Science and Technology

Using clever but elegant design, University at Buffalo chemists have synthesized tiny, molecular cages that can be used to capture and purify nanomaterials. Sculpted from a special kind of molecule called a "bottle-brush molecule," the traps consist of tiny, organic tubes whose interior walls carry a negative charge. This feature enables the tubes to selectively encapsulate only positively charged particles.

In 1881, Buffalo's Louise Blanchard Bethune became the first woman in America to open her own architectural office. Her career was filled with milestones for the architectural profession: She went on to design buildings including Buffalo's landmark Lafayette Hotel, and became, in 1889, the first woman to be admitted to the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Healthy, new heart cells have been generated by animals with chronic ischemic heart disease after receiving stem cells derived from cardiac biopsies or "cardiospheres," according to research conducted at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The research is being presented today (Nov. 15) at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association in Orlando.

Architect Danise Levine of the University at Buffalo has completed design work with the Wounded Warrior Home Project, which will finish construction on two houses for wounded veterans today (Nov. 11) in Fort Belvoir, Va., that fit the unique physical and emotional needs of the soldiers who will move in. The dwellings are universally designed to be accessible to people of diverse abilities and ages.

Buffalo Niagara and Canadian tech firm Ladybug Teknologies has launched a pilot program for the SipSmart Network, a breathalyzer kiosk that enables bar patrons to stay safe by checking their level of intoxication before they drive.

AMEC Geomatrix of Amherst, N.Y., has received the National Ground Water Association's 2011 Ground Water Remediation Award for an innovative nuclear waste cleanup project that the company completed with University at Buffalo researchers.

An international research team led by the University at Buffalo has shown that large energy fluctuations can rile even a "relaxed" system, raising questions about how energy might travel through structures ranging from the ocean to DNA. The research appeared online Oct. 21 in Physical Review E.

Local company Ladybug Teknologies will host a party on Friday, Oct. 21 to launch the SipSmart Network, a system of breathalyzer kiosks that enables bar patrons to stay safe by checking their level of intoxication before they drive. The firm's U.S. headquarters is in the University at Buffalo Technology Incubator.

The prospect of doing human clinical trials with stem cells to treat diseases like multiple sclerosis may be growing closer, say scientists at the University at Buffalo and the University at Rochester, who have developed a more precise way to isolate stem cells that will make myelin.

A coalition of regional partners has received $9.8 million from the National Science Foundation to expand a promising, teacher-focused initiative that aims to change how science is taught in Buffalo Public Schools. The five-year program, led by the University at Buffalo, Buffalo Public Schools, Buffalo State College and the Buffalo Museum of Science, is called the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership (ISEP).