Comprehensive measurements of salivary pellicle thickness formed at different intraoral sites on Si wafers and bovine enamel.

The salivary pellicle is a thin acellular film formed on orally exposed surfaces by adsorption of macromolecules from the oral fluids and serves as a protective layer in the maintenance of oral health. Pellicle thickness measurements are a central tool helping to understand how exogenous manipulations may influence pellicle formation. This is of particular importance for the investigation of new preventive and therapeutic approaches.

Elemental depth profiling of fluoridated hydroxyapatite: saving your dentition by the skin of your teeth?

Structural and chemical changes that arise from fluoridation of hydroxyapatite (Ca(5)(PO(4))(3)OH or "HAp"), as representing the synthetic counterpart of tooth enamel, are investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Elemental depth profiles with a depth resolution on the nanometer scale were determined to reveal the effect of fluoridation in neutral (pH = 6.2) and acidic agents (pH = 4.

Structural evolution of protein-biofilms: Simulations and experiments.

The control of biofilm formation is a challenging goal that has not been reached yet in many aspects. One unsolved question is the role of van der Waals forces and another is the importance of mutual interactions between the adsorbing and the adsorbed biomolecules ("critical crowding"). In this study, a combined experimental and theoretical approach is presented, which fundamentally probes both aspects.

A global benchmark study using affinity-based biosensors.

To explore the variability in biosensor studies, 150 participants from 20 countries were given the same protein samples and asked to determine kinetic rate constants for the interaction. We chose a protein system that was amenable to analysis using different biosensor platforms as well as by users of different expertise levels. The two proteins (a 50-kDa Fab and a 60-kDa glutathione S-transferase [GST] antigen) form a relatively high-affinity complex, so participants needed to optimize several experimental parameters, including ligand immobilization and regeneration conditions as well as analyte concentrations and injection/dissociation times.

Evidence for capillarity contributions to gecko adhesion from single spatula nanomechanical measurements.

The hairy attachment system on a gecko's toes, consisting of one billion spatulae in the case of Gekko gecko [Ruibal, R. & Ernst, V. (1965) J.