JALA Names “The 2013 JALA Ten” Breakthroughs in Innovation

The JALA Ten is an annual editorial feature that highlights 10 top technological breakthroughs across a spectrum of fields that include but is not limited to laboratory automation, drug discovery, drug screening, novel therapeutic strategies and delivery technologies, diagnostics, nanotechnology, nanomedicine, microtechnology as it relates to biology and medicine, novel characterization techniques, and more. It was a requirement that nominated work be reported in a peer-reviewed publication.

According to JALA Editor-in-Chief Dean Ho, Ph.D., of the University of California Los Angeles, “Our 2013 JALA Ten nominations hailed from all corners of the research universe, including universities; companies, both early stage and established; and government research laboratories. Our ten honorees have developed new approaches that range from the fundamental to those that have been successfully transitioned into commercial products. This year’s selections demonstrate the remarkable progress that can be realized when top scientists and engineers combine their talents with those of translationally minded clinicians and entrepreneurs.”

The 2013 JALA Ten (in alphabetical order by first author)

Optimizing Design Outcomes

By Francesco Ciucci1, Tomonori Honda2 and Maria C. Yang2 1Universitat Heidelberg, Germany 2Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

High-Throughput Three-Dimensional Tracking of Human Sperms Using Computational On-Chip Imaging By Ting-Wei Su, Liang Xue and Aydogan Ozcan University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Cantilever-Free Scanning Probe Molecular Printing By Louis Giam and Chad A. Mirkin Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

Reversible Regulation of Aptamer Activity with Effector-Responsive Hairpin Oligonucleotides By Na Li University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

Hydrodynamic Stretching of Single Cells for Large Population Mechanical Phenotyping By Daniel R. Gossett, Henry T. K. Tse, Serena A. Lee, Yong Ying, Anne G. Lindgren, Otto O. Yang, Jianyu Rao, Amander T. Clark and Dino Di Carlo University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Thermal Biosensing with Phase Change Nanoparticles By Chaoming Wang, Zhaoyong Sun, Liyuan Ma and Ming Su University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

Controlling Spatial Organization of Multiple Cell Types in Defined 3D Geometries By Halil Tekin1,2, Jefferson G. Sanchez1,2, Christian Landeros1,2, Karen Dubbin1,2, Robert Langer1 and Ali Khademhosseini1,2 1Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA 2Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Selective Trapping and Manipulation of Microscale Objects Using Mobile Microvortices By Li Zhang1,2, Tristan Petit1,3, Kathrin E. Peyer1, Bradley Kratochvil1, and Bradley J. Nelson1 1Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, Zurich, Switzerland 2The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China 3Diamond Sensors Laboratory, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Acoustic Tweezers: A Noninvasive, Noncontact, Versatile, On-Chip Platform for Cell Manipulation By Xiaoyun Ding, Sz-Chin Steven Lin, Brian Kiraly, Hongjun Yue, Sixing Li, I-Kao Chiang, Jinjie Shi, Stephen J. Benkovic and Tony Jun Huang The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

Simultaneous Detection of Ca2+ and Diacylglycerol Signaling in Living Cells By Paul Tewson1, Mara Westenberg1, Yongxin Zhao2, Robert E. Campbell3, Anne Marie Quinn1 and Thomas E. Hughes13 1Montana Molecular, Bozeman, MT, USA 2University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 3Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA

Nominations were open to SLAS members and nonmembers. A JALA Ten Selection Committee evaluated all nominations received, specifically searching for work that generated profound impact upon the general fields of biology and medicine. Fundamental and applied breakthroughs were eligible, and all fields of innovation with specific relevance toward biology and medicine were considered.