I am attempting to manufacture a range of npMgF2 thicknesses as demonstrated in my recent CCD post. Yesterday, I undershot my thicknesses substantially, I believe because of construction vibrations in the building. However, this results in some of the thinnest npMgF2 structure I have ever been able to image. I was targeting 15 nm, but…

In my previous blog, I alluded to the issues I was facing in achieving successful migration of neutrophils through the basement membrane into the collagen gels. I am successfully able to achieve transendothelial migration, but migration beyond the endothelial basement membrane is still not achievable. After a lot of thinking, I realized that this, in…

I have three monolith experiments to report, one of which was successful. In all three cases, I was able to make a pore, though it took about 5 times longer than it would have for the NPN-tented chips. This is likely a consequence of the reduced exposed membrane area in the monolith case, which is…

Now that we have a number of ways to quantify the nanostructure of different npMgF2/npAu film stacks, we can begin an optimization experiment for which combination of factors will be useful to us. To explore the space of outcomes, we have a set of Factors at a certain number of Levels. These produce a set…

I’ve been trying to recover a pore distribution from my 1085 MgF2 SERS wafer that had a ~60 nm pore size on average. This has been difficult with thinner, 50 nm NPN because there is less material to shape; it’s harder to stop at a certain point to get the right pore distribution. So, using…

Last week we were able to capture and image individual virions on the nano membrane without a PETL using a simple drop-on-membrane protocol to establish some pull through. This was done to to verify that the individual virions will actually be caught in the pores and that our EM preparation protocol was efficient for drying…

One of the issues with my microporous MgF2 cell culture experiments is the apparent multilayer of cells that form on the freestanding area; ideally we would have a nice cell monolayer for imaging. It has been unclear if this was an effect of overseeding or if cells were migrating to the freestanding area. To this…

There are four main challenges for making such a thin photoresist gasket on a little chip. Q1: How can I get under 1um thickness photoresist gasket? Q2: Is the adhesion of photoresist gasket strong enough for further usage? Q3: How can I write the pattern onto the gasket that will have the center window open?…

For many months, Emma and I are trying to achieve neutrophil migration through endothelial cells and through the underlying collagen gel. I need to explain the details of my device first. The schematic is shown as below. I am using a 3 um porous membrane to allow neutrophils to cross the HUVECs in the collagen…