MPS 2024 slides-Investigating Impact of a “Cytokine Storm” on Astrogliosis in Human Blood-Brain Barrier in a Microfluidic Model of Sepsis

Ring Resonators are photonic structures that have a very repeatable behavior. As light is guided along a path, it can evanescently couple into a very closely positioned wire (submicron gap). If the wavelength of light is just right, constructive interference can occur, causing the rings to resonate (lost through scattering). Necessarily, this causes a drop…

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the important growth factors/signaling factors that affect endothelial cells.  It is involved in angiogenesis, vessel regrowth during wound healing, vessel development and other vascular functions.  Since this is the most commonly studied growth factor in in vitro angiogenesis assays, I’ve been thinking about it for awhile.  If…

As a proof of principal experiment, we wanted to test if Kilean and I could extract RNA from exosomes following their capture on 1298 membranes.  As noted in Figure 1, we first used ultrafiltration to capture exosomes on the nanoporous membrane.  We then attempted exosome lysis and RNA release by  flowing the lysate below the…

Silver chloride electrodes are useful for microfluidic devices since they can generate current below one volt. This allows them to function without fear of electrolysis confounding experimental results by way of gaseous clogging. Several different methods for coating silver mesh were tested to determine which would be ideal for future experimentation. These methods were as…

The week before last, I finally switched back to my exosome experiments with some hope of repeating my January successes with my new clampable format and two pump system. After failing for several hours (and breaking 7 membranes), I was finally able to get the system to work and get a sample for SEM. (A…

For the last three weeks, we have increased the substrate bias power from 25 W to 32 W (for both oxide and a-Si) to adress some film quality issues.  I have found that it is “harder” to open pores in a film deposited at higher bias.  Below are micrographs showing the difference in porosity for…