As a step to identifying the particles that I am capturing in my systems, I am attempting to do an immunogold labeling with a CD 63 primary antibody and a 10 nm gold conjugated secondary. It is possible to run this analysis in an SEM, but the best confirmation method is using a TEM and…
The following contain updates from a group of Swiss collaborators working with NPN for a BBB mimetic. The movies are important because they demonstrate T-cell/endothelial interaction including transmigration and because they show how using vacuum pressure can rapidly cause vacuoles to grow in endothelial cells. BBB flow chamber PPT
Here is a PDF of the presentation I plan to give at BMES this year. The presentation is first an overview of our SiO2 membranes for cell barrier and co-culture models and then a brief summary of our cell-substrate and cell-cell interactions on porous and soft substrates. I am currently working on getting it under…
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…
The title really says it all. I have been attempting to make a better cell culture substrate with the Magnesium Fluoride Films. Previous posts have shown the overall structure of the film, and now I am trying to quantify the strength with a burst pressure measurement. In order to make a direct comparison, I needed to…
Over the summer, I have been working on a project with Rick Waugh that focuses on separating white blood cells from red blood cells. The goal is to be able to take a lancet droplet of whole blood and perform an analysis on this blood, whether it be for white blood cell phenotyping or exosome…
We have an STTR grant funding us to revise the Sepcon plastic housing to enable us to do reverse centrifugation easier. As outlined in this previous post, we’re trying to remove unbound IgG from a solution of IgG-antibody conjugates using reverse centrifugation: The earlier work used Josh Winan’s jury-rigged PDMS-filled reverse centrifugation setup, but despite the…
Below are drafts of all the figures I am planning on incorporating into my upcoming model paper. I believe I am done with data collection at this point. Data in figures not marked “NEW” probably needs to be updated. Note that all model curves are calculated with no fitting parameters. They are derived from base principles. That’s why…
The process to create free standing films of MgF2 requires the film stack to survive a few different kinds of stresses. First, there is thermal stress from the mismatched coefficients of expansion (MgF2 expands about 5-10x more than silicon/silicon nitride), the stress of deposition (adatoms not finding their lowest energy position), and other mechanical stesses…
This update covers my efforts since our last skype meeting to show DNA size separation in a filter, as well as some very interesting TEM images of ALD-coated NPN and associated controls. Here is an inventory of my current chips: Oxide-spacer chips with nitride cap and no filter yet: 8 Oxide-spacer chips with nitride cap…