This graphic shows the route that NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove in its final approach to “Perseverance Valley” on the western rim of Endeavour Crater during spring 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/NMMNH

NASA’s Rover Opportunity has reached the main destination of its 2 year extended mission – an ancient fluid-carved valley incised on the inner slope of a vast crater’s rim. As the rover approached the upper end of “Perseverance Valley” in early May, images from its cameras began showing parts of the area in greater resolution than what can be seen in images taken from orbit above Mars...

Neutrophils mediate delivery of nanoparticles (NPs) across blood vessel barrier into the tumor tissues after acute inflammation induced by photosensitization (PS).

Technique targets disease, spares nearby tissues. For the first time, WSU researchers have demonstrated a way to deliver a drug to a tumor by attaching it to a white blood cell. The innovation could let doctors target tumors with anticancer drugs that might otherwise damage healthy tissues. A team led by Zhenjia Wang, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences attached a nanoscale particle to a WBC. The showed they could get a drug past the armor of blood vessels that typically shield a tumor. This has been a major challenge in nanotechnology drug delivery.

Wang implanted a tumor on the flank of a mouse commonly chosen as...

IsoPSA(TM) Demonstration

IsoPSA assay can help in determining the need for prostate biopsy for patients. A team of researchers have demonstrated that a new blood test known as IsoPSA detects prostate cancer more precisely than current tests in two crucial measures – distinguishing cancer from benign conditions, and identifying patients with high-risk disease.

By identifying molecular changes in the prostate specific antigen (PSA) protein, the findings, published online last month by European Urology, suggest that once validated, use of IsoPSA may substantially reduce the need for biopsy, and may thus lower the likelihood of overdetection and overtreatment of nonlethal prostate cancer. The research team, led by Cleveland Clinic’s Eric Klein, M.D...

A custom chamber built by researchers at Rice University allowed them to refine their process for creating laser-induced graphene. Credit: Courtesy of the Tour Group

Rice University scientists who invented laser-induced graphene (LIG) for applications like supercapacitors have now figured out a way to make the spongy graphene either superhydrophobic or superhydrophilic. Until recently, the Rice lab of James Tour made LIG only in open air, using a laser to burn part of the way through a flexible polyimide sheet to get interconnected flakes of graphene. But putting the polymer in a closed environment with various gases changed the product’s properties. Forming LIG in argon or hydrogen makes it superhydrophobic, a property highly valued for separating water from oil or de-icing surfaces...