NSF Science Now

The COVID-19 pandemic has left many hospitals struggling with shortages of medical equipment. Now, George Washington University engineers might have a solution. With funding from the National Science Foundation, Michael Keidar has been exploring using cold plasma in cancer treatment. Now he’s joined forces with colleagues at one of the National Science Foundation’s Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers. The new team armed with an NSF RAPID grant hopes to develop a plasma brush to help medical providers quickly and easily sterilize masks and other equipment for reuse. Plasmas are a form of ionized gas containing a proportion of charged particles that are very effective in shutting down germs. Plasmas usually only exist at extremely high temperatures. Cold atmospheric plasma requires only the gas’s electrons to be at an elevated temperature, making it safe for use on and near humans. Unlike disinfectants, cold plasma doesn’t require a liquid agent, making it safe for damage-prone surfaces. While the plasma brush is still in its early stages, the team hopes to test the technology very soon. For more NSF COVID-19 information, visit us at nsf.gov/coronavirus.

As the world population grows, many more people will end up in regions with a shortage of water. So it’ important to ensure that the accessible fresh water is both safe and drinkable. Currently, much of the freshwater around the world is overrun by toxic algae called cyanobacteria or blue-green algae. The algae’s blooms are formed mainly by fertilizer runoff into bodies of water that serve as freshwater drinking supplies. The blooms spread rapidly, producing large quantities of the toxin microcystins in our lakes, streams, reservoirs, ponds, and rivers. If these very tiny molecules get into a water treatment plant, conventional treatment processes are not always efficient in removing these toxins. Polluted water may become much more difficult to treat, and could cause widespread contamination. But, if we know the reservoir is impacted by these toxins, drinking-water operators can adjust their management accordingly. The key to keeping our water safe is to detect and contain the toxins before they ever reach a plant. That is why engineers at the University of Cincinnati are developing a fast-responding bio sensor to detect these harmful toxins to protect our water and our health. Though the team is currently working with Southwestern Ohio issues, they hope to apply this work to large bodies of fresh water like the Great Lakes and other at-risk international lakes and rivers.

The unforgiving, turbulent, ever-changing conditions out here can make successfully locating a missing person difficult, if not impossible. That’s why National Science Foundation-funded researchers from MIT collaborated with Woods Hole, Virginia Tech, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, to find a solution. The team developed a technique they hope will help first responders quickly zero in on regions of the sea where missing objects or people are more likely to be.

One of America’s most immediate needs is to assess the spread of COVID-19 by quickly and widely testing for infection. That’s where Aperiomics comes in to play. This small business in Ashburn, VA, with early-stage research and development funding from the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research Program, has developed a swab test that doctors can use to detect every known and sequenced pathogen. In developing this technology, they created a database of the genetic information for nearly 40,000 bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. This experience has allowed Aperiomics to now shift gears and use their knowledge to perform tests specifically for the virus that causes COVID-19. Their core detection technology enables them to make many copies of genetic material in a swab sample and look for two genes that are specific to the virus. They have been able to establish a testing capacity of 2,500 tests per week. Aperiomics’ state-of-the-art DNA sequencing technology has put them on the frontlines of the COVID-19 fight, where small companies can make a big impact.

Commercial fishing nets, lines, and ropes contribute to about half of all plastic waste that ends up in our oceans. But, developing a degradable plastic with the mechanical strength comparable to commercial materials remains a difficult challenge.   Chemists at Cornell University, with funding from the National Science Foundation, have created a new polymer aimed to address this challenge. The team’s plastic is called isotactic polypropylene oxide, or iPPO. When the material is first molded, the plastic is easy to deform, but when stretched, the material becomes significantly stronger and increasingly resistant to deformation. While iPPO is stable in the laboratory setting, it breaks down when exposed to ultraviolet radiation-a wavelength of light that is produced by our sun. During lab testing, the team found that the polymer chain lengths degraded to a quarter of their original length after just 30 days of UV exposure.  While scientists want to leave no trace in the oceans, more testing is needed to prove that iPPO can effectively disappear. The team hopes to one day see this polymer used on the commercial scale, helping protect our environment while supporting our need for plastic.

Antarctica, the coldest, driest, windiest place on Earth, is now also the safest.  While the rest of the world contends with the pandemic and isolation, it’s business as usual here at the National Science Foundation’s McMurdo Station, Antarctica.  McMurdo is the largest of the three U.S. scientific research stations on the continent. One-hundred and forty-two brave souls now call this place home and will spend six months in total darkness, completely isolated from the rest of the world, and…free from the pandemic, including McMurdo winter station manager, Erin Heard. Wintering over in Antarctica takes a unique team.  Withstanding frigid temperatures, the crew is busy getting the station ready for September and the start of the busy summer season.  Wintering over in the Antarctic—season after season—has made these folks isolation experts. It’s too early to tell how the pandemic will affect day to day life in Antarctica during the coming summer research season. When the sun rises again August 19th at McMurdo Station, Erin and his team will head home, wondering what the world will look like when they arrive.

As the pandemic rages on, it’s the first responders on the frontlines that are most at risk. A team of engineers at the University of Central Florida, and another at Northwestern University—both armed with National Science Foundation RAPID research grants—are each working to make masks and other gear more protective. First up, the team at Northwestern University is working on a way to develop a new self-sanitizing medical face mask that deactivates viruses on contact.

The team, designated as essential researchers, is working night and day investigating anti-viral chemicals that can be safely built into masks to self-sanitize the droplets before they ever enter the atmosphere or land on objects and surfaces.

The goal is to design a add-on solution that works for all types of masks to deactivate viruses. The mask would reduce the level of viruses in the droplets exhaled by infected wearers--better protecting healthcare workers and others around them.

Next up is the team of engineers and virologists at the University of Central Florida. This team is working to create a protective coating that would include a novel mask material that would catch the virus and kill it within minutes.

The team will create nanostructures that can capture the virus and then trigger a chemical reaction creating ultraviolet light to destroy it. If successful, the coating could be added to masks, gloves, and gowns-keeping healthcare providers safer on the COVID-19 frontlines.

More examples of how NSF RAPID response research grants are critical to tackling urgent real- world problems.

For more NSF COVID-19 information, visit us at nsf.gov/coronavirus.

Safe sample transport. That’s where MaxQ Research Company comes in. This small business in Stillwater, Oklahoma, with early-stage research and development funding from the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research program, has developed durable thermal insulation materials with precise temperature control to keep specimens safe for transport. Initially created for donor, transfusion, and biologics delivery, servicing pharmaceutical companies, blood centers, and hospitals across the country, MaxQ, and their smart packages are now on the COVID-19 front lines.

Their reusable, smart packages are self-sensing, and self-learning as they continually monitor the temperature inside the box, ensuring that blood, plasma, and swab samples stay viable for testing.

The system can warn the courier and lab when a sample inside the package is about to expire and is equipped with GPS tracking. Smart Packages can be transported by ambulance, helicopter, and even drone. Helping in the fight against COVID-19, small companies can make a big impact.

How do barnacles survive environmental changes? Long-term work by a Brown University research team, with funding from the National Science Foundation, has confirmed that a central metabolic protein Mpi and the gene encoding the protein is what helps the barnacle survive extreme environmental changes. Different versions of the Mpi enzyme are present at different levels, depending on where the barnacles have settled in the rocky shoreline. One form performs well under high stress, like on a hot day at low tide; the other form does better under low stress. This allows barnacles to survive and prosper in fluctuating extremes and has prepared them for success in an ever-changing environment.

What do butterflies and bubbles have in common? Both can project iridescent colors in the same way.  When a team of biologists happened upon a Florida breeder’s buckeye butterflies--which are usually—brown—sporting brilliant blue wings, they jumped on the chance to explore what caused the change in color. The team led by scientists from UC Berkeley and the Marine Biological Laboratory, with funding from the National Science Foundation, found that buckeyes and other Junonia species can create a rainbow of structural colors by merely tuning the thickness of the wing scale’s bottom layer(the lamina), which creates iridescent colors just like soap bubbles.   They compared the structural architecture of blue scales with wild-type brown scales and found that only the thickness of the lamina differed, and this pattern held across a comparative study of nine different species of Junonia. The team says understanding the simple change in thickness of the butterfly’s lamina is helping them recognize how butterfly wing color is created and evolves. Future research into how butterflies produce photonic nanostructures with optical properties could help engineers develop new ways to produce photonic nanostructures for solar panels or iridescent colors for paints, clothing, and cosmetics.