A Rapidly Responsive Sensor for Wireless Detection of Early and Mature Microbial Biofilms.

Biofilm-associated infections, which are able to resist antibiotics, pose a significant challenge in clinical treatments. Such infections have been linked to various medical conditions, including chronic wounds and implant-associated infections, making them a major public-health concern. Early-detection of biofilm formation offers significant advantages in mitigating adverse effects caused by biofilms.

Structural Characterization of Nanoparticle-Supported Lipid Bilayer Arrays by Grazing Incidence X-ray and Neutron Scattering.

Arrays of nanoparticle-supported lipid bilayers (nanoSLB) are lipid-coated nanopatterned interfaces that provide a platform to study curved model biological membranes using surface-sensitive techniques. We combined scattering techniques with direct imaging, to gain access to sub-nanometer scale structural information on stable nanoparticle monolayers assembled on silicon crystals in a noncovalent manner using a Langmuir-Schaefer deposition. The structure of supported lipid bilayers formed on the nanoparticle arrays via vesicle fusion was investigated using a combination of grazing incidence X-ray and neutron scattering techniques complemented by fluorescence microscopy imaging.

New Cerebellar Ataxia, Neuropathy, Vestibular Areflexia Syndrome cases are caused by the presence of a nonsense variant in compound heterozygosity with the pathogenic repeat expansion in the RFC1 gene.

The biallelic pathogenic repeat (AAGGG) intronic expansion in the RFC1 gene has been recently described as the cause of cerebellar ataxia, neuropathy, vestibular areflexia syndrome (CANVAS) and as a major cause of late-onset ataxia. Since then, many heterozygous carriers have been identified, with an estimated allele frequency of 0.7% to 4% in the healthy population.

Glucose-to-Resistor Transduction Integrated into a Radio-Frequency Antenna for Chip-less and Battery-less Wireless Sensing.

To maximize the potential of 5G infrastructure in healthcare, simple integration of biosensors with wireless tag antennas would be beneficial. This work introduces novel glucose-to-resistor transduction, which enables simple, wireless biosensor design. The biosensor was realized on a near-field communication tag antenna, where a sensing bioanode generated electrical current and electroreduced a nonconducting antenna material into an excellent conductor.

Note: Submicrometer-precision sample holder for accurate re-positioning of samples in scanning force microscopy.

In this work we describe two simple and compact submicrometer-precision sample holders that are easily integrated into a Scanning Force Microscopy (SFM) system. The designs are based on a traditional kinematic mounting or on self-adjustment of the sample holder and the upper piece of the piezoelectric scanner. With these sample holders the sample position is automatically recovered to within about 100 nm.

Calibration of oscillation amplitude in dynamic scanning force microscopy.

A method to precisely calibrate the oscillation amplitude in dynamic scanning force microscopy is described. It is shown that the typical electronics used to process the dynamic motion of the cantilever can be adjusted to transfer the thermal noise of the cantilever motion from its resonance frequency to a much lower frequency within the typical bandwidth of the corresponding data acquisition electronics of a scanning force microscopy system. Based on this concept, two procedures for the calibration of the oscillation amplitude are proposed.

Nanoscale measurement of the power spectral density of surface roughness: how to solve a difficult experimental challenge.

In this study, we show that the correct determination of surface morphology using scanning force microscopy (SFM) imaging and power spectral density (PSD) analysis of the surface roughness is an extremely demanding task that is easily affected by experimental parameters such as scan speed and feedback parameters. We present examples were the measured topography data is significantly influenced by the feedback response of the SFM system and the PSD curves calculated from this experimental data do not correspond to that of the true topography. Instead, either features are "lost" due to low pass filtering or features are "created" due to oscillation of the feedback loop.