High yield matrix-free ionization of biomolecules by pulse-heating ion source.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry has been widely used for biomolecular analysis. However, with conventional MALDI, it is difficult to analyse low-molecular-weight compounds because of the interference of matrix ion signals. Here, we report a matrix-free on-chip pulse-heating desorption/ionization (PHDI) method for a wide range of biomolecules ranging from low molecular-weight substances such as glycine (75.

Gold Nanoparticles Supported on Alumina as a Catalyst for Surface Plasmon-Enhanced Selective Reductions of Nitrobenzene.

Au nanoparticles supported on alumina (Au/AlO) with average particle size of 3.9 ± 0.7 nm and surface plasmon band centerned at 516.

Guided Molecular Assembly on a Locally Reactive 2D Material.

Atomically precise engineering of the position of molecular adsorbates on surfaces of 2D materials is key to their development in applications ranging from catalysis to single-molecule spintronics. Here, stable room-temperature templating of individual molecules with localized electronic states on the surface of a locally reactive 2D material, silicene grown on ZrB , is demonstrated. Using a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory, it is shown that the binding of iron phthalocyanine (FePc) molecules is mediated via the strong chemisorption of the central Fe atom to the sp -like dangling bond of Si atoms in the linear silicene domain boundaries.

Tough and Porous Hydrogels Prepared by Simple Lyophilization of LC Gels.

Porous hydrogels possessing mechanical toughness were prepared from sacran, a supergiant liquid crystalline (LC) polysaccharide produced from . First, layered hydrogels were prepared by thermal cross-linking of film cast over a sacran LC solution. Then, anisotropic pores were constructed using a freeze-drying technique on the water-swollen layered hydrogels.

Glycosyl chains and 25-hydroxycholesterol contribute to the intracellular transport of amyloid beta (Aβ-42) in Jurkat T cells.

Amyloid beta (Aβ) is a peptide responsible for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Misfolding and accumulation of endogenous Aβ can lead to neural cell apoptosis through endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Added exogenous Aβ can also result in ER stress, leading to neurotoxicity and apoptosis, which is identical to that caused by the endogenous peptide.

C-to-U editing and site-directed RNA editing for the correction of genetic mutations.

Cytidine to uridine (C-to-U) editing is one type of substitutional RNA editing. It occurs in both mammals and plants. The molecular mechanism of C-to-U editing involves the hydrolytic deamination of a cytosine to a uracil base.

Mechanism of Light-Soaking Effect in Inverted Polymer Solar Cells with Open-Circuit Voltage Increase.

In this study, we present novel insights into the light-soaking effect of inverted polymer solar cells (PSCs), where the open-circuit voltage ( ) of the cells improves over time under light irradiation. The effect was investigated by electron spin resonance (ESR) studies of bare indium tin oxide (ITO) and piperazine derivative-modified ITO/regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT):[6,6]-phenyl C butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) substrates. These results were combined with alternating current impedance spectroscopy (IS) measurements of inverted PSCs based on the above substrates.

Density-gradient-assisted centrifugal microfluidics: an approach to continuous-mode particle separation.

Centrifugal microfluidics has been recognized as a promising pumping method in microfluidics because of its simplicity, easiness of automation, and parallel processing. However, the patterning of stripe flow in centrifugal microfluidics is challenging because a fluid is significantly affected by the Coriolis force, which produces an intrinsic secondary flow. This paper reports a technical and design strategy for centrifugal microfluidics called "density-gradient-assisted centrifugal microfluidics.

Bayesian molecular design with a chemical language model.

The aim of computational molecular design is the identification of promising hypothetical molecules with a predefined set of desired properties. We address the issue of accelerating the material discovery with state-of-the-art machine learning techniques. The method involves two different types of prediction; the forward and backward predictions.

Enhancement of curcumin wound healing ability by complexation with 2-hydroxypropyl-γ-cyclodextrin in sacran hydrogel film.

Curcumin is one of promising agents to accelerate the wound-healing process. However, the efficacy of curcumin is limited due to its poor water solubility and stability. To enhance the properties of curcumin, 2-hydroxypropyl-γ-cyclodextrin (HP-γ-CyD) can be used through complexation.

A stable lithium-rich surface structure for lithium-rich layered cathode materials.

Lithium ion batteries are encountering ever-growing demand for further increases in energy density. Li-rich layered oxides are considered a feasible solution to meet this demand because their specific capacities often surpass 200 mAh g due to the additional lithium occupation in the transition metal layers. However, this lithium arrangement, in turn, triggers cation mixing with the transition metals, causing phase transitions during cycling and loss of reversible capacity.

Enhancing effect of γ-cyclodextrin on wound dressing properties of sacran hydrogel film.

A wound dressing is one of the essential approaches for preventing further harm to cutaneous wounds as well as promoting wound healing. Therefore, to achieve ideal wound healing, the development of advanced dressing materials is necessary. Recently, we revealed that a novel megamolecular polysaccharide, sacran, has potential properties as a biomaterial in a physically cross-linked hydrogel film (HGF) for wound dressing application.

Hybrid Cluster Precursors of the LaZrO Insulator for Transistors: Properties of High-Temperature-Processed Films and Structures of Solutions, Gels, and Solids.

In the solution processing of oxide electronics, the structure of metal-organic precursors in solution and their effect on processability and on the final structure and properties of the oxide have rarely been studied. We have observed that hybrid clusters, having inorganic cores coordinated by organic ligands, are the typical form of metal-organic precursor structures. For insulating ternary LaZrO, improved synthesis of the cluster precursor under solvothermal conditions led to low-temperature deposition of the film at 200 °C, as we will report in another paper.

Physically crosslinked-sacran hydrogel films for wound dressing application.

The thin hydrogel films consisting of water-swollen polymer networks can potentially be applied for biomedical fields. Recently, natural polysaccharides have great attentions to be developed as wound healing and protection. In the present study, we newly prepared and characterized a physically crosslinked-hydrogel film composed of a novel megamolecular polysaccharide sacran for wound dressing application.

(1)H NMR and FT-IR dataset based structural investigation of poly(amic acid)s and polyimides from 4,4'-diaminostilbene.

Structural investigation of polymers by various available analytical methods is important in order to correlate the structure with polymer properties for which understanding of polymer structure is very important factor. The data presented here in this article shows the (1)H NMR spectra used for the characterization of prepared poly(amic acid)s (PAAs). It is often difficult to assigns the peak in NMR of polymers due to its complexity.

Chemical RNA Editing for Genetic Restoration: The Relationship between the Structure and Deamination Efficiency of Carboxyvinyldeoxyuridine Oligodeoxynucleotides.

Oligodeoxynucleotides containing 5-carboxyvinyl-2'-deoxyuridine ((CV) U-containing ODNs) for successful site-specific transition of cytosine to uridine by photo-cross-linking have three parts: the complementary sequence, hairpin loop and the 5'-terminal photoresponsive nucleobase (CV) U. Photo-cross-linking with (CV) U-containing ODNs was performed using UV (366 nm) irradiation, followed by heat treatment for deamination. The cross-linked nucleotide was cleaved by photosplitting (UV, 312 nm).

Tunneling in Systems of Coupled Dopant-Atoms in Silicon Nano-devices.

Following the rapid development of the electronics industry and technology, it is expected that future electronic devices will operate based on functional units at the level of electrically active molecules or even atoms. One pathway to observe and characterize such fundamental operation is to focus on identifying isolated or coupled dopants in nanoscale silicon transistors, the building blocks of present electronics. Here, we review some of the recent progress in the research along this direction, with a focus on devices fabricated with simple and CMOS-compatible-processing technology.

Modified screen printed electrode for development of a highly sensitive label-free impedimetric immunosensor to detect amyloid beta peptides.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting approximately 26 million people world-wide, and the number is increasing as life expectancy increases. Since the only reliable diagnosis for the pathology is histochemical post-mortem examination, there is a rather urgent need for reliable, sensitive and quick detection techniques. Amyloid beta, being one of the established and widely accepted biomarkers of AD is a target biomolecule.

A versatile puromycin-linker using cnvK for high-throughput in vitro selection by cDNA display.

cDNA display is a powerful in vitro display technology used to explore functional peptides and proteins from a huge library by in vitro selection. In addition to expediting the in vitro selection cycle by using cDNA display, easy and rapid functional analysis of selected candidate clones is crucial for high-throughput screening of functional peptides and proteins. In this report, a versatile puromycin-linker employing an ultrafast photo-cross-linker, 3-cyanovinylcarbazole nucleoside, is introduced.

Changing blue fluorescent protein to green fluorescent protein using chemical RNA editing as a novel strategy in genetic restoration.

Using the transition from cytosine of BFP (blue fluorescent protein) gene to uridine of GFP (green fluorescent protein) gene at position 199 as a model, we successfully controlled photochemical RNA editing to effect site-directed deamination of cytidine (C) to uridine (U). Oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) containing 5'-carboxyvinyl-2'-deoxyuridine ((CV) U) were used for reversible photoligation, and single-stranded 100-nt BFP DNA and in vitro-transcribed full-length BFP mRNA were the targets. Photo-cross-linking with the responsive ODNs was performed using UV (366 nm) irradiation, which was followed by heat treatment, and the cross-linked nucleotide was cleaved through photosplitting (UV, 312 nm).

Electronic properties of epitaxial silicene on diboride thin films.

The Si counterpart of graphene—silicene—has partially similar but also unique electronic properties that relate to the presence of an extended π electronic system, the flexible crystal structure and the large spin-orbit coupling. Driven by predictions for exceptional electronic properties like the presence of massless charge carriers, the occurrence of the quantum Hall effect and perfect spin-filtering in free-standing, unreconstructed silicene, the recent experimental realization of largely sp(2)-hybridized, Si honeycomb lattices grown on a number of metallic substrates provided the opportunity for the systematic study of the electronic properties of epitaxial silicene phases. Following a discussion of theoretical predictions for free-standing silicene, we review properties of (√3 × √3)-reconstructed, epitaxial silicene phases but with the emphasis on the extensively studied case of silicene on ZrB2(0 0 0 1) thin films.

Bringing macromolecules into cells and evading endosomes by oxidized carbon nanoparticles.

A great challenge exists in finding safe, simple, and effective delivery strategies to bring matters across cell membrane. Popular methods such as viral vectors, positively charged particles and cell penetrating peptides possess some of the following drawbacks: safety issues, lysosome trapping, limited loading capacity, and toxicity, whereas electroporation produces severe damages on both cargoes and cells. Here, we show that a serendipitously discovered, relatively nontoxic, water dispersible, stable, negatively charged, oxidized carbon nanoparticle, prepared from graphite, could deliver macromolecules into cells, without getting trapped in a lysosome.

Optimizing the calculation of energy landscape parameters from single-molecule protein unfolding experiments.

Single-molecule force spectroscopy using an atomic force microscope (AFM) can be used to measure the average unfolding force of proteins in a constant velocity experiment. In combination with Monte Carlo simulations and through the application of the Zhurkov-Bell model, information about the parameters describing the underlying unfolding energy landscape of the protein can be obtained. Using this approach, we have completed protein unfolding experiments on the polyprotein (I27)(5) over a range of pulling velocities.

Loss of wwox expression in zebrafish embryos causes edema and alters Ca(2+) dynamics.

We investigated the role of the WW domain-containing oxidoreductase (wwox) gene in the embryonic development of zebrafish, with particular emphasis on intracellular Ca(2+) dynamics because Ca(2+) is an important intracellular messenger. Comparisons between zebrafish wwox and human WWOX sequences identified highly conserved domain structures. wwox was expressed in developing heart tissues in the zebrafish embryo.

Mesomartoxin, a new K(v)1.2-selective scorpion toxin interacting with the channel selectivity filter.

Venom-derived neurotoxins are ideal probes for the investigation of structure-function relationship of ion channels and promising scaffolds for the design of ion channel-targeted drug leads as well. The discovery of highly selective toxins against a specific channel subtype facilitates the development of drugs with reduced side effects. Here, we describe the systemic characterization of a new scorpion short-chain K(+) channel blocker from Mesobuthus martensii, termed mesomartoxin (MMTX).