California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA

Small scale. Massive impact. UCLA’s CNSI explores the frontiers of nanoscience.

Nanotechnology is a sweeping movement in science, engineering, and medicine. It takes the world’s tiniest particles — atoms and molecules — and creates better medical devices, cleans dirty water, fights cancer, cuts greenhouse-gas emissions, forms new, stronger materials, and much more. From microscopic healing robots to better golf balls, there isn’t an area of society where nanoscience can’t make a difference.

California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA, housed in a seven-story structure (UCLA’s first LEED Silver-certified green building) that includes state-of-the art shared Core Research Laboratories, is setting the standard for interdisciplinary research and new technologies that will dominate science in the 21st century. Its mission is to encourage university collaboration with industry and to enable the rapid commercialization of discoveries in nanoscience and nanotechnology. The Institute brings together the expertise of top faculty and preeminent scientists from engineering, medicine and life and physical sciences to advance research that will improve our lives. The work conducted at CNSI represents world-class expertise in four targeted areas of nanosystems-related research: energy, the environment, health and medicine, and information technology.

CNSI also builds upon the existing collaborative strengths of its on-campus participants, and seeks new alliances with industry, universities and national laboratories. A world-class intellectual and physical environment and a collaborative center generate ideas, discoveries and the talent that will continue to fuel innovation in nanosystems.

Here, the biggest breakthroughs begin with the smallest things. Case in point: Dean Ho, a UCLA alumnus, faculty-researcher in bioengineering and a dentistry professor, is using nanodiamonds as treatments for cancer and other diseases. Dr. Ho’s nanodiamonds, one billionth the size of diamonds found in jewelry, are combating breast, brain and blood cancers and are administered through an oral rinse or injection. That’s just one of many nano-sized innovations from CNSI researchers that promise big changes in medicine.

As Ho’s work demonstrates, CNSI’s nanosystems are small, but their potential to improve our lives is enormous. And CNSI is just getting started.