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The usefulness of 3-dimensional (3D)-printed disease models has been recognized in various medical fields. This study aims to introduce a production platform for patient-specific 3D-printed brain tumor model in clinical practice and evaluate its effectiveness. A full-cycle platform was created for the clinical application of a 3D-printed brain tumor model (3D-printed model) production system. Essential elements included automated segmentation software, cloud-based interactive communication tools, customized brain models with exquisite expression of brain anatomy in transparent material, adjunctive devices for surgical simulation, and swift process cycles to meet practical needs. A simulated clinical usefulness validation was conducted in which neurosurgeons assessed the usefulness of the 3D-printed models in 10 cases. We successfully produced clinically applicable patient-specific models within 4 days using the established platform. The simulated clinical usefulness validation results revealed the significant superiority of the 3D-printed models in surgical planning regarding surgical posture (p = 0.0147) and craniotomy design (p = 0.0072) compared to conventional magnetic resonance images. The benefit was more noticeable for neurosurgeons with less experience. We established a 3D-printed brain tumor model production system that is ready to use in daily clinical practice for neurosurgery.

Most cerebellar ataxias (CAs) are incurable neurological disorders, resulting in a lack of voluntary control by inflamed or damaged cerebellum. Although CA can be either directly or indirectly related to cerebellar inflammation, there is no suitable animal model of CA with neuroinflammation. In this study, we evaluated the utility of an intracerebellar injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to generate an animal model of inflammatory CA. We observed that LPS administration induced the expression of pro-inflammatory molecules following activation of glial cells. In addition, the administration of LPS resulted in apoptotic Purkinje cell death and induced abnormal locomotor activities, such as impaired motor coordination and abnormal hindlimb clasping posture. Our results suggest that intracerebellar LPS administration in experimental animals may be useful for studying the inflammatory component of CA.

Nanostructured cellulose fabric with an air-bubble-enhanced anti-oil fouling property is introduced for quick oil-cleaning by water even with the surface fouled by oil before water contact under a dry state. It is very challenging to recover the super-hydrophilicity because once the surface is oil-fouled, it is hard to be re-wetted by water. Anti-oil-fouling under a dry state was realized through two main features of the nanostructured, porous fabric: a low solid fraction with high-aspect-ratio nanostructures significantly increasing the retracting forces, and trapped multiscale air bubbles increasing the buoyancy and backpressure for an oil-layer rupture. The nanostructures were formed on cellulose-based rayon microfibers through selective etching with oxygen plasma, forming a nanoscale open-pore structure. Viscous crude oil fouled on a fabric under a dry state was cleaned by immersion into water owing to a higher water affinity of the rayon material and low solid fraction of the high-aspect-ratio nanostructures. Air bubbles trapped in dry porous fibers and nanostructures promote oil detachment from the fouled sites. The macroscale bubbles add buoyancy on top of the oil droplets, enhancing the oil receding at the oil-water-solid interface, whereas the relatively smaller microscale bubbles induce a backpressure underneath the oil droplets. The oil-proofing fabric was used for protecting underwater conductive sensors, allowing a robot fish to swim freely in oily water.

The prevalence of a novel β-coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was declared as a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020 and a global pandemic on 11 March 2020 by WHO. The spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 is regarded as a key target for the development of vaccines and therapeutic antibodies. In order to develop anti-viral therapeutics for SARS-CoV-2, it is crucial to find amino acid pairs that strongly attract each other at the interface of the spike glycoprotein and the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) complex. In order to find hot spot residues, the strongly attracting amino acid pairs at the protein–protein interaction (PPI) interface, we introduce a reliable inter-residue interaction energy calculation method, FMO-DFTB3/D/PCM/3D-SPIEs. In addition to the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein/hACE2 complex, the hot spot residues of SARS-CoV-1 spike glycoprotein/hACE2 complex, SARS-CoV-1 spike glycoprotein/antibody complex, and HCoV-NL63 spike glycoprotein/hACE2 complex were obtained using the same FMO method. Following this, a 3D-SPIEs-based interaction map was constructed with hot spot residues for the hACE2/SARS-CoV-1 spike glycoprotein, hACE2/HCoV-NL63 spike glycoprotein, and hACE2/SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein complexes. Finally, the three 3D-SPIEs-based interaction maps were combined and analyzed to find the consensus hot spots among the three complexes. As a result of the analysis, two hot spots were identified between hACE2 and the three spike proteins. In particular, E37, K353, G354, and D355 of the hACE2 receptor strongly interact with the spike proteins of coronaviruses. The 3D-SPIEs-based map would provide valuable information to develop anti-viral therapeutics that inhibit PPIs between the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and hACE2.

Smart surfaces in nature have been extensively studied to identify their hierarchical structures in micro-/nanoscale to elucidate their superhydrophobicity with varying water adhesion. However, mimicking hybrid features in multiscale requires complex, multi-step processes. Here, we proposed a one-step process for the fabrication of hierarchical structures composed in micro-/nanoscales for superhydrophobic surfaces with tunable water adhesion. Hierarchical patterns were fabricated using a plasma-based selective etching process assisted by a dual scale etching mask. As the metallic mesh is placed above the substrate, it serves the role of dual scale etching masks on the substrate: microscale masks to form the micro-wall network and nanoscale masks to form high-aspect-ratio nanostructures. The micro-walls and nanostructures can be selectively hybridized by adjusting the gap distance between the mesh and the target surface: single nanostructures on a large area for a larger gap distance and hybrid/hierarchical structures with nanostructures nested on micro-walls for a shorter gap distance. The hierarchically nanostructured surface shows superhydrophobicity with low water adhesion, while the hybrid structured surface becomes become superhydrophobic with high adhesion. These water adhesion tunable surfaces were explored for water transport and evaporation. Additionally, we demonstrated a robust superhydrophobic surface with anti-reflectance over a large area.

Bacterial communities in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) affect plant functionality through their role in the removal of pollutants from wastewater. Bacterial communities vary extensively based on plant operating conditions and influent characteristics. The capacity of WWTPs can also affect the bacterial community via variations in the organic or nutrient composition of the influent. Despite the importance considering capacity, the characteristics that control bacterial community assembly are largely unknown. In this study, we discovered that bacterial communities in WWTPs in Korea and Vietnam, which differ remarkably in capacity, exhibit unique structures and interactions that are governed mainly by the capacity of WWTPs. Bacterial communities were analysed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and exhibited clear differences between the two regions, with these differences being most pronounced in activated sludge. We found that capacity contributed the most to bacterial interactions and community structure, whereas other factors had less impact. Co-occurrence network analysis showed that microorganisms from high-capacity WWTPs are more interrelated than those from low-capacity WWTPs, which corresponds to the tighter clustering of bacterial communities in Korea. These results will contribute to the understanding of bacterial community assembly in activated sludge processing.

Stem cell therapy that can restore function to damaged tissue, avoid host rejection and reduce inflammation throughout body without use of immunosuppressive drugs. The established methods were used to identify and to isolate specific stem cell markers by FACS or by immunomagnetic cell separation. The procedures for distinguishing population of stem cells took a time and needed many preparations. Here we suggest an electrotaxis analysis as a new method to evaluate the homogeneity of mesenchymal stem cells which can observe the stem cell population in culture condition and wide use to various types of stem cells. Human mesenchymal stem cell, adipose derived stem cell, tonsil derived stem cell and osteogenic differentiated cells migrated toward anode but the migration speed of differentiated cells was significantly decreased versus that of stem cells. In mixture of stem cells and differentiated cells condition, we identified that the ratio of stem cell versus differentiated cell was matched with the homogeneity evaluation data of stem cells based on electrotaxis analysis. As a result, our evaluation tool has the possibility of the wide use to stem cell homogeneity evaluation and might be used as the stem cell quality control during stem cell culture without any additional antibodies.

Stem cell therapy that can restore function to damaged tissue, avoid host rejection and reduce inflammation throughout body without use of immunosuppressive drugs. The established methods were used to identify and to isolate specific stem cell markers by FACS or by immunomagnetic cell separation. The procedures for distinguishing population of stem cells took a time and needed many preparations. Here we suggest an electrotaxis analysis as a new method to evaluate the homogeneity of mesenchymal stem cells which can observe the stem cell population in culture condition and wide use to various types of stem cells. Human mesenchymal stem cell, adipose derived stem cell, tonsil derived stem cell and osteogenic differentiated cells migrated toward anode but the migration speed of differentiated cells was significantly decreased versus that of stem cells. In mixture of stem cells and differentiated cells condition, we identified that the ratio of stem cell versus differentiated cell was matched with the homogeneity evaluation data of stem cells based on electrotaxis analysis. As a result, our evaluation tool has the possibility of the wide use to stem cell homogeneity evaluation and might be used as the stem cell quality control during stem cell culture without any additional antibodies.