Elucidating Extracellular Vesicle Isolation Kinetics via an Integrated Off-Stoichiometry Thiol-Ene and Cyclic Olefin Copolymer Microfluidic Device.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are promising biomarkers for diagnosing complex diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Yet, their clinical application is hindered by challenges in isolating cancer-derived EVs efficiently due to their broad size distribution in biological samples. This study introduces a microfluidic device fabricated using off-stoichiometry thiol-ene and cyclic olefin copolymer, addressing the absorption limitations of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).

Development of Organ-on-a-Chip System with Continuous Flow in Simulated Microgravity.

Organ-on-a-chip (OOC) is an innovative microfluidic device mimicking the structure and functionality of real tissue. OOCs typically involve cell culture with microfluidics to emulate the biological forces of different organ tissues and disease states, providing a next-generation experimental platform. When combined with simulated microgravity conditions, such as those produced by random positioning machines, they offer unique insights into disease processes.

Mixing Insulating Commodity Polymers with Semiconducting n-type Polymers Enables High-Performance Electrochemical Transistors.

Diluting organic semiconductors with a host insulating polymer is used to increase the electronic mobility in organic electronic devices, such as thin film transistors, while considerably reducing material costs. In contrast to organic electronics, bioelectronic devices such as the organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) rely on both electronic and ionic mobility for efficient operation, making it challenging to integrate hydrophobic polymers as the predominant blend component. This work shows that diluting the n-type conjugated polymer p(N-T) with high molecular weight polystyrene (10 KDa) leads to OECTs with over three times better mobility-volumetric capacitance product (µC*) with respect to the pristine p(N-T) (from 4.

Single Step Isolation of Extracellular Vesicles from Large-Volume Samples with a Bifurcated A4F Microfluidic Device.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) hold immense potential for various biomedical applications, including diagnostics, drug delivery, and regenerative medicine. Nevertheless, the current methodologies for isolating EVs present significant challenges, such as complexity, time consumption, and the need for bulky equipment, which hinders their clinical translation. To address these limitations, we aimed to develop an innovative microfluidic system based on cyclic olefin copolymer-off-stoichiometry thiol-ene (COC-OSTE) for the efficient isolation of EVs from large-volume samples in a continuous manner.

NV microscopy of thermally controlled stresses caused by thin CrO films.

Many modern applications, including quantum computing and quantum sensing, use substrate-film interfaces. Particularly, thin films of chromium or titanium and their oxides are commonly used to bind various structures, such as resonators, masks, or microwave antennas, to a diamond surface. Due to different thermal expansions of involved materials, such films and structures could produce significant stresses, which need to be measured or predicted.

Extracellular Vesicles Isolation from Large Volume Samples Using a Polydimethylsiloxane-Free Microfluidic Device.

Extracellular vesicles (EV) have many attributes important for biomedicine; however, current EV isolation methods require long multi-step protocols that generally involve bulky equipment that cannot be easily translated to clinics. Our aim was to design a new cyclic olefin copolymer-off-stoichiometry thiol-ene (COC-OSTE) asymmetric flow field fractionation microfluidic device that could isolate EV from high-volume samples in a simple and efficient manner. We tested the device with large volumes of urine and conditioned cell media samples, and compared it with the two most commonly used EV isolation methods.

Bifurcated Asymmetric Field Flow Fractionation of Nanoparticles in PDMS-Free Microfluidic Devices for Applications in Label-Free Extracellular Vesicle Separation.

Extracellular vesicles are small membrane-bound structures that are released by cells and play important roles in intercellular communication garnering significant attention in scientific society recently due to their potential as diagnostic and therapeutic tools. However, separating EVs from large-volume samples remains a challenge due to their small size and low concentration. In this manuscript, we presented a novel method for separating polystyrene beads as control and extracellular vesicles from large sample volumes using bifurcated asymmetric field flow fractionation in PDMS-free microfluidic devices.

Magnetotransport Studies of Encapsulated Topological Insulator BiSe Nanoribbons.

The majority of proposed exotic applications employing 3D topological insulators require high-quality materials with reduced dimensions. Catalyst-free, PVD-grown BiSe nanoribbons are particularly promising for these applications due to the extraordinarily high mobility of their surface Dirac states, and low bulk carrier densities. However, these materials are prone to the formation of surface accumulation layers; therefore, the implementation of surface encapsulation layers and the choice of appropriate dielectrics for building gate-tunable devices are important.

Pulsed Electric Fields Alter Expression of NF-κB Promoter-Controlled Gene.

The possibility to artificially adjust and fine-tune gene expression is one of the key milestones in bioengineering, synthetic biology, and advanced medicine. Since the effects of proteins or other transgene products depend on the dosage, controlled gene expression is required for any applications, where even slight fluctuations of the transgene product impact its function or other critical cell parameters. In this context, physical techniques demonstrate optimistic perspectives, and pulsed electric field technology is a potential candidate for a noninvasive, biophysical gene regulator, exploiting an easily adjustable pulse generating device.

Lung on a Chip Development from Off-Stoichiometry Thiol-Ene Polymer.

Current in vitro models have significant limitations for new respiratory disease research and rapid drug repurposing. Lung on a chip (LOAC) technology offers a potential solution to these problems. However, these devices typically are fabricated from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which has small hydrophobic molecule absorption, which hinders the application of this technology in drug repurposing for respiratory diseases.

Two-stage model of nanocone formation on a surface of elementary semiconductors by laser radiation.

In this work, we study the mechanism of nanocone formation on a surface of elementary semiconductors by Nd:YAG laser radiation. Our previous investigations of SiGe and CdZnTe solid solutions have shown that nanocone formation mechanism is characterized by two stages. The first stage is characterized by formation of heterostructure, for example, Ge/Si heterostructure from SiGe solid solutions, and the second stage is characterized by formation of nanocones by mechanical plastic deformation of the compressed Ge layer on Si due to mismatch of Si and Ge crystalline lattices.