Latest News

29 February 2024

Research and drug development platform supported by ERC grant

Research and drug development platform supported by ERC grant

Apart from storing heritable information, DNA can fold into a key that unlocks functions in specific proteins. Such DNA keys, called ā€˜aptamersā€™, are highly sought-after as new drugs and tools in biological research. Delft researchers developed a technique to find the right DNA key between the countless different aptamers that exist. The European Research Council has now awarded their idea with a Proof-of-Concept grant.

13 February 2024

Scientists develop new technology to identify individual full-length human proteins

Scientists develop new technology to identify individual full-length human proteins

In a study published in Nature Nanotechnology, scientists from Delft University of Technology present a new technique to identify proteins. Proteins carry out essential functions in our cells, while playing a crucial role in diseases like cancer and COVID-19 infection. The researchers identify proteins by reading out the fingerprint, and comparing the fingerprint to patterns from a database. Using this new technology, the researchers can identify individual, intact, full-length proteins, preserving all its information. This can shed light on the mechanisms behind many different diseases and allows earlier diagnosis.

11 January 2024

How living materials from algae can best capture carbon

How living materials from algae can best capture carbon

Scientists from TU Delft have found how confined microalgal cells grow optimally in photosynthetic engineered living materials. With the use of light energy, the microalgae convert CO2 from the air into sugars, energy and oxygen for their survival. Such algae-based living materials could be used in a range of applications, from functional objects for CO2 capture, to oxygen sources for biological tissues. The team, led by Marie-Eve Aubin-Tam and Kunal Masania, present their new insights in Advanced Materials.

28 November 2023

NWO grant for size-tuneable nanopores and living building materials

NWO grant for size-tuneable nanopores and living building materials

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded grants to 28 promising research projects in the field of Exact and Natural Sciences (ENW), including two at the Faculty of Applied Sciences at Delft University of Technology. The grants of up to 50,000 euros are part of the Open Competition ENW-XS. Eva Bertosin receives the grant for her work on nanopores and Kui Yu is awarded for his research on living building materials.

21 August 2023

5 million in quest for ā€œmissing linkā€ in quantum communication

5 million in quest for ā€œmissing linkā€ in quantum communication

Delft University of Technology and its Kavli Institute of Nanoscience received a five-million-dollar grant from The Kavli Foundation to fund a collaborative effort to develop the quantum equivalent of telecommunication.

20 July 2023

Living together: Microbial communities are more than the sum of their parts

Living together: Microbial communities are more than the sum of their parts

To engineer successful microbial communities, scientists need to predict whether microorganisms can live and work together. One popular predictive rule states that if a pair of microbes will coexist, they will also coexist in a bigger community of microbes. A study published in Science now found that this simple rule will not always work.

29 June 2023

Greg Bokinsky: Educator of the Year TNW 2023

Greg Bokinsky: Educator of the Year TNW 2023

Through our annual Educator of the Year election, we highlight excellence in education. On 27 June during the AS Education Afternoon, Paulien Herder, dean of AS, announced the Educators of the Year by AS programme and the overall winner: Dr. Greg Bokinsky.

08 June 2023

Guinness World Records pipetting

Guinness World Records pipetting

On Saturday 3 June 2023, 276 participants took part in the attempt to set the Guinness World Records pipetting, organised by Nanobiology students from Delft University of Technology and Erasmus MC. Within only 5 minutes the volunteers managed to simultaneously suck up and displace fluids with a pipette.

01 June 2023

Promising research project of Aswin Muralidharan awarded within Open Competition ENW-XS

Promising research project of Aswin Muralidharan awarded within Open Competition ENW-XS

The Domain Board Science of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded 28 applications in the Open Competition Domain Science - XS. One of the honoured applications is from Aswin Muralidharan for project ā€˜Using bacterial defense machinery for selective killing of cancer cellsā€™. Aswin Muralidharan is a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Stan Brouns (Department of Bionanoscience). Muralidharanā€™s current research interest lies in interactions of bacteria and bacteriophages.

26 April 2023

Royal decoration for Marileen Dogterom

Royal decoration for Marileen Dogterom

Marileen Dogterom, Professor of Bionanosciences at the Faculty of Applied Sciences (AS) and president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), was made a Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion in the municipality of Woerden. The so-called ribbon is a reward for someone who has done groundbreaking (scientific) work for Dutch society.