Force of adhesion between droplets and super-hydrophobic surfaces: Closed-form analytical expressions.

Super-hydrophobic and liquid-repellent surfaces can be characterized experimentally in tensile adhesion experiments with the force (FAdh) required to detach a droplet from such surfaces, but analytical expressions that relate FAdh to the surface energy, w, are still missing. In this work, we derive analytical expressions for FAdh between droplets or radius r and super-hydrophobic surfaces on which the contact angle is greater than 150°. By applying the general condition for the onset of instability in different mechanical configurations, we find FAdh = -πwr and FAdh ≈ -(4/5)πwr, for the fixed-force and fixed-grip configurations, respectively, as well as other expressions that depend on the ratio of the spring constant of a generic force measuring apparatus to the surface tension of the liquid composing the droplet.

SPA14 liposomes combining saponin with fully synthetic TLR4 agonist provide adjuvanticity to hCMV vaccine candidate.

In the aim of designing and developing a novel saponin-based adjuvant system, we combined the QS21 saponin with low microgram amounts of the fully synthetic TLR4 agonist, E6020, in cholesterol-containing liposomes. The resulting adjuvant system, termed SPA14, appeared as a long-term stable and homogeneous suspension of mostly unilamellar and a few multilamellar vesicles, with an average hydrodynamic diameter of 93 nm, when formulated in citrate buffer at pH 6.0-6.

Identifying CD19-targeted CAR-T cell immune pathways in an in vitro human immune mimetic cytokine release assay.

CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor-modified T (CAR-T) cells have shown success in clinical studies, with several CD19 CAR-T cell products now having been approved for market use. However, this cell therapy can be associated with side effects such as cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Therefore, pre-clinical test systems are highly desired to permit the evaluation of these unwanted effects before clinical trials begin.