A partnership of scientists from the College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara, Washington University in St. Louis and UC Berkeley have been awarded $12.5 million to develop nanoscale agents to provide early diagnosis and treatment of acute pulmonary and systemic vascular injury over the next five years. The organizations were selected as a collaborative "Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology" (PEN) by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).