In pursuit of an extremely sensitive biomarker capture sensor, I have been tasked with chemically functionalizing the surface of our membranes. Our end goal is to attach antibodies to the surface of our membranes which can be used to selectively capture target antigens at a wide range of concentrations. Focusing on low concentration ranges in…
Here are the figures for Tejas’ paper that is in the final stage of drafting:
Silicon nanomembranes are ultrathin, free-standing structures that vary from 10 – 100 nm in thickness. These membranes are at least 1 order of magnitude thinner than the thinnest polymeric membranes. Pores can be manufactured on these membranes to have diameters ranging from 5 nm – 10 μm with porosities ranging from 2 – 20%, allowing…
Introduction In a previous post I introduced the concept of endothelium apicobasal polarity and the potential to utilize this concept for future sepsis drug development: Endothelium Apicobasal Polarity Regulates the Innate Immune Response In Vitro [In Progress] In this post, I will expand on the ‘mock’ TNF-α experiments with recombinant IL-8 as well as add…
As previously stated in my initial post (found here https://trace-bmps.org/nanomembranes-in-potassium-ion-selective-electrodes), I am in the process of developing a potassium Ion Selective Electrode (ISE) Sensor using our chips. Along the way I have gathered all sorts of curious but interesting data, with observations bringing both old discoveries and new oddities to light. Outlined below are some…
Hello Everyone, Here is a summary of my trip to Nashville to learn about extracellular vesicles in cancer and present my work on isolation of nanoparticles/EVs using ultrathin nanomembranes. Main points of the conference: This conference was about EVs in cancer, and did not include a lot about therapeutic applications of EVs. I could only…
Hi everyone, One of the objectives in the last aim of my PhD is to investigate the effect of soluble factors secreted by adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) on wound recovery of fibroblasts (FBs). We have categorized these soluble factors to 3 subpopulations including: large-EVs, small-EVs, and non-EV associated molecules. For the last 3 weeks,…
Hello everyone! this post describes how we are going about determining the size cut-off of the membranes we make through nanosphere lithography. These are 120 nm thick silicon nitride membranes with controlled pore size between 320 and 80 nm. A polymeric scaffold is placed on them to increase robustness. The scaffold is a square grid…
As part of my thesis (and a tie-in to the microplastics research our lab has been conducting) I’ve been working on creating a measure of membrane capacity. A robust way to do this involves using microporous chips and polystyrene beads. Previous experiments on 8 micron slit membranes have shown that phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and…