Valorisation of Aggregate-Washing Sludges in Innovative Applications in Construction.

The valorisation of sludges from aggregate production into construction materials is required for full circularity in mining waste management. This study explores valorisation pathways, relevant regulatory frameworks, and End-of-Waste (EoW) criteria for specific settings in Spain and Norway. The explored valorisation routes involved the production of filler, supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), and lightweight aggregates (LWAs) for the production of cement-based products, and precursors for 3D printed construction material.

Statistical Analysis and Tokenization of Epitopes to Construct Artificial Neoepitope Libraries.

Epitopes are specific regions on an antigen's surface that the immune system recognizes. Epitopes are usually protein regions on foreign immune-stimulating entities such as viruses and bacteria, and in some cases, endogenous proteins may act as antigens. Identifying epitopes is crucial for accelerating the development of vaccines and immunotherapies.

Engineered Repeat Protein Hybrids: The New Horizon for Biologic Medicines and Diagnostic Tools.

ConspectusThe last decades have witnessed unprecedented scientific breakthroughs in all the fields of knowledge, from basic sciences to translational research, resulting in the drastic improvement of the lifespan and overall quality of life. However, despite these great advances, the treatment and diagnosis of some diseases remain a challenge. Inspired by nature, scientists have been exploring biomolecules and their derivatives as novel therapeutic/diagnostic agents.

Engineering multifunctional metal/protein hybrid nanomaterials as tools for therapeutic intervention and high-sensitivity detection.

Protein-based hybrid nanomaterials have recently emerged as promising platforms to fabricate tailored multifunctional biologics for biotechnological and biomedical applications. This work shows a simple, modular, and versatile strategy to design custom protein hybrid nanomaterials. This approach combines for the first time the engineering of a therapeutic protein module with the engineering of a nanomaterial-stabilizing module within the same molecule, resulting in a multifunctional hybrid nanocomposite unachievable through conventional material synthesis methodologies.

Engineering conductive protein films through nanoscale self-assembly and gold nanoparticles doping.

Protein-based materials are usually considered as insulators, although conductivity has been recently shown in proteins. This fact opens the door to develop new biocompatible conductive materials. While there are emerging efforts in this area, there is an open challenge related to the limited conductivity of protein-based systems.

Biomarker sensing platforms based on fluorescent metal nanoclusters.

Metal nanoclusters (NCs) and their unique properties are increasing in importance and their applications are covering a wide range of areas. Their remarkable fluorescence properties and easy synthesis procedure and the possibility of functionalizing them for the detection of specific targets, such as biomarkers, make them a very interesting biosensing tool. Nowadays the detection of biomarkers related to different diseases is critical.

Design and fabrication of biocompatible wrinkled hydrogel films with selective antibiofouling properties.

In this article, we explored the selective antibiofouling capacity acquired by functional wrinkled hydrogel films via a fine tuning of their chemical structure through the gradual insertion of hydrophobic radical groups in their network. The hydrogel consists of three main components: hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA, amphiphilic monomer), trifluoroethyl methacrylate (TFMA, hydrophobic monomer), and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA, hydrophilic crosslinking agent). Interestingly, the manipulation of the chemical composition affects both, surface morphology and physicochemical characteristics of the patterns, inducing transitions between different surface microstructures, i.

Smart pH-Responsive Antimicrobial Hydrogel Scaffolds Prepared by Additive Manufacturing.

We report on the fabrication of 3D printed pH-responsive and antimicrobial hydrogels with a micrometer-scale resolution achieved by stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing. The preparation of the hydrogels was optimized by selecting the most appropriate difunctional polyethylene glycol dimethacrylates (testing cross-linking agents with chain lengths ranging from 2 up to 14 units ethylene glycol) and introducing acrylic acid (AA) as a monofunctional monomer. As a result of the incorporation of AA, the hydrogels described are able to reversibly swell and shrink upon environmental changes on the pH, and the swelling extent is directly related to the amount of AA and can be thus finely tuned.

Sensors Based on Metal Nanoclusters Stabilized on Designed Proteins.

Among all new nanomaterials, metal nanoclusters (NCs) have attracted special attention due to their interesting optical properties, among others. Metal NCs have been recently studied and used as sensors for different analytes. However, there is a need to explore the potential of these new sensors in a systematic manner and to develop new systems to broaden the possibilities that sensing offers to the industry.

Detection of amyloid fibrils in Parkinson's disease using plasmonic chirality.

Amyloid fibrils, which are closely associated with various neurodegenerative diseases, are the final products in many protein aggregation pathways. The identification of fibrils at low concentration is, therefore, pivotal in disease diagnosis and development of therapeutic strategies. We report a methodology for the specific identification of amyloid fibrils using chiroptical effects in plasmonic nanoparticles.

Preparation of Biodegradable Cationic Polycarbonates and Hydrogels through the Direct Polymerization of Quaternized Cyclic Carbonates.

Polymers exhibiting both antimicrobial and biodegradable properties are of great interest for next generation materials in healthcare. Among those, cationic polycarbonates are one of the most promising classes of materials because of their biodegradability, low toxicity, and biocompatibility. They are typically prepared by a chemical postmodification after the polymer has been synthesized.

Escitalopram/reboxetine combination in depressed patients with substance use disorder.

Acting pharmacologically on different transmitter systems has been suggested to have some advantages in patients with substance abuse and may possibly address a larger spectrum of symptoms. One major drawback of using antidepressants addressing several neurotransmitters is that the relative activities on the different neurotransmitters cannot individually be adjusted. Combining antidepressants targeting different neurotransmitter systems may allow adapting the effect on each neurotransmitter system corresponding to patients' response and tolerance.