Recent Developments in Drug Delivery for Treatment of Tuberculosis by Targeting Macrophages.

Tuberculosis (TB) is among the greatest public health and safety concerns in the 21 century, which causes TB, infects alveolar macrophages and uses these cells as one of its primary sites of replication. The current TB treatment regimen, which consist of chemotherapy involving a combination of 3-4 antimicrobials for a duration of 6-12 months, is marked with significant side effects, toxicity, and poor compliance. Targeted drug delivery offers a strategy that could overcome many of the problems of current TB treatment by specifically targeting infected macrophages.

Nanocube-Based Fluidic Glycan Array.

The nature of cell membrane fluidity permits glycans, which are attached to membrane proteins and lipids, to freely diffuse on cell surfaces. Through such two-dimensional motion, some weakly binding glycans can participate in lectin binding processes, eventually changing lectin binding behaviors. This chapter discusses a plasmonic nanocube sensor that allows users to detect lectin binding kinetics in a cell membrane mimicking environment.

Multi-functional SERS substrate: collection, separation, and identification of airborne chemical powders on a single device.

Due to its extreme sensitivity and fingerprint specificity, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful tool for substance identification. Developments in portable low-cost SERS substrates and handheld Raman spectrometers enable SERS analysis at sample origin, with great potential benefit to field-work applications in numerous disciplines. This study reports a procedure which incorporates sample collection, isolation, and SERS identification of airborne solids on a single inexpensive substrate.

Beneficial mutations for carotenoid production identified from laboratory-evolved Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) is a powerful tool used to increase strain fitness in the presence of environmental stressors. If production and strain fitness can be coupled, ALE can be used to increase product formation. In earlier work, carotenoids hyperproducing mutants were obtained using an ALE strategy.

Low-Cost and Simple Fabrication of Nanoplasmonic Paper for Coupled Chromatography Separation and Surface Enhanced Raman Detection.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a powerful analytical tool which enables the detection and identification of analytes adsorbed on nanostructured noble metals. However, SERS analysis of complex mixtures can be challenging due to spectral overlap and interference. In this report, we demonstrate a method to simplify the identification of mixed-analyte samples by coupling SERS detection with chromatographic separation on a nanoplasmonic paper substrate.

Hetero-multivalent binding of cholera toxin subunit B with glycolipid mixtures.

GM has generally been considered as the major receptor that binds to cholera toxin subunit B (CTB) due to its low dissociation constant. However, using a unique nanocube sensor technology, we have shown that CTB can also bind to other glycolipid receptors, fucosyl-GM and GDb. Additionally, we have demonstrated that GM can contribute to CTB binding if present in a glycolipid mixture with a strongly binding receptor (GM/fucosyl-GM/GDb).

Quantitative surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for kinetic analysis of aldol condensation using Ag-Au core-shell nanocubes.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful tool with high potential for multiplexed detection of dilute analytes. However, quantitative SERS of kinetic assays can be difficult due to the variation in enhancement factors caused by changing reaction conditions. We report a method for quantitative SERS kinetic analysis using colloidal Ag-Au core-shell nanocubes (Ag@AuNCs) as the SERS substrate.

Binding Cooperativity Matters: A GM1-Like Ganglioside-Cholera Toxin B Subunit Binding Study Using a Nanocube-Based Lipid Bilayer Array.

Protein-glycan recognition is often mediated by multivalent binding. These multivalent bindings can be further complicated by cooperative interactions between glycans and individual glycan binding subunits. Here we have demonstrated a nanocube-based lipid bilayer array capable of quantitatively elucidating binding dissociation constants, maximum binding capacity, and binding cooperativity in a high-throughput format.