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Category: nanotechnology

Scripps Research scientists uncover new mechanism cancer cells use to survive DNA damage

LA JOLLA, CA— A cancer drug target already being investigated in clinical trials turns out to be doing something even more consequential than researchers realized. Scientists at Scripps Research have discovered that the enzyme Pol theta (Polθ) drives a DNA repair mechanism directly at broken replication forks—one of the most frequent forms of DNA damage in cancer cells. The findings, published in Molecular Cell on March 16, 2026, help explain how tumors survive relentless replication stress and clarify why Pol theta inhibitors may be an effective strategy to selectively target cancer.

“We’ve uncovered a whole new dimension of how cancer cells cope with DNA damage at replication forks,” says Xiaohua Wu, professor at Scripps Research and senior author of the study.

Every time a cell divides, it must make an exact copy of its entire genome, a process carried out by molecular machinery that unzips the DNA double helix and reads each strand to build a new one. The point where this unzipping and copying actively happens is called a replication fork. But when this replication machinery encounters damage, forks can stall or collapse, leaving behind dangerous one-ended DNA breaks that are particularly difficult to repair and, if left unresolved, can kill the cell. This is particularly true in cancer cells, where replication stress is constant.

Carbon nanotube fiber sensors achieve record measurement error below 0.1%

Skoltech scientists, in collaboration with colleagues from China and Iran, have taken a major step toward creating highly precise carbon nanotube fiber (CNTF)-based sensors. In a paper published in the iScience journal, the authors, for the first time, quantitatively assessed the accuracy of CNTF sensors for dual-stage, i.e., manufacturing and post-manufacturing monitoring of epoxy-based polymer nanocomposites with dispersed CNTs.

The researchers emphasize that this development paves the way for creating a cutting-edge carbon-based material for high-precision and real-time sensing applications.

Existing monitoring sensors, such as fiber optics or piezoelectric sensors, are not suitable for the dual-stage monitoring of polymer composite materials. Additionally, embedding them into the composite structure often leads to deterioration in the mechanical properties of ready-made materials, making it more vulnerable to failure.

Selectively eliminating old, damaged fat cells

A team from The University of Texas at Austin reviews recent advances in dilute noble metal films for infrared optics and plasmonics: https://bit.ly/4s9XHKR

To address a growing need for a sub-wavelength and nanophotonic optical infrastructure to support quantum applications, dilute noble metals provide a high-optical-quality approach for nanophotonics at long wavelengths.

With further research, their potential applications can even include mid-IR sensing, optoelectronics, and quantum photonics at long wavelengths.

The infrared optical response of noble metals is traditionally considered perfect electrical conductor (PEC)-like due to the noble metals’ exceptionally large electron concentrations, and thus large (and negative) real permittivity. While PEC-like behavior is ideal for a broad range of applications, for instance mirrors, gratings, and wavelength-(and macro-) scale resonators and antennas, the utility of noble metals for nanoscale (sub-diffraction-limit) physics at long wavelengths is limited. However, in ultra-low volume (dilute) metal films, such as those with nanometer-scale thicknesses or lithographic dilution (subwavelength perforation), the thin films’ sheet conductivity is massively reduced, enabling light to penetrate and interact with the films much more efficiently. This avails the infrared of a host of opportunities for noble-metal-based plasmonics, with the potential for nanoscale (deep subwavelength) confinement and strong light-matter interaction, otherwise prohibited with noble metals in this wavelength range. In this perspective, we review the recent advances in dilute metal films for near-and mid-infrared photonics and plasmonics, and discuss the advantageous properties of these optical thin films for potential applications in sensors, detectors, sources, and nonlinear and quantum optics.

Sound-sensing hair bundles in our ears act as tiny thermodynamic machines

The hair cells lining the inner ear are among the most sophisticated structures in the human body: capable of detecting sounds as faint as a whisper, while helping to maintain our sense of balance. Through new models detailed in PRX Life, a team led by Roman Belousov at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory has revealed for the first time how oscillating bundles attached to these cells operate in different thermodynamic regimes—offering a new framework for understanding how our hearing works at a fundamental level.

Within the inner ear, each hair cell hosts a hair “bundle”: a cluster of tiny, bristle-like projections that vibrate in response to incoming sound waves. The mechanical energy from these oscillations is then converted into electrical signals which travel to the brain. Rather than being passive receivers, these bundles actively oscillate —driven by molecular motors within the cell that allow them to amplify faint signals and tune in to specific frequencies.

But despite decades of study, researchers are still unclear on the connection between this active oscillation and the hair bundle’s response to external sound. Existing models tended to treat bundles as if they were moving spontaneously, without accounting for what happens when they actually interact with sound.

A nanoparticle therapy to treat lung cancer and associated muscle wasting at the same time

Researchers at Oregon State University have developed a technique for simultaneously treating lung cancer and a serious muscle-wasting condition that often accompanies it. The study, published in the Journal of Controlled Release, involves lipid nanoparticles delivering therapeutic genetic material to lung tumors.

In a mouse model, scientists led by Oleh Taraula and Yoon Tae Goo of the OSU College of Pharmacy showed that a type of nanocarrier loaded with follistatin messenger RNA is able to accumulate in tumors. Once there, the mRNA triggers cells to produce the follistatin protein, which plays a key role both in inhibiting tumors and promoting muscle tissue growth.

The lipid nanoparticles, or LNPs, can be administered intravenously and reach the lungs courtesy of another protein, vitronectin, that’s found in blood serum. Lipids are fatty acids and similar organic compounds, including many natural oils and waxes. Nanoparticles are tiny pieces of material ranging in size from one-to 100-billionths of a meter.

Scientists reveal a new way cancer cells survive DNA damage

A cancer drug target already being investigated in clinical trials turns out to be doing something even more consequential than researchers realized. Scientists at Scripps Research have discovered that the enzyme Pol theta (Polθ) drives a DNA repair mechanism directly at broken replication forks—one of the most frequent forms of DNA damage in cancer cells. The findings, published in Molecular Cell on March 16, 2026, help explain how tumors survive relentless replication stress and clarify why Pol theta inhibitors may be an effective strategy to selectively target cancer.

“We’ve uncovered a whole new dimension of how cancer cells cope with DNA damage at replication forks,” says Xiaohua Wu, professor at Scripps Research and senior author of the study.

Every time a cell divides, it must make an exact copy of its entire genome, a process carried out by molecular machinery that unzips the DNA double helix and reads each strand to build a new one. The point where this unzipping and copying actively happens is called a replication fork. But when this replication machinery encounters damage, forks can stall or collapse, leaving behind dangerous one-ended DNA breaks that are particularly difficult to repair and, if left unresolved, can kill the cell. This is particularly true in cancer cells, where replication stress is constant.

What this AI epitope library means for vaccines, immunotherapy and biosensors

A new tool makes it possible to screen millions of tiny protein fragments and select those that can be recognized by the immune system. The CIC biomaGUNE Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials has developed epiGPTope, a system that uses machine learning to generate and classify epitopes, in collaboration with the company Multiverse Computing.

The immune system is triggered by the presence of viruses or bacteria. When the antibodies produced recognize the epitopes, a small part of these viruses or bacteria, they launch an attack strategy. These epitopes are small fragments of protein recognized by antibodies or by immune cell receptors. So discovering new epitope sequences that target specific antibodies is essential for the development of diagnostic tools, immunotherapies and vaccines.

CIC biomaGUNE’s Biomolecular Nanotechnology laboratory, led by the Ikerbasque Research Professor Aitziber L. Cortajarena, is creating a library or database of hundreds of thousands of synthetic epitopes using this AI-based technique. The work is published in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology.

3D-printed ‘spanlastics’ could change how cancer drugs reach tumors

University of Mississippi research offers hope that cancer drug therapies packaged in 3D-printed carriers could deliver medication directly to tumors while reducing many of the side effects that cancer patients endure. In a study published in Pharmaceutical Research, the Ole Miss team demonstrated that 3D-printed spanlastics—a tiny carrier filled with cancer-fighting drugs—could be implanted directly at the site of a tumor and kill those cells.

“This paper introduced a new 3D printing concept called FRESH 3D printing,” said Mo Maniruzzaman, chair and professor of pharmaceutics and drug delivery. “It uses spanlastics as a new nano-drug delivery vehicle for anticancer drug delivery. We actually applied this on breast cancer cells and we got some really, really promising data.”

Traditional chemotherapy is often given orally or injected into the bloodstream, where the circulatory system disperses cancer-fighting therapy throughout the body.

Quantum ground state of rotation achieved for the first time in two dimensions

Quantum mechanics tells us that a particle can never be perfectly still. But how precisely can it be oriented? A research team at the University of Vienna, together with colleagues at TU Wien and Ulm University, has now cooled the rotational motion of a levitated silica nanorotor all the way to its quantum ground state—in two orientational degrees of freedom.

Reporting in Nature Physics, they show how optical cooling confines the nanoparticle’s orientation to within the bounds of quantum zero-point fluctuations, the unavoidable orientational uncertainty imposed by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Such quantum-limited alignment is an important milestone towards rotational matter-wave interferometry and ultra-sensitive quantum torque sensing.

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