Two-dimensional (2D) materials—as thin as a single layer of atoms—have intrigued scientists with their flexibility, elasticity, and unique electronic properties since first being discovered in materials such as graphene in 2004. Some of these materials can be especially susceptible to changes in their material properties as they are stretched and pulled. Under applied strain, they have been predicted to undergo phase transitions as disparate as superconducting in one moment to nonconducting the next, or optically opaque in one moment to transparent in the next.

Now, University researchers have combined 2D materials with oxide materials in a new way, using a transistor-scale device platform, to fully explore the capabilities of these changeable 2D materials to transform electronics, optics, computing, and a host of other technologies.

“We’re opening up a new direction of study,” says Stephen Wu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics. “There’s a huge number of 2D materials with different properties—and if you stretch them, they will do all sorts of things.”

The platform developed in Wu’s lab is configured much like traditional transistors. It allows a small flake of a 2D material to be deposited onto a ferroelectric material. Voltage applied to the ferroelectric—which acts like a transistor’s third terminal, or gate—strains the 2D material by the piezoelectric effect, causing it to stretch. That, in turn, triggers a phase change that can completely alter the way the material behaves. When the voltage is turned off, the material retains its phase until an opposite polarity voltage is applied, causing the material to revert to its original phase.

“The ultimate goal of two-dimensional straintronics is to take all of the things that you couldn’t control before, like the topological, superconducting, magnetic, and optical properties of these materials, and now be able to control them, just by stretching the material on a chip,” Wu says.

“If you do this with topological materials you could impact quantum computers, or if you do it with superconducting materials you can impact superconducting electronics.”

In a paper in Nature Nanotechnology, Wu and his students describe using a thin film of two-dimensional molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe₂) in the device platform. When stretched and unstretched, the MoTe₂ changes from a low conductivity semiconductor material to a highly conductive semimetallic material and back again.

Read more here.

Wilmot Cancer Institute scientists believe they have figured out why a commonly used drug to treat late-stage prostate cancer often stops working after four or five months and appears to later turn the cancer into a relentless aggressor.

They believe they have also discovered a way to block this harmful turn around from occurring, at least in mice. The study of the drug enzalutamide, led by Jie Luo, a graduate student from the Department of Biology, was published in the journal Nature Communications.

“As more patients look to enzalutamide to extend their lives, even for just a few months, our goal is to find ways to make the drug work for longer periods and to block the dangerous pathways that lead to adverse side effects,” says corresponding author Chawnshang Chang, the George Hoyt Whipple Distinguished Professor of Pathology, Urology and Radiation Oncology.

Some early-stage types of prostate cancer, with a low Gleason score, can be treated with a “watch and wait” approach. However, higher-grade cancers require surgery and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). The goal of this treatment is to lower the amount of male sex hormones (androgens) in the body, which fuel the cancer. An especially aggressive subtype of the disease is known as castration-resistant prostate cancer, which keeps growing despite treatment.

For men who have this aggressive form of metastatic prostate cancer and are no longer responding to chemotherapy, enzalutamide can extend survival by an average of five months.

But the side effects include neuroendocrine differentiation (NED), an increase of neuroendocrine cells in the prostate tumors. An abundance of NED cells makes tumors resistant to treatment.

Chang and Luo identified non-coding RNA-p21 as the main culprit for inducing neuroendocrine differentiation, by switching the function of a key gene, EZH2. They also showed that IncRNAp-21 is highly expressed in NED prostate tumors.

Although no treatments are available yet in clinical trials to block the molecular switch, Chang’s lab identified a small molecule drug that appears to work in mice; researchers elsewhere have revealed similar drugs, and further study is needed.

Read more here.

Ching Tang, professor emeritus of chemical engineering, who will receive the Kyoto Prize, Japan’s highest private award for global achievement, for his “Pioneering Contributions to the Birth of High-Efficiency Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) and Their Applications.” OLEDs use luminescent organic materials to make their own light. As a result, they are thinner, lighter, more energy efficient, and provide superior brightness and color compared to traditional liquid crystal displays (LCDs). The Kyoto Prize, awarded since 1985 by the Inamori Foundation, is given in three categories—advanced technology, basic sciences, and arts and philosophy—to “those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural, and spiritual betterment of mankind.” Each laureate receives a medal and prize money of 100 million yen (about $920,000 US).  Read more here.

Jaclyn Kearns, PhD candidate in clinical psychology, who is recipient of a Summer Mamie Phipps Clark Diversity Graduate Research Grant from Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology. Named after the second African American woman to earn a PhD in psychology, the awards highlight research projects by Psi Chi students and faculty advisors focusing on diverse populations and issues. Kearns received the grant to support her project “Clarifying the Nature of Attentional Bias to Suicide-Related Information.” Kearns’s research focuses on understanding the psychological processes that lead to suicidal behavior. She is particularly interested in how sleep disturbance and deficits in executive functioning may confer risk for suicide.

The 2019 Light and Sound Interactive (LSI) Conference next Tuesday through Thursday, June 25–27, at various downtown Rochester venues will showcase the region’s expertise in innovation, imaging, and optics. Several University researchers and alumni will participate as panelists and speakers, and as competitors in Luminate 2019.

The conference’s program tracks are optics, photonics, and imaging (OPI); cinema; music and audio; gaming and interactive media; augmented and virtual reality; and the Department of Defense.

Shining light on Rochester-area industries and research will be guest speakers from Facebook, Microsoft, the Department of Defense, and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, as well as demonstrations from companies including Bose, Harman, and Amazon.

Facebook is inviting to the conference key influencers from around the country who will remain in town after the event for a Facebook summit, “Facebook Optics and Display Academic Research Forum.” Aligned with the conference, AIM Photonics is hosting a meeting of members representing several Fortune 500 companies.

The LSI Conference will culminate with Luminate NY’s Demo Day on June 27. Luminate NY is the world’s largest startup accelerator program for optics, photonics, and imaging technologies. Headquartered in downtown Rochester and administered by NextCorps—an affiliate of the University and the region’s only state- and federally designated business incubator—Luminate features 10 competitors vying for more than $2 million in follow-on funding provided through the Finger Lakes Forward Upstate Revitalization Initiative.

LSI is presented by the University of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology, Empire State Development, and the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, among other organizations.

Read more here.

The University will host the second biennial Deaf-Engaged Academic Forum (DEAF-ROC Conference), with the theme “Navigating Deaf and Hearing Collaborations in Science,” on August 8-9, 2019.

A poster session will highlight the research carried out by undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and staff attending the conference.

Keynote speakers will include:

• Poorna Kushalnagar, director, Deaf Health Communication and Quality of Life Research Lab, and associate professor, Department of Psychology, at Gallaudet University.
• Kelby Brick, director, Governor’s Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ODHH) of the state of Maryland.
• Michelle Koplitz, project officer, Department of Health & Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration.

There will also be short talks, breakout sessions and a panel discussion.

Register for the conference (for free) and submit a poster abstract by July 1.

Ugur Yigit, mathematics “The C_2-equivariant Unstable Homotopy Theory.” 2 p.m., June 24, 2019, Hylan 1106A. Advisor: Douglas Ravenel.

Dawling Dionisio-Santos, neurobiology and anatomy, “Ameliorating Alzheimer’s Disease tau pathology through immunomodulation: A novel role for interleukin 4 and glatiramer acetate.” 1 p.m. June 26, 2019. Medical Center | Upper Auditorium 3-7619. Advisor: Kerry O’Banion.

Rianne Stowell, neuroscience, “Noradrenergic modulation of microglial dynamics and synaptic plasticity.” 1 p.m., June 28, 2019. Medical Center | Auditorium K-307. Advisor: Ania Majewska.