Surface Design of Antifouling Vascular Constructs Bearing Biofunctional Peptides for Tissue Regeneration Applications.

Antifouling polymer layers containing extracellular matrix-derived peptide motifs offer promising new options for biomimetic surface engineering. In this contribution, we report the design of antifouling vascular grafts bearing biofunctional peptide motifs for tissue regeneration applications based on hierarchical polymer brushes. Hierarchical diblock poly(methyl ether oligo(ethylene glycol) methacrylate--glycidyl methacrylate) brushes bearing azide groups (poly(MeOEGMA--GMA-N)) were grown by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) and functionalized with biomimetic RGD peptide sequences.

Circularly polarized microwave antenna for nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond.

The sensing applications of nitrogen-vacancy color centers in a diamond require an efficient manipulation of the color center ground state over the whole volume of an ensemble. Thus, it is necessary to produce strong uniform magnetic fields of a well-defined circular polarization at microwave frequencies. In this paper, we develop a circularly polarized microwave antenna based on the excitation of hybrid electromagnetic modes in a high-permittivity dielectric resonator.

Impact of Bioactive Peptide Motifs on Molecular Structure, Charging, and Nonfouling Properties of Poly(ethylene oxide) Brushes.

Polymer layers capable of suppressing protein adsorption from biological media while presenting extracellular matrix-derived peptide motifs offer valuable new options for biomimetic surface engineering. Herein, we provide detailed insights into physicochemical changes induced in a nonfouling poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) brush/polydopamine (PDA) system by incorporation of adhesion ligand (RGD) peptides. Brushes with high surface chain densities (σ ≥ 0.

Chondrogenic potential of macroporous biodegradable cryogels based on synthetic poly(α-amino acids).

In this study, the potential of highly porous hydrogels based on biodegradable synthetic poly(α-amino acids) to support proliferation and chondrogenesis of human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) was investigated. Covalently crosslinked gels with permanent pores were formed under cryogenic conditions by free-radical copolymerization of poly[N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-l-glutamine-stat-N-(2-methacryloyl-oxy-ethyl)-l-glutamine] (PHEG-MA) with 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and N-propargyl methacrylamide (PrMAAm) as minor co-monomers. PrMAAm provided alkyne groups for modifying the gels with cell-supporting moieties (RGDS peptides) by the azide-alkyne "click"-reaction.

Impact of the dipole contribution on the terahertz emission of air-based plasma induced by tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses.

The present paper studies the generation mechanism of terahertz (THz) radiation from tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses in a gas medium. We measured the angular radiation pattern under different focusing conditions and observed that, with the deepening of focus, the angular radiation pattern changes and optical-to-THz conversion efficiency increases. The analysis of the observed phenomena led to the assumption that the dipole radiation prevails in most cases despite the existing conception regarding the dominating role of the quadrupole mechanism of radiation.