Assessment of CD8 T-cell mediated immunity in an influenza A(H3N2) human challenge model in Belgium: a single centre, randomised, double-blind phase 2 study.

Background: Protection afforded by inactivated influenza vaccines can theoretically be improved by inducing T-cell responses to conserved internal influenza A antigens. We assessed whether, in an influenza controlled human infection challenge, susceptible individuals receiving a vaccine boosting T-cell responses would exhibit lower viral load and decreased symptoms compared with placebo recipients.

Methods: In this single centre, randomised, double-blind phase 2 study, healthy adult (aged 18-55 years) volunteers with microneutralisation titres of less than 20 to the influenza A(H3N2) challenge strain were enrolled at an SGS quarantine facility in Antwerp, Belgium.

Transition from scattering to orbiting upon increasing the fuel concentration for an active Janus colloid moving at an obstacle-decorated interface.

Efficient exploration of space is a paramount motive for active colloids in practical applications. Yet, introducing activity may lead to surface-bound states, hindering efficient space exploration. Here, we show that the interplay between self-motility and fuel-dependent affinity for surfaces affects how efficiently catalytically-active Janus microswimmers explore both liquid-solid and liquid-fluid interfaces decorated with arrays of similarly-sized obstacles.

Tuning Electrostatic Interactions of Colloidal Particles at Oil-Water Interfaces with Organic Salts.

Monolayers of colloidal particles at oil-water interfaces readily crystallize owing to electrostatic repulsion, which is often mediated through the oil. However, little attempts exist to control it using oil-soluble electrolytes. We probe the interactions among charged hydrophobic microspheres confined at a water-hexadecane interface and show that repulsion can be continuously tuned over orders of magnitude upon introducing nanomolar amounts of an organic salt into the oil.

3-D rotation tracking from 2-D images of spherical colloids with textured surfaces.

Tracking the three-dimensional rotation of colloidal particles is essential to elucidate many open questions, concerning the contact interactions between particles under flow, or the way in which obstacles and neighboring particles affect self-propulsion in active suspensions. In order to achieve rotational tracking, optically anisotropic particles are required. We synthesise here rough spherical colloids that present randomly distributed fluorescent asperities and track their motion under different experimental conditions.

Sorting of heterogeneous colloids by AC-dielectrophoretic forces in a microfluidic chip with asymmetric orifices.

Hypothesis: The synthesis of compositionally heterogeneous particles is central to the development of complex colloidal units for self-assembly and self-propulsion. Yet, as the complexity of particles grows, synthesis becomes more prone to "errors". We hypothesize that alternating-current dielectrophoretic forces can efficiently sort Janus particles, as a function of patch size and material, and colloidal dumbbells by size.