Thanks to our collaborators at the University of Chicago we have now used NPN to demonstrate sodium/hydrogen exchange functions at the level of single EVs. This is first-of-a-kind evidence of protein function in individual EVs. It will be officially published in Communcations Biology and will soon be located at this DOI. What follows are key…
Introduction The blood-brain barrier (BBB) plays an important role in maintaining brain chemistry by restricting the permeability of small molecules and cells. Inflammatory diseases may disrupt the BBB and promote the development of neurological disorders [1]. One potential mechanism of BBB disruption is the degradation of the extracellular matrix proteins that make up the endothelial…
Introduction This post is meant to introduce the new NPN-enabled slide-based devices produced by Ibidi. These devices feature an NPN membrane and microfluidic channels positioned perpendicular to one another formed by PSA and COP layers (Figure 1). Channels above and below the membrane allow for flow-based experiments including tangential flow filtration (TFF) such that biofluids…
With our virus sensor paper now published, my journey with virus diagnostics, at least for now, comes to an end. Keeping with the theme of modifying silicon surfaces for interaction with pathogens, I am now switching gears to developing models for bacterial infection. This is currently taking shape in an effort to coat our silicon…
The physical properties of the extracellular matrix such as stiffness, viscoelasticity, fiber diameter, and chemical composition are well known as important modulators of cell behavior in vivo. Therefore, over the past decade, there has been a major emphasis on characterizing the properties of the in vivo ECM and also engineered matrices in vitro. In this context, properties such…
Starting in July of 2021, we began a new idea fabricating the nano pocket membrane to capture and release the EVs. From then until now we have successfully fabricated nano pocket membranes by using a lithography method. We faced challenges in parylene etching and resolve it by using two etching machines, i.e. Trion Phantom…
Type I collagen is a fibrous protein and the largest constituent of the ECM by mass. Collagen fibers are aligned across several millimeters to centimeters within load-bearing tissues, like the musculoskeletal tissue, cardiac tissue, and the cornea. Millimeter scale regions of fiber alignment are also observed in the tumor stroma and fibrotictissue. At the cell scale,…
This post is a continuation of the affinity based capture of streptavidin conjugated EVs. The difference is that instead of using the tangential flow system we used the ALine devices. Sam’s previous work discussed the use of ALine devices for size based capture of EVs, but in this case we wanted to try the streptavidin-biotin…
Introduction Here, I will post figure drafts for the paper that introduces the modular µSiM (m-µSiM). Figures Remaining data to obtain: Occludin staining in IMR90-4 from UniBe in µSiM. We have tried this after 2 day culture in µSiM, which worked at UR but is not working at UniBe. Current problem: Occludin is not seen in…
To keep the NRG up-to-date on the goings-on in our collaboration with the University of Ottawa, we will plan to share our progress slide decks from the CRePE-ssNP group meetings that happen every two months. Periodically, we’ll also update the NRG on overall progress of the project including the work done in the two Ottawa…