Hey all,   So, I’ve been trying to replicate the exosome experiments that I did back during my rotation to varied success. I have had trouble with the plasma that we had frozen with precipitates that would not resuspend upon thawing. We ordered new plasma though so fresh batches of experiments will be coming up very…

The NSF STTR phase I project officially ended last week, and we are writing the final report and preparing to submit a Phase II proposal.  I will attempt here to summarize the program achievements and list some of the persisting technical issues we are facing. Program Technical Objectives: Optimize nanoporous silicon nitride (NPN) membrane properties…

Here are my slides for presentation at ICNMM. I’m linking them here to facilitate discussion at NRG later today, if desired. .pptx version – ICNMM2016 Presentation Slides .pdf version – ICNMM2016 Presentation Slides

In our study of endothelial fibronectin fibrillogenesis and FA formation on microporous SiO2 membranes, we decided to investigate whether the pore orientation and pore spacing induced FA formation and therefore F-actin alignment. (Note: we updated our last post on FN fibrillogenesis here.) Spencer and I have been busy analyzing data and making figures. It has…

Thanks to Sidahmed Abayzeed and Emilia Moradi. Summary: I’ve started making impedance spectroscopy measurements with a potentiostat in the iBidi devices. The data is noisy, but there is a clear change in the curve characteristic as cells grow upon the nanomembrane. NPN seems to be working better than MgF2, for these measurements. I’ve measured the impedance…

My PhD exam was postponed (tentatively to early September but it’s up in the air still) due to an impending bureaucratic nightmare, so for the last few weeks I have been running more filter experiments, and I have discovered some interesting trends. While it is generally the case in nanopore experiments that the average dwell…

“Three ways to build an artificial kidney” This IEEE Spectrum article list three efforts to make an artificial Kidney. The first is the AWAK, kidney on a belt. They don’t have the latest images for this, only the original very bulky design. The second is the Roy/Fissell implantable Renal Assist Device (iRAD). Both of these…

ASAIO /əˈsī ō/ noun American Society of Artificial Internal Organs. There is an associated Journal, “ASAIO Journal”, and a yearly conference for the presentation and discussion of research relating to advances in medical device technology. While the initial focus of the society was on renal devices, the artificial kidney, currently the majority of work by…

Paper for Friday’s Journal Club … Watch this space for a summary and analysis. Pensabene(Hofmeister)ACSAMI16 Synopsis 2um(?) pores in 100 nm thick PLLA. Very, very low porosity. Fabricated with a PVA microneedle mold produced with femto second laser. Microfluidic device integration Claims about cell (HUVEC) viability and growth are poorly supported. Cells are essentially on…

This post is not an update on my research. I am creating this page to house download links to the COMSOL Multiphysics models I’ve constructed in the course of my work here in the McGrath Lab. This page is linked to in my thesis for legacy purposes. Important: these files have been uploaded with the…