Chemical Engineering

‘Trained Immunity’ Offers Hope in Fight Against Coronavirus

Quanta Magazine: Laboratories around the world are in a high-profile race to create vaccines that might help end the COVID-19 pandemic. More quietly, however, other scientists are investigating whether a vaccine that has already been in use for decades could also…

Synthetic biologists have created a slow-growing version of the coronavirus to give as a vaccine

Technology Review: In the 1950s, Albert Sabin was searching for an improved polio vaccine. To that end, his lab infected the brains of mice, chimpanzees, and monkeys with the virus…

Droplets of an herbicide-loaded hydrogel stick their landing

C&EN: A new herbicide-carrying hydrogel’s droplets can land on leaves and stay there without bouncing off or breaking up (ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2020, 10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c03396). Such hydrogels could help reduce agrochemical losses when they are sprayed, potentially cutting the amount…

Engineered ‘nanobodies’ block SARS-CoV-2 from infecting human cells

NANO Magazine: Researchers have designed a molecule that sticks tightly to the coronavirus spike protein, preventing the virus from infecting cells. The molecule might someday be used in an aerosolized…