Although a nanometer is about 100,000 times smaller than a speck of dust, nanoparticles may have big implications – even finding a better treatment for cancer.
The W.M. Keck Foundation recently awarded the University a $1.6 million grant that will help fund student research and the study of nanomaterials, or microscopic particles.
Students and professors from different science fields at two different Oregon public universities will take part in the research, part of which will examine possible treatments of cancer.
Five University researchers in biology and chemistry, along with one Oregon State University scientist, applied jointly for the grant. All are members of the Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Initiative and the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute.
Oregon State University scientist and associate professor Robert Tanguay said the research will combine the study of nanomaterial substances with the study of biological interactions of nanomaterials.
“It brings together two completely different disciplines,” he said. “I think that’s what the Keck Foundation was so excited about.”
University chemistry professor Andy Berglund said the group plans to explore how to use nanotechnology for drug delivery.
“With a better understanding of how these materials work, we can engineer them precisely to go to specific locations in the body to be used as the drug,” Berglund said.
Nanomaterials could possibly help treat cancer by targeting a specific part of the body, Berglund said.
“It’s been shown in mice that nanoparticles can be used to reduce tumor size,” he said. “If you can control where those particles go in that body, it’ll be a better drug than it [would be] going throughout the whole body.”
Eric Johnson, an assistant professor of biology at the University, said he wants to explore whether or not nanoparticles are safe.
“We’re trying to understand if there’s unforeseeable toxic effects,” Johnson said. “What we don’t want is for everyone to start manufacturing tons of these things and not know what could happen.”
Students from both the University and Oregon State University will travel to and from Eugene and Corvallis to take part in the research.
Graduate students will be trained in cross-disciplinary research, Berglund said. Students who have been awarded research money will be named in the coming weeks.
“Students that may normally do more biochemical studies can now get involved in the study of nanomaterials,” he said. “By students getting involved in nanomaterials and biological applications, it gives them a better training perspective.”
Berglund said the cross-training will better help students prepare for a job because they will study more than one field.
“Students will have a leg up,” he said, adding they will have a chance to work with faculty members.
Undergraduate students may have the opportunity to be involved by contacting one of the researchers involved, Berglund said.
The group made up of six researchers applied for a Keck Foundation grant last year but was rejected.
“They gave us some useful advice on how to improve it and they seemed to like it,” Berglund said.
A portion of the grant will also help purchase an electron microscope to look at nanomaterials, which are the size of a few dozen atoms and aren’t visible to the naked eye.
Tanguay said the microscope will allow researchers to examine the shape of nanomaterials.
The W.M. Keck Foundation, founded by William Myron Keck in Los Angeles, provides funds to research institutions and schools in the areas of medical research, science and engineering, and liberal arts, according to the foundation’s Web site.