Anna assembling her robot

1. Intellectual Merit: Non-Toxic, Biocompatible Silicon “Quantum Dots” for Localized Delivery of Molecular Drug PayloadsMichael J. Sailor, University of California-San Diego, DMR 0806859 Intrinsically luminescent porous Si particles can be loaded with both superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin. We demonstrated that the drug-containing particles can be delivered to human cervical cancer (HeLa) cells in vitro, under the guidance of a magnetic field. The high concentration of particles in the proximity of the magnetic field results in a high concentration of drug being released, which kills the cells. Paper entitled “Magnetic Luminescent Porous Silicon Microparticles for Localized Delivery of Molecular Drug Payloads,” by Luo Gu, Ji-Ho Park, Kim H. Duong, Erkki Ruoslahti, and Michael J. Sailor, published in Small (DOI: 10.1002/smll.201000841 ).

2. Broader Impacts: High School Student Anna Kornfeld Simpson wins the Davidson Prize for her Chemical Sniffing Robot Michael J. Sailor, University of California-San Diego, DMR 0806859 Using a LEGO MINDSTORMS™ robotic kit and a chemical nanosensor she helped develop in the laboratory of NSF-funded researcher Michael J. Sailor at the University of California, San Diego, Patrick Henry High School student Anna Kornfeld Simpson designed, built, programmed, and tested a robot that was able to crawl around the floor of a building sniffing for chemical spills. For her achievement, Anna won 1st Prize in the 2009 California State Science Fair and the 2010 Davidson Prize, a $25,000 national award recognizing exceptionally gifted students. Anna worked on her project with NSF-funded graduate student Anne Ruminski. Anna assembling her robot Anna with graduate student mentor Anne Ruminski and Prof. Sailor Anna tests the robot’s ability to locate an alcohol spill