deputy Coordinator of NIM area H and member of the NIM executive committee. On a laboratory tour he received an impression of the current research in NIM. Dr. Heubisch has taken over the ministry from Dr. Thomas Goppel in November 2008.
