Rapid Development of High Concentration Protein Formulation Driven by High-Throughput Technologies.

Background: High concentration protein formulation (HCPF) development needs to balance protein stability attributes such as conformational/colloidal stability, chemical stability, and solution properties such as viscosity and osmolality.

Methodology: A three-phase design is established in this work. In Phase 1, conformational and colloidal stability are measured by 384-well-based high-throughput (HT) biophysical screening while viscosity reduction screening is performed with HT viscosity screening.

Silver square nanospirals mimic optical properties of U-shaped metamaterials.

We present a study of the optical properties of three-armed square nanospirals made of silver and realized as nanostructured thin films with Glancing Angle Deposition. Calculation of current flows in the nanospirals show excited resonant modes resembling those observed in U-shaped resonators. Four principal resonances were determined: near 200 THz and 480 THz for one polarization and 250 THz and 650 THz for the polarization orthogonal to the first one.

Vacuum deposition of chiral sculptured thin films with high optical activity.

We present the technique of bideposition to realize thin-film helicoidal bianisotropic mediums (TFHBM's) that exhibit high optical activity. We show, by experiment as well as by simulation, that the optical rotation produced by these chiral sculptured thin films is roughly proportional to the square of the local linear birefringence. Experimental measurements on bideposited TFHBM's of titanium oxide yield a typical value of 5 degrees /mum for the effective specific rotation in the short-wavelength regime; the corresponding value determined for the standard unideposited TFHBM's is 1 degrees /mum.

Nanomaterials and nanoparticles: sources and toxicity.

This review is presented as a common foundation for scientists interested in nanoparticles, their origin,activity, and biological toxicity. It is written with the goal of rationalizing and informing public health concerns related to this sometimes-strange new science of "nano," while raising awareness of nanomaterials' toxicity among scientists and manufacturers handling them.We show that humans have always been exposed to tiny particles via dust storms, volcanic ash, and other natural processes, and that our bodily systems are well adapted to protect us from these potentially harmful intruders.

Oxidation of evaporated porous silicon rugate filters.

Rugate filters are thin-film optical interference coatings with sinusoidal variation of the refractive index. Several of these filters were fabricated with glancing angle deposition, which exploits atomic competition during growth to create nanoporous materials with controllable effective refractive index. This method enables the fabrication of devices with almost arbitrary refractive index profiles varying between the ambient, 1.