Graphene for improved femtosecond laser based pluripotent stem cell transfection.

Pluripotent stem cells are hugely attractive in the tissue engineering research field as they can self-renew and be selectively differentiated into various cell types. For stem cell and tissue engineering research it is important to develop new, biocompatible scaffold materials and graphene has emerged as a promising material in this area as it does not compromise cell proliferation and accelerates specific cell differentiation. Previous studies have shown a non-invasive optical technique for mouse embryonic stem (mES) cell differentiation and transfection using femtosecond (fs) laser pulses.

Phototransfection of mammalian cells using femtosecond laser pulses: optimization and applicability to stem cell differentiation.

Recently, femtosecond laser pulses have been utilized for the targeted introduction of genetic matter into mammalian cells. This rapidly expanding and developing novel optical technique using a tightly focused laser light beam is called phototransfection. Extending previous studies [Stevenson et al.

Optical chromatography using a photonic crystal fiber with on-chip fluorescence excitation.

We describe the realization of integrated optical chromatography, in conjunction with on-chip fluorescence excitation, in a monolithically fabricated poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chip. The unique endlessly-single-mode guiding property of the Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) facilitates simultaneous on-chip delivery of beams to perform optical sorting in conjunction with fluorescence excitation. We use soft lithography to define the chip and insert the specially capped PCF into it through a predefined fiber channel that is intrinsically aligned with the sorting channel.

Limited cross-reactivity between different HIV-1 clades.

Background: The past two decades has seen an extensive search for a vaccine to curtail the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The prevailing opinion is that an HIV vaccine should elicit broadly cross-neutralizing antibodies and cellular immune responses against primary isolates from divergent clades. The majority of subunit or protein based vaccines currently in clinical trials are based on HIV-1 envelope proteins mainly derived from subtypes B/A.