The initial purpose of exploring formlabs SLA 3D printer for a collaboration with Dr. Nicola Marchi (link to previous post). The purpose of the this work was gaining the ability to use a simple membrane on 3D printed platform for BBB modeling and WBC migration though endothelial (and glial cell layers) and collecting and…
Hello All, I wished to be writing this from some far away tropical resort, as I was told PhD students of the past used to do before they defended their theses. Instead, this comes straight from the ROC homeland, deep in the midst of a global pandemic and a tea-fueled thesis writing session filled with…
Introduction Inflammatory diseases have the potential to disrupt blood vessel permeability. This has serious ramifications for the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which is the interface between the vasculature and the brain. A healthy BBB allows essential nutrients to pass through while excluding molecules that might alter brain chemistry. If inflammation were to increase the BBB’s permeability…
Introduction Read the manuscript here: Integrative Biology Publication Please refer to the linked manuscript for a detailed introduction. In short, we have been interested in characterizing the role of endothelial cell (EC) apicobasal polarity in inflammation. While usually reserved for the epithelium, ‘apicobasal polarity’ is a term describing a monolayer or cell with defined apical…
Vacuoles with pulling flow vs pushing flow This video shows an example of the first trials with the uSim flow cell (Tejas’ early versions) when creating laminar flow over a monolayer of BLECs – see Mossu et al, JCBFM 2018 – the issue we had to overcome was to avoid creating vacuoles in the endothelial…
Link to BioRxiv paper The extracellular matrix in vivo is composed of fibers arranged with varying degrees of alignment in different directions. The extent of alignment (anisotropy) and the directionality of fibers are an indicator of breast cancer metastasis, influence T-cell motility, and guide endothelial cell alignment. Similar to the existence of chemical gradients and…
Just wanted to drop this data here in case it may be useful for others in the lab. I calculated the volumetric flow rates for one of the peristaltic pumps used in the lab for the flow circuit in cell-culture. The setting # is the bar # on the peristaltic pump controller (the 10 bars…
Introduction: Transforming Growth Factor -β1 (TGF-β1) is a key player in the induction and progression of fibrosis in many tissues. This factor has also been established as a regulator in the development of fibrotic diseases for its involvement of different signaling pathways and cross-talks between many signaling cascades. We are in collaboration with Dr. Hani…
Introduction In our labs previously work, difficulties in growing endothelial cells (ECs) under shear flow lead to the exploration of novel membrane technologies that permit firm EC attachment, without compromising membrane permeability or leukocyte transmigration studies. We ultimately landed on the development of effectively ‘dual-scale’ membranes that contained 3 μm pores dispersed amongst an NPN…
Over the last few months, I have been trying to reestablish my SERS measurements, and generate a paper based on SERS sensing with our nanomembranes. Previously, I have created magnesium fluoride coated substrates that seem to have better SERS performance than just NPN alone. Combining our TEM imaging with SERS data would be a powerful…