Blog

Two of the biggest existential environmental threats to human survival on the planet are: 1) climate change due to excessive emission of greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide); and 2) 10,000-year lifecycle plastic pollution. To address these issues simultaneously, without changing the entire economic ecosystem, and through an inexpensive, sustainable, and scalable technology, Dr. Prashant Nagpal’s lab has engineered living nano-organisms (called Nanobugs or Nanorgs).

A research group at CU Boulder, led by Dr. Marvin Caruthers and Dr. Subhadeep Roy, have established a novel silyl-based exocyclic amine protecting group that is compatible with boronation allowing the synthesis of bpDNA oligomers up to 20-25 nucleotide in length in yields and purity comparable to that of unmodified DNA.

CU Boulder researchers have developed an insulating gel — an aerogel based on nanotechnology — that can coat windows and insulate them by blocking infrared radiation (i.e. heat in the longer wavelengths).

Prof. William Medlen’s group has developed zeolite materials that are functionalized with a novel self-assembled monolayer (SAM). The synthesis of the functionalized zeolites is straightforward and uses low-cost, commercially available reagents. The gas diffusivity rate and adsorption properties of the functionalized zeolite can be tuned by varying the tail length of the SAM.

ASTRALite developed the first ever 2-in-1 scanning topo-bathy LIDAR on a UAV that can seamlessly survey and map with a single survey. This system provides previously unavailable and highly desired 3D data from a platform capable of reaching inaccessible and hard to map areas. In addition, the output can be viewed in real-time giving the customer immediate visibility of cracking, misalignment, settlement, erosion and undermining of slabs and foundation elements to a revolutionary 1 cm accuracy or better.

Using a unique assay, Dr. Min Han's team has discovered an unexpected and striking role of Enterobactin (Ent) in supporting growth and the labile iron pool in C. elegans. Ent, a compound with high affinity for iron (Fe3+), is produced and used by certain bacteria (including gut microbes) to acquire iron from the environment. This new work has demonstrated that ferric-Ent is taken up by the host and is bioavailable.

Researchers at Kelvin Thermal Technologies, Inc. have developed the world’s thinnest vapor chambers for cooling smartphones, using technologies originally developed at CU Boulder. With thickness less than 0.15 mm, these vapor chambers can spread 15 Watts from a chip to a 10cm x 5cm area with only 2oC difference.

Prof. Christopher Bowman's group has designed a novel thioester monomer system that can be seamlessly incorporated into existing polymerization procedures and allows for extremely rapid, room-temperature plasticity under ambient conditions, offering a route towards recycling and remolding.

Researchers working at CU Boulder and NIST have developed an electroplated rhenium film that is superconducting at relatively high critical temperatures of up to 6K, which is well above the boiling point of liquid helium, making the critical temperature easy to obtain.

Researchers working at CU Boulder and Immodulon Therapeutics Limited have discovered novel, mycobacterially-derived lipid compounds that have potent anti-inflammatory effects and could be useful in the treatment and prevention of sepsis and post-sepsis syndrome.