Cell migration on planar and three-dimensional matrices: a hydrogel-based perspective.

The migration of cells is a complex process that is dependent on the properties of the surrounding environment. In vivo, the extracellular environment is complex with a wide range of physical features, topographies, and protein compositions. There have been a number of approaches to design substrates that can recapitulate the complex architecture in vivo.

Selective detection of crystalline cellulose in plant cell walls with sum-frequency-generation (SFG) vibration spectroscopy.

The selective detection of crystalline cellulose in biomass was demonstrated with sum-frequency-generation (SFG) vibration spectroscopy. SFG is a second-order nonlinear optical response from a system where the optical centrosymmetry is broken. In secondary plant cell walls that contain mostly cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin with varying concentrations, only certain vibration modes in the crystalline cellulose structure can meet the noninversion symmetry requirements.

Identification of mobile species in cationic polymer lubricant layer on silicon oxide from AFM and XPS analyses.

The nanoscale spreading of a cationic polymer lubricant (CPL) film consisting of polydimethylsiloxane with quaternary ammonium salt side chains on a SiO(2) surface was studied with the disjoining pressure measurements using atomic force microscopy. CPL shows a monotonic decrease in disjoining pressure as the film thickness increases from 1.3 to 4.