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Category: engineering

Menstrual cup upgrades: Self-cleaning and sustainable design adjustments could make them easier to use

Reusable menstrual cups reduce waste and are more cost-effective than single-use pads and tampons. But some people avoid the cups because they require thorough cleaning and are sometimes messy to empty. To solve these problems, researchers coated a commercially available silicone cup in silicone oil and created a plant-based, absorbent tablet. These design adjustments could make menstrual cups safer and easier to use, according to a study published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

“This research bridges advanced engineering and women’s health, creating a menstrual product that is not only self-cleaning and sustainable, but also opens doors for future health monitoring,” says Tohid Didar, one of the senior researchers of this study from McMaster University.

Nearly 2 billion people menstruate, and their desire for sustainable, reusable options—menstrual cups, disks and period underwear—is rising. Menstrual cups are designed to hold more fluid than tampons, allowing longer wear than the disposable option, and they can be cleaned and reused for years.

Engineered Immune Cells Improves Anti-Cancer Response

Scientists have developed a way to engineer immune cells that specifically target tumors. The application of engineering cells first appeared in the 1980s, but the concept has significantly progressed over the last few decades. This approach of engineering a patient’s cells as a form of therapy allow the immune system to specifically target the tumor and limit off-target affects.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells is an immunotherapy that takes patient T cells and edits them to target the tumor. The cells are then reinfused to accurately and effectively eliminate tumor growth. Immunotherapy is a general classification of cancer treatments that refers to the redirection of the immune system toward a disease or infection. T cells are responsible for the identification and elimination of infected cells and other diseases. Therefore, they are the optimal cell to engineer for robust and durable antitumor immunity. While scientists are working to engineer other cell types, CAR T cell therapy have been shown to have improved efficacy in multiple types of blood or hematological malignancies.

CAR T cell therapy in solid tumors is less effective. Unfortunately, the environment around the tumor has a complex network of various cell types combined with proteins and other molecules that inhibit CAR T cell efficacy. As a result, these CAR T cells cannot function and contribute to tumor progression. Scientists are currently working to improve CAR T cell therapy and develop stronger anti-cancer treatments.

A new dimension for spin qubits in diamond

The path toward realizing practical quantum technologies begins with understanding the fundamental physics that govern quantum behavior—and how those phenomena can be harnessed in real materials.

In the lab of Ania Jayich, Bruker Endowed Chair in Science and Engineering, Elings Chair in Quantum Science, and co-director of UC Santa Barbara’s National Science Foundation Quantum Foundry, that material of choice is laboratory-grown diamond.

Working at the intersection of materials science and quantum physics, Jayich and her team explore how engineered defects in diamond—known as spin qubits—can be used for quantum sensing. Among the lab’s standout researchers, Lillian Hughes, who recently earned her Ph.D. and will soon begin postdoctoral work at the California Institute of Technology, has achieved a major advance in this effort.

Molecular engineering strategy boosts efficiency of inverted perovskite solar cells

Solar cells, devices that can directly convert radiation emitted from the sun into electricity, have become increasingly widespread and are contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. While existing silicon-based solar cells have attained good performances, energy engineers have been exploring alternative designs that could be more efficient and affordable.

Perovskites, a class of materials with a characteristic crystal structure, have proved to be particularly promising for the development of low-cost and energy-efficient solar energy solutions. Recent studies specifically highlighted the potential of inverted perovskite solar cells, devices in which the extraction charge layers are arranged in the reverse order compared to traditional designs.

Inverted perovskite solar cells could be more stable and easier to manufacture on a large-scale than conventional perovskite-based cells. Nonetheless, most inverted cells developed so far were found to exhibit low energy-efficiencies, due to the uncontrolled formation of crystal grains that can produce defects and adversely impact the transport of charge carriers generated by sunlight.

Lignin increases the stability and effectiveness of herbicide nanoparticles, study shows

A recent study has shown that a fraction obtained from lignin, an organic polymer responsible for the rigidity of plant cell walls, was able to improve the performance of nanoparticles with herbicide.

The work is published in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering and was recently featured on its cover.

The study was conducted by researchers from three research institutions in the state of São Paulo, Brazil: São Paulo State University (UNESP), the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), and the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar).

Crystal-free mechanoluminescence illuminates new possibilities for next-generation materials

In the 17th century, Francis Bacon described a simple experiment—scraping and fracturing hard sugar in the dark to see sparks of light. This phenomenon is called mechanoluminescence (ML) or triboluminescence (TL), the process of materials emitting light under mechanical stimulation, like grinding or crushing. Usually, ML properties of luminescent compounds are observed in rigid crystalline systems, which limits their real-world applications.

Now, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have found a way to generate ML in non-crystalline materials, bringing a new wave of potential applications in engineering, industrial safety and beyond.

“Mechanical stimulation of crystals causes fractures. As the crystals are damaged and break down in size, they also start to lose their ML properties, which vastly restricts their application. In , ML is highly dependent on structure and packing, adding complex design requirements. That’s why we were interested in amorphous ML materials with longer-lasting luminescence,” explains Professor Julia Khusnutdinova, head of the Coordination Chemistry and Catalysis Unit at OIST.

Engineers create bioelectronic hydrogels to monitor activity in the body

Wearable or implantable devices to monitor biological activities, such as heart rate, are useful, but they are typically made of metals, silicon, plastic and glass and must be surgically implanted. A research team in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis is developing bioelectronic hydrogels that could one day replace existing devices and have much more flexibility.

Alexandra Rutz, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Anna Goestenkors, a fifth-year doctoral student in Rutz’s lab, created novel granular hydrogels. They are made of microparticles that could be injected into the body, spread over tissues or used to encapsulate cells and tissue and also to monitor and stimulate biological activity. Results of their research were published Oct. 8 in the journal Small.

The microparticles are spherical hydrogels made from the conducting polymer known as PEDOT: PSS. When packed tightly, they are similar to wet sand or paste: They hold as a solid with micropores, but they can also be 3D printed or spread into different shapes while maintaining their structure or redistributed into individual microparticles when placed in liquid.

Turning pollution into clean fuel with stable methane production from carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the world’s most abundant pollutants and a key driver of climate change. To mitigate its impact, researchers around the world are exploring ways to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and transform it into valuable products, such as clean fuels or plastics. While the idea holds great promise, turning it into reality—at least on a large scale—remains a scientific challenge.

A new study led by Smith Engineering researcher Cao Thang Dinh (Chemical Engineering), Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals, paves the way to practical applications of carbon conversion technologies and may reshape how we design future carbon conversion systems. The research addresses one of the main roadblocks in the carbon : catalyst stability.

In chemical engineering, a catalyst is a substance that accelerates a reaction—ideally, without being consumed in the process. In the case of carbon conversion, catalysts play a critical role by enabling the transformation of CO₂ into useful products such as fuels and building blocks for sustainable materials.

Saturn V’s Silent Navigator: The Guidance Gyros of the Instrument Unit

Discover the hidden brain of the Saturn V — the Instrument Unit’s gyroscopes. Learn how these precision-spinning machines guided humanity’s most powerful rocket with unmatched accuracy, keeping Apollo on course to the Moon.

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This experimental “super vaccine” stopped cancer cold in the lab

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have shown that their nanoparticle-based vaccine can successfully prevent several aggressive cancers in mice, including melanoma, pancreatic cancer, and triple-negative breast cancer. Depending on the cancer type, up to 88% of vaccinated mice stayed tumor-free (depending on the cancer), and the vaccine also reduced — and in some cases completely prevented — the spread of cancer throughout the body.

“By engineering these nanoparticles to activate the immune system via multi-pathway activation that combines with cancer-specific antigens, we can prevent tumor growth with remarkable survival rates,” says Prabhani Atukorale, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the Riccio College of Engineering at UMass Amherst and corresponding author on the paper.

Atukorale had previously shown that her nanoparticle-based drug design could shrink or eliminate tumors in mice. The new findings reveal that this approach can also prevent cancer from forming in the first place.

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