Liquid Crystalline Colloidal Mixture of Nanosheets and Rods with Dynamically Variable Length.

Here, we demonstrate the novel double-component liquid crystalline colloids composed of mesogenic inorganic nanosheets and the rods with dynamically variable length controlled by temperature. As the length-controllable rod, stiff biopolymer microtubule is used, which was successfully polymerized/depolymerized from tubulin proteins through a biochemical process even in the presence of the nanosheets. The mesoscopic structure of the liquid crystal phase was reversibly modifiable as caused by the change of the rod length.

Screening Evaluation of the Interaction of Linear-Chain or Branched-Chain Peptides with Multilamellar Vesicle, Using Confocal Laser Microscopy.

In the present research, we prepared an acidic liposome as a cell model and used confocal laser microscopy to evaluate its interaction with oligopeptides that had high membrane permeability or affinity. The results showed that, for short peptides of about ten residues, the positive charge peptides interacted with the acidic liposome strongly. For peptides that interacted with the liposome, no difference was found between linear-chain and branched-chain peptides due to their structure.

Photo-Induced Anomalous Deformation of Poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide) Gel Hybridized with an Inorganic Nanosheet Liquid Crystal Aligned by Electric Field.

Poly-(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) hydrogel films doped with uniaxially aligned liquid crystalline (LC) nanosheets adsorbed with a dye are synthesized and its anomalous photothermal deformation is demonstrated. The alignment of the nanosheet LC at the cm-scale is easily achieved by the application of an in-plane or out-of-plane AC electric field during photo-polymerization. A photoresponsive pattern is printable onto the gel with μm-scale resolution by adsorption of the dye through a pattern-holed silicone rubber.