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Research Tools

The NIH Nanomedicine Program has supported the production of many research tools with potential uses beyond the Nanomedicine Development Centers’ goals.  Selected, published examples are listed below. 

Vectors/Constructs

Cell Cultures and Model Systems

  • An optimized small molecule inhibitor cocktail for long-term maintenance of human embryonic stem cells, designed by using a feedback system control scheme (Tsutsui et al., 2011).

Structural Analyses

Photoswitches

  • The first light-gated native GPCRs and demonstration that they regulate synaptic function in brain slice and in vivo (Levitz et al., 2013).
  • Red-shifted and spontaneously relaxing photoswitches (DENAQ, PhENAQ) (Mourot et al., 2011).
  • One component system (AAQ) that can restore important aspects of vision to the blind mouse (Polosukhina et al., 2012).
  • Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) specific to parvalbumin-positive interneurons in the mouse primary visual cortex, used for optogenetic intervention in cortical neural activity (Lee et al., 2012).                                                         

Nanoparticles

  • Bright and compact quantum dots with broadly tunable adsorption and fluorescence spectra (Smith and Nie, 2011).
  • Protocells—porous nanoparticle-supported lipid bilayers for targeted delivery of multicomponent cargos to cancer cells (Ashley et al., 2011).
  • Phi29 DNA-packaging motor for translocation of double-stranded DNA across membranes through nanopores (Wendell et al., 2009).

Computational Tools

This page last reviewed on February 1, 2024