Correlative Raman-Electron-Light (CREL) Microscopy Analysis of Lipid Droplets in Melanoma Cancer Stem Cells.

Among all neoplasms, melanoma is characterized by a very high percentage of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Several markers have been proposed for their identification, and lipid droplets (LDs) are among them. Different techniques are used for their characterization such as mass spectrometry, imaging techniques, and vibrational spectroscopies.

Microfluidics for 3D Cell and Tissue Cultures: Microfabricative and Ethical Aspects Updates.

The necessity to improve in vitro cell screening assays is becoming ever more important. Pharmaceutical companies, research laboratories and hospitals require technologies that help to speed up conventional screening and therapeutic procedures to produce more data in a short time in a realistic and reliable manner. The design of new solutions for test biomaterials and active molecules is one of the urgent problems of preclinical screening and the limited correlation between in vitro and in vivo data remains one of the major issues.

Direct Visualization and Identification of Membrane Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels from Human iPSC-Derived Neurons by Multiple Imaging and Light Enhanced Spectroscopy.

In this study, transmission electron microscopy atomic force microscopy, and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy are combined through a direct imaging approach, to gather structural and chemical information of complex molecular systems such as ion channels in their original plasma membrane. Customized microfabricated sample holder allows to characterize Na channels embedded in the original plasma membrane extracted from neuronal cells that are derived from healthy human induced pluripotent stem cells. The identification of the channels is accomplished by using two different approaches, one of them widely used in cryo-EM (the particle analysis method) and the other based on a novel Zernike Polynomial expansion of the images bitmap.

Micro/Nanopatterned Superhydrophobic Surfaces Fabrication for Biomolecules and Biomaterials Manipulation and Analysis.

Superhydrophobic surfaces display an extraordinary repulsion to water and water-based solutions. This effect emerges from the interplay of intrinsic hydrophobicity of the surface and its morphology. These surfaces have been established for a long time and have been studied for decades.

Raman Spectroscopic Stratification of Multiple Myeloma Patients Based on Exosome Profiling.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological malignancy characterized by abnormal plasma cell proliferation within the bone marrow which leads to progressive bone marrow failure, skeletal osteolytic lesions, and renal insufficiency, thus severely affecting the quality of life. MM is always preceded by monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance (MGUS), which progresses to asymptomatic-MM (aMM) or symptomatic-MM (sMM) at a rate of 1% per year. Despite impressive progress in the therapy of the disease, MM remains incurable.