March 19, 2026 | How UCLA researchers cleared the nanoscale bottleneck holding back next-gen electronics
Researchers at UCLA have discovered a way to dramatically improve how electrical current enters perovskite semiconductors, an emerging class of materials with enormous potential for next-generation electronics. A longstanding challenge has been the metal–perovskite…
March 19, 2025 | Atomic imaging and AI offer new insights into motion of parasite behind sleeping sickness
Millions of people worldwide are affected by African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and other life-threatening infections caused by microscopic parasites borne by insects such as the tsetse fly. Each of the underlying single-celled parasites — Trypanosoma brucei...
January 23, 2024 | Next-gen electron microscope at UCLA opens new chapter in seeing the improbably small
Back in 2008, the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, or CNSI, debuted a one-of-a-kind resource for understanding biology at the smallest scales — a state-of-the-art cryo-electron microscope. By probing biological structures frozen in glassy ice, scientists…
December 4, 2024 | Two recent scanning electron microscope acquisitions offer versatility in high-resolution
The ability to visualize structure at the smallest of scales is crucial for research across many areas of study. Field emission gun (FEG) scanning electron microscopes fulfill that purpose for investigators from biologists examining cell membranes, to electrical...
April 16, 2024 | UCLA electron microscope boosts ease-of-use and efficiency with new software
Upgrades at a UCLA user facility have added important capabilities to the cryo-electron microscopy that is so vital to research revealing 3D biological structures at the smallest scales. The addition of CryoSPARC software makes the process of imaging frozen samples...
February 7, 2024 | Advanced scan generator unlocks new possibilities in 4DSTEM at UCLA user facility
The addition of a new advanced scan detector at the Electron Imaging Center for Nanosystems (EICN) expands the palette of analytical techniques available to investigators developing or characterizing new types of materials. Advanced...
September 29, 2023 | UCLA-led team develops key improvement to Nobel Prize-winning technology
The scientists who received the 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry were honored for their development of a technique called cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM. The technology was revolutionary because it enabled scientists to see the atomic structure of biological molecules in high resolution.
August 2, 2023 | True shape of lithium revealed for the first time in UCLA research
A study by members of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA reveals a fundamental discovery that could lead to safer lithium-metal batteries that outperform today’s lithium-ion batteries. The research was published today in the journal Nature.
Metallic lithium reacts so easily with chemicals that, under normal conditions, corrosion forms almost immediately while the metal is being laid down on a surface such as an electrode.
October 31, 2022 | Electrons, Cameras, Action!
The California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA has changed or added five cameras connected to its suite of six transmission electron microscopes. Taken together, the upgrades will dramatically reduce noise in imaging while increasing efficiency and offering options to meet the distinct needs of different types of investigations. These instruments are available to users from UCLA and beyond at the EICN.
September 13, 2022 | ‘Glass bubble’ nanocarrier boosts effects of combination therapy for pancreatic cancer
Over the past 30 years, progress in early detection and treatment of cancer has helped reduce the overall death rate by more than 30%. Pancreatic cancer, however, has remained difficult to treat. Only 1 in 9 people survive five years after diagnosis, in part because...