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Case Western Reserve University researcher receives prestigious NSF Award for ‘programmable’ nanoparticles
The Daily Case ^ | July 09, 2025 | Staff

Posted on 07/09/2025 7:24:24 AM PDT by Red Badger

Case Western Reserve University chemist Divita Mathur was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) grant for her research in synthetic DNA nanoparticles, which have potential applications in gene therapy.

Divita Mathur

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The grant will support Mathur’s work in synthesizing nanoparticles and studying how they behave inside cells in a laboratory. She will use single-cell injections and a microscope to track the nanoparticles and watch what happens to them over time inside individual cells.

The CAREER award is considered the agency’s most prestigious grant to junior faculty members “who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”

Mathur, Frank Hovorka Assistant Professor of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, is among three CWRU faculty members awarded CAREER grants this year.

“This groundbreaking work is a great example of fundamental science that could lead to new life-saving treatments,” said David Gerdes, dean of the college. “The CAREER award shows that she is a rising star, not only on our campus, but also in our national scientific community.”

Mathur’s DNA nanoparticles are highly programmable and could be designed to encode a gene that replaces a missing or malfunctioning gene, instructing a cell to produce a needed protein or correct a genetic error.

In many genetic diseases, scientists know the gene that needs to be corrected, Mathur said.

“The problem is the delivery,” she said. “It’s easy to deliver things to the liver, so liver-based therapies are in clinical trials. Converting this to another area of the body is difficult, which is one of the things that motivates us to pursue this research.”

Mathur said that eventually these DNA nanoparticles could also be designed with an attachment that functions like a barcode on an envelope, sending it to a particular address, or in this case, targeting a particular kind of cell.

The CAREER Award grant allows Mathur to delve into the basic question of how these manufactured DNA structures behave once they get inside a cell. To study that, she will attach a molecule to the DNA that fluoresces so the particles can be observed by microscope inside a living cell.

“We don’t know how these nanoparticles act when they are inside the cell; how they interact with the proteins that are inside,” Mathur said. “We have to understand that fundamentally before we can imagine how to design therapeutics.”

Divita Mathur with 3D DNA helix

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The CAREER award also provides funding for Mathur to engage high school students in summertime chemistry research projects and for building mixed-reality, three-dimensional models of chemical and biochemical molecules.

“We want to show students how molecules are three-dimensional, how they occupy space and how they have a specific orientation in space, like right or left-handedness,” she said.

Earlier this year, Mathur received the university’s John S. Dieckhoff Award for Excellence in Graduate Mentoring. One of the undergraduates working in her lab, Sara Desai, received the prestigious Barry Goldwater scholarship, a highly competitive national scholarship that provides tuition assistance for students who intend to pursue research careers in science, mathematics or engineering.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Military/Veterans; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS:
Programmable DNA?............What could possibly go wrong?...............
1 posted on 07/09/2025 7:24:24 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

IMMEDIATELY PUT HER UNDER 24/7 SURVEILLANCE. China and India are itching to pick her brain. Although the latter should worry about crapping in the streets and their people running into oncoming trains.


2 posted on 07/09/2025 7:26:48 AM PDT by Captainpaintball (America needs a Conservative DICTATOR if it hopes to survive. )
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To: Red Badger

Not sure if I should be excited or terrified.


3 posted on 07/09/2025 7:27:27 AM PDT by READINABLUESTATE (‘Never trust a man whose uncle was eaten by cannibals’)
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To: READINABLUESTATE

This is one of those things that could be used for great humanitarian purposes or if used by the wrong people for totally evil purposes..................


4 posted on 07/09/2025 7:30:12 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

They didn’t mention her pronouns?


5 posted on 07/09/2025 7:34:21 AM PDT by bigbob (Yes. We ARE going back)
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To: READINABLUESTATE
Not sure if I should be excited or terrified.

It's an "and" not an "or."

6 posted on 07/09/2025 7:34:25 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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To: Red Badger
Sounds like someone is trying to establish something old and known as something new and innovative.

JMO, YMMV

7 posted on 07/09/2025 7:43:02 AM PDT by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: READINABLUESTATE

The latter.


8 posted on 07/09/2025 7:43:08 AM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉! 🇮🇱👍!)
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To: bigbob
Her/She
9 posted on 07/09/2025 7:46:08 AM PDT by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: Red Badger

“Programmable nanoparticle.” Must be tech-speak for “liberal brain.”


10 posted on 07/09/2025 7:46:50 AM PDT by noiseman (I The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.)
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To: noiseman

Imagine if the CIA gets ahold of this technology...............or China, Russia, Norks.............


11 posted on 07/09/2025 7:48:27 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: READINABLUESTATE

that!!!


12 posted on 07/09/2025 7:48:53 AM PDT by NonValueAdded (First, I was a clinger, then deplorable, now I'm garbage. Feel the love? )
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To: Red Badger

Study, imagination, intelligence,inspiration, persistence, motivation and insight lead to progress. In the end she might not accomplish anything of great significance. However if America has a couple of thousand like her, wonderful things will continue to happen. Problem is that the hedonistic, decadent, drug fueled lifestyle so common today is significantly limiting the number of people like her. Nothing more sad and a loss to the culture when bright, otherwise normal young people succumb to marijuana use and embrace decadence. Rap and rock don’t move the dial.


13 posted on 07/09/2025 7:59:35 AM PDT by allendale
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To: Red Badger

adding Telomeres? Has the secret to eternal life been found?

Butlerian Jihad, anyone?


14 posted on 07/09/2025 8:08:42 AM PDT by NonValueAdded (First, I was a clinger, then deplorable, now I'm garbage. Feel the love? )
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To: Red Badger

Don’t let Bill Gates near it.


15 posted on 07/09/2025 8:48:46 AM PDT by dljordan (The Rewards of Tolerance are Treachery and Betrayal)
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To: Red Badger

Thanks
BKMK


16 posted on 07/09/2025 11:42:02 AM PDT by Faith65 (Isaiah 40:31)
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