Search

Isoprenol (3-methyl-3-butene-1-ol) is a valuable drop-in biofuel and an important precursor of several commodity chemicals. Synthetic microbial systems using the heterologous mevalonate pathway have recently been developed for the production of isoprenol in Escherichia coli, and a significant yield and titer improvement has been achieved through a decade of research. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been widely used in the biotechnology industry for isoprenoid production, but there has been no good example of isoprenol production reported in this host. In this study, we engineered the budding yeast S. cerevisiae for improved biosynthesis of isoprenol. The strain engineered with the mevalonate pathway achieved isoprenol production at the titer of 36.02 ± 0.92 mg/L in the flask. The IPP (isopentenyl diphosphate)-bypass pathway, which has shown more efficient isoprenol production by avoiding the accumulation of the toxic intermediate in E. coli, was also constructed in S. cerevisiae and improved the isoprenol titer by 2-fold. We further engineered the strains by deleting a promiscuous endogenous kinase that could divert the pathway flux away from the isoprenol production and improved the titer to 130.52 ± 8.01 mg/L. Finally, we identified a pathway bottleneck using metabolomics analysis and overexpressed a promiscuous alkaline phosphatase to relieve this bottleneck. The combined efforts resulted in the titer improvement to 383.1 ± 31.62 mg/L in the flask. This is the highest isoprenol titer up to date in S. cerevisiae and this work provides the key strategies to engineer yeast as an industrial platform for isoprenol production.

We aimed to isolate circulating tumor cells (CTCs) using a microfluidic technique with a novel lateral magnetophoretic microseparator. Prostate cancer–specific gene expressions were evaluated using mRNA from the isolated CTCs. A CTC‐based multigene model was then developed for identifying advanced prostate cancer. Peripheral blood samples were obtained from five healthy donors and patients with localized prostate cancer (26 cases), metastatic hormone‐sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC, 10 cases), and metastatic castration‐resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC, 28 cases). CTC recovery rate and purity (enriched CTCs/total cells) were evaluated according to cancer stage. The areas under the curves of the six gene expressions were used to evaluate whether multigene models could identify mHSPC or mCRPC. The number of CTCs and their purity increased at more advanced cancer stages. In mHSPC/mCRPC cases, the specimens had an average of 27.5 CTCs/mL blood, which was 4.2 × higher than the isolation rate for localized disease. The CTC purity increased from 2.1% for localized disease to 3.8% for mHSPC and 6.7% for mCRPC, with increased CTC expression of the genes encoding prostate‐specific antigen (PSA), prostate‐specific membrane antigen (PSMA), and cytokeratin 19 (KRT19). All disease stages exhibited expression of the genes encoding androgen receptor (AR) and epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM), although expression of the AR‐V7 variant was relatively rare. Relative to each gene alone, the multigene model had better accuracy for predicting advanced prostate cancer. Our lateral magnetophoretic microseparator can be used for identifying prostate cancer biomarkers. In addition, CTC‐based genetic signatures may guide the early diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer., CTCs have useful biological information for understanding the prostate cancer aggressiveness. CTC‐based gene signatures have potential for early diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer. Multigene profile (AR, AR‐V7, PSA, PSMA, EpCAM, and KRT19) may guide the diagnosis and treatment of metastatic prostate cancer.

Surgical sutures are widely used for closing wounds in skin. However, the monitoring of wound integrity and promoting tissue regeneration at the same time still remains a challenge. To address this, we developed a drug-releasing electronic suture system (DRESS) to monitor the suture integrity in real-time and enhance tissue regeneration by triggered drug release. DRESS was fabricated by using a single fiber with a core–shell structure consisting of a stretchable conductive fiber core and a thermoresponsive polymer shell containing drugs. The highly conductive fiber core acts as a strain sensor that enables continuous monitoring of suture strain with high sensitivity (a gauge factor of ∼686) and mechanical durability (being able to endure more than 3000 stretching cycles). The thermoresponsive shell layer composed of flexible poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) grafted onto poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) facilitates on-demand drug release via Joule heating. The results of an in vitro scratch assay showed a 66% decrease in wound area upon heat-activation after 48 hours demonstrating the stimuli-responsive therapeutic efficacy of DRESS by promoting cell migration. Moreover, ex vivo testing on porcine skin demonstrated the applicability of DRESS as a electronic suture. The approach used for DRESS provides insight into multifunctional sutures and offers additional therapeutic and diagnostic options for clinical applications.

In the title com­pound, the dihedral angle between the planes of the bi­pyridine and carbazole moieties connected by an O atom is 68.45 (3)°. The bi­pyridine ring system, with two meth­oxy substituents, is approximately planar. The pyridine ring in the pyridyl-substituted carbazole fragment is tilted by 56.65 (4)° with respect to the mean plane of the carbazole moiety. The title com­pound exhibits a high energy gap and triplet energy., In the title com­pound, C29H22N4O3, the carbazole system forms a dihedral angle of 68.45 (3)° with the mean plane of the bi­pyridine ring system. The bi­pyridine ring system, with two meth­oxy substituents, is approximately planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.0670 Å), with a dihedral angle of 7.91 (13)° between the planes of the two pyridine rings. Intra­molecular C—H⋯O/N hydrogen bonds may promote the planarity of the bipyridyl ring system. In the pyridyl-substituted carbazole fragment, the pyridine ring is tilted by 56.65 (4)° with respect to the mean plane of the carbazole system (r.m.s. deviation = 0.0191 Å). In the crystal, adjacent mol­ecules are connected via C—H⋯O/N hydrogen bonds and C—H⋯π inter­actions, resulting in the formation of a three-dimensional (3D) supra­molecular network. In addition, the 3D structure contains inter­molecular π–π stacking inter­actions, with centroid–centroid distances of 3.5634 (12) Å between pyridine rings. The title com­pound exhibits a high energy gap (3.48 eV) and triplet energy (2.64 eV), indicating that it could be a suitable host material in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) applications.

The title 2,3′-bi­pyridine-based quaterpyridine derivative has a linear geometry. The pyridine rings are tilted slightly with respect to each other. In the crystal, π–π stacking and weak C—H⋯π inter­actions lead to formation of a two-dimensional layer structure., In the title compound, C24H22N4O4, the four pyridine rings are tilted slightly with respect to each other. The dihedral angles between the inner and outer pyridine rings are 12.51 (8) and 9.67 (9)°, while that between inner pyridine rings is 20.10 (7)°. Within the mol­ecule, intra­molecular C—H⋯O and C—H⋯N contacts are observed. In the crystal, adjacent mol­ecules are linked by π–π stacking inter­actions between pyridine rings and weak C—H⋯π inter­actions between a methyl H atom and the centroid of a pyridine ring, forming a two-dimensional layer structure extending parallel to the ac plane. Hirshfeld surface analysis and two-dimensional fingerprint plots indicate that the most important contributions to the crystal packing are from H⋯H (52.9%) and H⋯C/C⋯H (17.3%) contacts.

We introduce an assembly disposable degassing (ADD)-method as a simple and fast active degassing method. The ADD-method is achieved with a microstructured disposable superstrate and a reusable microsupport substrate, which can be assembled and disassembled simply by vacuum pressure. The reusable substrate can be equipped with functionalities to create an elaborately patterned energy field for active manipulation of substances in the microchannel. Degassing performance was evaluated for varying thicknesses of the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane and heights of the microsupport array. Based on the ADD-method, an active bubble-trap structure was developed to prevent bubble injection into the microchannels. Deterministic lateral displacement and microvortex devices, as complex structured microfluidic devices that are easily suffered by bubble formation, were used to demonstrate the usefulness of the ADD-method. As a test vehicle of active functional microfluidic devices, an assembly-disposable degassing lateral magnetophoretic microseparator (CTC-addChip) was developed. For the CTC-addChip, a ferromagnetic wire array was inlaid on the reusable substrate to create a high-gradient magnetic field, which can transfer through the PDMS membrane and isolate circulating tumor cells with magnetic nanobeads in the microchannel without bubble interference.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a xenoestrogen chemical commonly used to manufacture polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resin and might affect various human organs. However, the cellular effects of BPA on the eyes have not been widely investigated. This study aimed to investigate the cellular cytotoxicity by BPA exposure on human retinoblastoma cells. BPA did not show cytotoxic effects, such as apoptosis, alterations to cell viability and cell cycle regulation. Comparative analysis of the transcriptome and proteome profiles were investigated after long-term exposure of Y79 cells to low doses of BPA. Transcriptome analysis using RNA-seq revealed that mRNA expression of the post-transcriptional regulation-associated gene sets was significantly upregulated in the BPA-treated group. Cell cycle regulation-associated gene sets were significantly downregulated by exposure to BPA. Interestingly, RNA-seq analysis at the transcript level indicated that alternative splicing events, particularly retained introns, were noticeably altered by low-dose BPA treatment. Additionally, proteome profiling using MALDI-TOF-MS identified a total of nine differentially expressed proteins. These results suggest that alternative splicing events and altered gene/protein expression patterns are critical phenomena affected by long-term low-dose BPA exposure. This represents a novel marker for the detection of various diseases associated with environmental pollutants such as BPA.

Traditional drug screening models are often unable to faithfully recapitulate human physiology in health and disease, motivating the development of microfluidic organs-on-a-chip (OOC) platforms that can mimic many aspects of human physiology and in the process alleviate many of the discrepancies between preclinical studies and clinical trials outcomes. Linsitinib, a novel anti-cancer drug, showed promising results in pre-clinical models of Ewing Sarcoma (ES), where it suppressed tumor growth. However, a Phase II clinical trial in several European centers with patients showed relapsed and/or refractory ES. We report an integrated, open setting, imaging and sampling accessible, polysulfone-based platform, featuring minimal hydrophobic compound binding. Two bioengineered human tissues – bone ES tumor and heart muscle – were cultured either in isolation or in the integrated platform and subjected to a clinically used linsitinib dosage. The measured anti-tumor efficacy and cardiotoxicity were compared with the results observed in the clinical trial. Only the engineered tumor tissues, and not monolayers, recapitulated the bone microenvironment pathways targeted by linsitinib, and the clinically-relevant differences in drug responses between non-metastatic and metastatic ES tumors. The responses of non-metastatic ES tumor tissues and heart muscle to linsitinib were much closer to those observed in the clinical trial for tissues cultured in an integrated setting than for tissues cultured in isolation. Drug treatment of isolated tissues resulted in significant decreases in tumor viability and cardiac function. Meanwhile, drug treatment in an integrated setting showed poor tumor response and less cardiotoxicity, which matched the results of the clinical trial. Overall, the integration of engineered human tumor and cardiac tissues in the integrated platform improved the predictive accuracy for both the direct and off-target effects of linsitinib. The proposed approach could be readily extended to other drugs and tissue systems.

Microfluidic devices are powerful tools for biological, biomedical, chemical, and pharmaceutical applications, but their commercialization is still hindered by the lack of methods to automatically control fluid flow in a low-cost, simple, accurate, and safe manner. This study introduces a disposable smart microfluidic platform (DIS-μChip), which can be fully automated and utilized for a wide range of applications. On-chip microfluidic flow sensors are integrated with the platform and placed at all inlet and outlet channels, thereby allowing the DIS-μChip to be fully automated with a pressure control system. Furthermore, these confer a self-diagnosis function through monitoring of all the input and output flow rates. The DIS-μChip consists of a disposable polymeric microchannel superstrate and a permanent multifunctional substrate, which could be assembled and disassembled using only vacuum pressure. The superstrate was fabricated by combining a polydimethylsiloxane microchannel structure with a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) thin film. The substrate contains sense electrodes for the on-chip-integrated flow sensors and functional components for creating an energy field, which can penetrate the PET thin film and manipulate the fluid in the microchannels of the superstrate. Owing to the film-chip technique, the superstrate was disposable and could prevent biological cross-contamination, which cannot be realized with conventional flow sensors. The usefulness of the DIS-μChip was demonstrated by using it to isolate circulating tumor cells from the blood of patients with pancreatic cancer and to obtain cancer-specific genetic information from them with droplet digital PCR.

With the aim of developing environment-friendly agricultural products with antifungal activity against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, a causative agent of Fusarium wilt, active substances from Boesenbergia pulcherrima roots were isolated. The hexane fraction from B. pulcherrima root extract was analyzed by GC/MS. The main peaks were estimated and identified to be methyl eugenol, methyl isoeugenol, elemicin, α-asarone, and 1,2-dimethoxy-4-(2-methoxyethenyl)benzene based on the Wiley library and by comparing retention times and mass spectra with their corresponding standards using GC/MS. For the identification of the compound in peak D that was estimated to be 1,2,4-trimethoxy-5-vinylbenzene, for which no reference standard was available, the hexane fraction was processed by column chromatography before NMR analysis. The result confirmed the compound to be 1,2,4-trimethoxy-5-vinylbenzene. Almost all compounds showed antifungal activity against F. oxysporum based on bioassays, and α-asarone had the highest activity. Therefore, B. pulcherrima root extract can be a potential source of environment-friendly agricultural products with antifungal activity against F. oxysporum.

The growth of the counterfeit and illicit drugs market is attributable in part to phosphodiesterase type–5 inhibitor (PDE–5is) medications for erectile dysfunction (ED). PDE–5is and their analogues are being increasingly supplied as counterfeit and illicit drugs marketed to enhance sexual performance. Herein, we screened and confirmed a total of 181 such counterfeit and illicit drugs used to date to enhance sexual performance by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Out of 181 samples, PDE–5is and their analogues were detected in 156 samples, with 49.4% containing two or more components in a single sample. Sildenafil, tadalafil, and miscellaneous group were detected a rates of 64.1%, 34.4%, and 1.5% times and concentrations of 0.04–496 mg/g, 0.02–147 mg/g, and 0.54–16.4 mg/g, respectively with multiple compound groups also detected in single samples. Overdosing on these drugs can lead to adverse effects, the toxicities of combined administrations have not been researched, and administering multiple components in a single sample can be fatal. We recommend that counterfeit and illicit drugs for enhancing sexual performance be continuously controlled and supervised for the protection of public health, and more studies into toxicity and side effects are required.

To investigate the effect of bipyridine ligand substituents on the emission properties of Ir(III) compounds, four homoleptic iridium(III) compounds, specifically, mer -Ir( Mepypy ) 3 ( 1 ), mer -Ir( Me 2 pypy ) 3 ( 2 ), fac -Ir( OMe 2 pypy ) 3 ( 3 ) and Ir( OMe 2 Bupypy ) 3 (4), where Mepypy = 2'-methyl-2,3'-bipyridine, Me 2 pypy = 2′,6'-dimethyl-2,3'-bipyridine, OMe 2 pypy = 2′,6'-dimethoxy-2,3'-bipyridine and OMe 2 Bupypy = 2′,6'-dimethoxy-4- tert -butyl-2,3'-bipyridine, were prepared via a one-pot reaction of the corresponding methyl- or methoxy-substituted ligand with Ir[(COD)]BF 4 as the starting material. Under the same reaction conditions, the major isolated products differed depending on the substituent used. The methyl substituents resulted in Ir(III) compounds with a meridional geometry, while methoxy-substituted Ir(III) compounds with a facial geometry were isolated in high yields when the methoxy substituent was used. Compounds 1 and 2 emit a green phosphorescence (Φ PL = 0.3) with a λ max = 459–463 nm, while 3 and 4 show a bright, sky-blue emission (Φ PL = 0.5). The dimethoxy-substituted bipyridine ligand was advantageous in terms of yield, thermal stability and quantum efficiency, and its iridium compound is a good candidate for triplet emitters in phosphorescence organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs).

Iridium(III) complexes based on 2,3′-bi­pyridine ligands are known to exhibit strong emission from blue to green that makes them of inter­est for organic light-emitting diodes and organic lighting uses. In the title compound, the IrIII ion adopts a distorted octa­hedral coordination environment defined by three C,N-chelating 2,6-di­fluoro-3-[5-(2-fluoro­phen­yl)pyridin-2-yl]pyridin-4-yl ligands in a meridional manner. In the crystal, inter­molecular C—H⋯F and C—H⋯π hydrogen bonds, as well as inter­molecular C—F⋯π inter­actions, are present, leading to a two-dimensional network., The asymmetric unit of the title compound, [Ir(C17H11F2N2)3]·0.5CH3(CH2)4CH3·0.5CH2Cl2, comprises one IrIII atom, three 2,6-di­fluoro-3-[5-(2-fluoro­phen­yl)pyridin-2-yl]pyridin-4-yl ligands and half each of an n-hexane and a di­chloro­methane solvent mol­ecule located about crystallographic inversion centres. The IrIII atom displays a distorted octa­hedral coordination geometry, having three C,N-chelating 2,6-di­fluoro-3-[5-(2-fluoro­phen­yl)pyridin-2-yl]pyridin-4-yl ligands arranged in a meridional manner. The IrIII ion lies almost in the equatorial plane [deviation = 0.0069 (15) Å]. The average distance [2.041 (3) Å] of Ir—C bonds is slightly shorter than that [2.076 (3) Å] of Ir—N bonds. A variety of intra- and inter­molecular C—H⋯F and C—H⋯π hydrogen bonds, as well as inter­molecular C—F⋯π inter­actions, contribute to the stabilization of the mol­ecular and crystal structures, and result in the formation of a two-dimensional network parallel to the ab plane. No inter­actions between n-hexane solvent mol­ecules and the other components in the title compound are observed.

A facile, one-pot synthetic method to prepare alkoxo-functionalized homoleptic cyclometalated Ir (III) compounds with facial geometry has been developed. The reaction of Ir(COD) 2 BF 4 with two bipyridine ligands, 2′,6′-dimethoxy-4-methyl-2,3′-bipyridine and 2′,6′,4-trimethoxy-2,3′-bipyridine, afforded the homoleptic Ir (III) compounds Ir[(RO) 2 (Me)pypy] 3 ( 1 ) and Ir[(RO) 3 pypy] 3 ( 2 ) in good yields. The reaction conditions highly selectively produced the aforementioned Ir (III) compounds with facial geometry. The decomposition temperatures of 1 and 2 were 387 °C and 368 °C, respectively. Both compounds exhibited intense blue phosphorescence ( λ max = 452–458 nm) with excellent quantum efficiencies (Φ PL = 0.45–0.52). Phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs) that used these compounds as the dopant material and 9-(3-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)phenyl)-9H-carbazol-3-yl)diphenylphosphine oxide as the host material have been fabricated. The electroluminescent device created using compound 1 at a doping level of 5 wt% exhibited the best performance, with an external quantum efficiency of 15.7–15.5% at a brightness of 10–100 cd/m 2 and color coordinates of (0.16, 0.28) at 100 cd/m 2 .

In this study, effluent water was produced through Submerged Membrane Bio-Reactor (SMBR) process, which is a simple system and decomposes organic matter contained in wastewater with biological treatment process and performs solid-liquid separation, Especially, ozone oxidation treatment process is applied to effluent water containing fluorescent whitening agent, which is a trace pollutant which is not removed by biological treatment, and influences the quality of reused water. The concentration of COD in the SMBR was 449.3 mg/ℓ-COD, and the concentration of permeate water was 100.3 mg/ℓ-COD. The removal efficiency was about 70.1%. The amount of ozone re- quired for the removal of the fluorescent whitening agent in the permeated water in SMBR was 6.67 g-O3/min, and the amount of ozone required to remove COD relative to the permeate water was calculated to remove 0.997 mg-COD for 1 mg of O3.

In this study, ozone oxidation experiment was carried out for the removal of fluorescent whitening agent which is widely used in textile dyeing and paper industry. The stilbene fluorescent whitening agent has been industrialized since the earliest, and the amount of current production is the highest. Due to the characteristics of the fluorescent whitening agent that cannot be removed by conventional wastewater treatment methods, the fluorescent whitening agent in wastewater treatment has difficulty in using as recycled water in the process. Pre-treatment ozone oxidation experiment was conducted prior to the introduction of Membrane Bio Reactor (MBR) treatment process by converting biodegradable materials into biodegradable materials. The removal efficiencies of fluorescent whitening agents, a diaminostilbene disulfonic acid derivative by ozone oxidation were evaluated by UV254 Scan, COD, T-N and color using a synthetic wastewater sample (COD=433.0 mg/ℓ) and paper and paper mill wastewater (COD=157.2 mg/ℓ).

We describe an assembly-disposable microfluidic device based on a silicone-coated release polymer thin film. It consists of a disposable polymeric superstrate and a reusable functional substrate and they are assembled simply using vacuum pressure. The disposable polymeric superstrate is manufactured by bonding a silicone-coated release polymer thin film and a microstructured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) replica, containing only a simple structured microchannel. The reusable functional substrate generates an intricate energy field that can penetrate the micrometer-thick polymer film into the microchannel and control microfluids. This is the first report to introduce a silicone-coated release polyethylene terephthalate (PET) thin film as a bonding layer on a microstructured PDMS replica. The bonding strength was ∼600 kPa, which is the strongest among bonding methods of PDMS and PET polymer. Additionally, accelerated tests for bond stability and leakage demonstrated that the silicone-coated release PET film can form a very robust bond with PDMS. To demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed assembly-disposable microfluidic device, a lateral magnetophoretic microseparator was developed in an assembly-disposable microfluidic device format and was evaluated for isolating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from patients with breast cancer.

There are contradictory reports in the literature regarding the anti-bacterial activity of graphene, graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). This controversy is mostly due to variations in key parameters of the reported experiments, like: type of substrate, form of graphene, number of layers, type of solvent and most importantly, type of bacteria. Here, we present experimental data related to bacterial response to GO and rGO integrated in solid agar-based nutrient plates—a standard set-up for bacterial growth that is widely used by microbiologists. Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains were used for testing bacterial growth. We observed that plate-integrated rGO showed strong anti-bacterial activity against both bacterial species. By contrast, plate-integrated GO was harmless to both bacteria. These results reinforce the notion that the response of bacteria depends critically on the type of graphene material used and can vary dramatically from one bacterial strain to another, depending on bacterial physiology.

Four blue phosphorescent complexes with the general formula (4-R-dfpypy)2Ir(LˆX), where 4-R-dfpypy = 4-alkyl-2ʹ,6ʹ-difluoro-2,3ʹ-bipyridine and LˆX = picolinate or dipivaloylmethanate, were synthesized, and their photoluminescent properties were systematically investigated. All complexes show bright deep-blue phosphorescence emissions with λmax = 440–450 nm and quantum efficiencies of 0.25–0.78 in the fluid state. The emission bands of compounds 1–4 are slightly red shifted by 5–10 nm relative to the homoleptic congener, Ir(dfpypy)3. Electroluminescent (EL) devices were fabricated using compound 2 as a dopant, 1,3-bis(N-carbazolyl)benzene (mCP) as the host, and TSPO1 (diphenylphosphineoxide-4-(triphenylsilyl)phenyl) as the electron transporting/exciton blocking layer. These EL devices show a deep-blue color (CIE: x, y = 0.14, 0.17) with high efficiencies. The EL device of compound 2 at a doping level of 5 wt% has the best performance with an EQE of 14.6% at a brightness of 100 cd/m2 and a current efficiency of 18.3 cd/A.

This paper presents a microfluidic chip capable of isolating thermally sensitive protein-binding aptamer candidates. The chip makes use of bead-immobilized target molecules and DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) sequences to enable a simplified chip design, in which affinity selection and PCR (polymerase chain reaction) amplification of target-binding sequences occur in temperature-controlled microchambers. Using pressure-driven flow, buffer containing single-stranded DNA molecules with randomized sequences is cycled through a series of affinity selection and PCR amplification steps on microbeads. Successive introduction of the sample to each chamber effects a process of competition whereby DNA strands with weak binding strength to target molecules are rejected in favor of strongly binding sequences. Using bead-based PCR, the amplification step was miniaturized and integrated with affinity selection, resulting in significant reductions in process time and reagent use. As a demonstration, temperature-dependent selection and amplification of single-stranded oligonucleotides that bind to human Immuno-globulin E (IgE) was performed in 4 h, a 20-fold reduction in process time as compared to conventional methods that would require approximately a week. Fluorescent binding assays then demonstrated that the desired temperature specificity was imparted to the aptamer candidates within just one round of selection, and within two rounds the aptamer candidates exhibited enhanced affinity toward IgE.

In this study, the characteristics of nickel thin film deposited by remote plasma atomic layer deposition (RPALD) on p-type Si substrate and formation of nickel silicide using rapid thermal annealing were determined. Bis(1,4-di-isopropyl-1,3-diazabutadienyl)nickel, Ni(iPr-DAD)2, was used as a Ni precursor and ammonia plasma was used as a reactant. This was the first attempt to deposit Ni thin film using Ni(iPr-DAD)2 as a precursor for the ALD process. The RPALD Ni film was deposited with a growth rate of around 2.2{\AA}/cycle at 250 {\deg}C and showed significant low resistivity of 33 {\mu}{\Omega}cm with a total impurity concentration of around 10 at. %.The impurities of the thin film, carbon and nitrogen, were existent by the forms of C-C and C-N in a bonding state. The impurities removal tendency was investigated by comparing of experimental conditions, namely process temperature and pressure. Nitrogen impurity was removed by thermal desorption during each ALD cycle and carbon impurity was reduced by the optimizing of the process pressure which is directly related with a mean free path of NH3 plasma. After Ni deposition, nickel silicide was formed by RTA in a vacuum ambient for 1 minute. A nickel silicide layer from ALD Ni and PVD Ni was compared at the annealing temperature from 500 to 900 {\deg}C. NiSi from ALD Ni showed better thermal stability due to the contribution of small amounts of carbon and nitrogen in the asdeposited Ni thin film. Degradation of the silicide layer was effectively suppressed with a use of ALD Ni., Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures

Various dialkyl azodicarboxylates were investigated for the dehydrogenation of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinolines to quinolines. The dehydrogenation rates varied according to the electronic and steric nature of the used dialkyl azodicarboxylates. Among solvents screened with diethyl azodicarboxylate, chloroform exhibited superior results to others. A variety of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinolines underwent the present dehydrogenation to produce the corresponding quinolines. Diethyl hydrazodicarboxylate, which is a reduced species of diethyl azodicarboxylate, was easily separated for recycle.

Blue phosphorescent (dfpypy)2Ir(mppy), where dfpypy = 2',6'-difluoro-2,3'-bipyridine and mppy = 5-methyl2-phenylpyridine, has been synthesized by newly developed effective method and its solid state structure and photoluminescent properties are investigated. The glass-transition and decomposition temperature of the compound appear at 160 o C and 360 o C, respectively. In a crystal packing structure, there are two kinds of intermolecular interactions such as hydrogen bonding (C-HF) and edge-to-face C-Hπ(py) interaction. This compound emits bright blue phosphorescence with λmax = 472 nm and quantum efficiencies of 0.23 and 0.32 in fluid and the solid state. The emission band of the compound is red-shifted by 40 nm relative to homoleptic congener, Ir(dfpypy)3. The ancillary ligand in (dfpypy)2Ir(mppy) has been found to significantly destabilize HOMO energy, compared to Ir(dfpypy)3, (dfpypy)2Ir(acac) and (dfpypy)2Ir(dpm), without significantly changing LUMO energy.

We developed an epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM)-based positive method and CD45/CD66b-based negative method for isolating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) by lateral magnetophoresis. The CTC recovery rate, white blood cell depletion rate, and purity of CTCs isolated using the positive and negative methods were analyzed using blood samples spiked with cancer cells with different expression levels of EpCAM. The aim was to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the positive and negative isolation methods for CTC-based diagnostics, prognostics, and therapeutics for cancer. The EpCAM-based positive method yielded CTCs of high purity, while the CD45/CD66b-based negative method yielded a large number of CTCs. In conclusion, the positive method shows promise for detecting somatic oncogenic mutations and the negative method shows promise for discovery of cellular and transcriptomic biomarkers of cancer.

Two blue phosphorescent Ir(III) compounds with a main fluorine-free bipyridine ligand have been synthesized. These molecules have the general formula of Ir(C⁁N)2(L⁁X), where C⁁N = 2′,6′-dimethoxy-4-methyl-2,3′-bipyridine [(MeO)2pypy] and L⁁X = ancillary ligand, such as acetylacetonate (acac) (1) or 2-picolinate (pic) (2). Thermal, photophysical, and electrochemical properties of 1 and 2 have also been investigated systematically. The two compounds show high thermal stability with a decomposition temperature of ∼350 °C due to strong and varied intermolecular interactions. A sky-blue emission with moderate phosphorescence quantum efficiency (ΦPL = 0.49–0.54) is observed in the spectral region of 460–470 nm for all compounds, which is attributed to both metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) and ligand-centered (LC) transition. Compounds 1 and 2 show only ∼10 nm red-shifted emission in the fluid state, compared to similar fluorinated iridium counterparts. Multi-layered electroluminescent devices using compounds 1 and 2 as the dopant and 9-(3-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)phenyl)-9H-carbazol-3-yl)diphenylphosphine oxide as a host material have been fabricated. The electroluminescent device of 2 at a doping level of 5 wt% shows the best performance with an external quantum efficiency of 15.3% and the color coordinate of (0.16, 0.28) at a brightness of 100 cd m−2.

This paper describes the development and validation of simultaneous analytical method for 38 compounds, sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil and their analogues in illicit erectile dysfunction (ED) products by the liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization-tandem mass method (LC–ESI-MS/MS). Chromatographic separation was performed on a C18 reversed-phase column using a gradient of solvent A: aqueous 2 mM ammonium formate solution and solvent B: acetonitrile (ACN). All components were monitored under time-scheduled multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The limits of detection (LOD) ranged from 0.004 ng/ml to 0.455 ng/ml and the limits of quantification (LOQ) ranged from 0.012 ng/ml to 1.5 ng/ml. Calibration curves were linear with correlation coefficients over 0.9991. Mean recoveries ranged from 73.6% to 111.3%, and relative standard deviation (RSD) was less than 10%. The intra- and inter-day precision ranged from 0.2% to 16.3% and from 0.2% to 17.0%, respectively. The proposed method was applied to investigate the 52 illicit ED products.

This paper presents a microchip that isolates and enriches target-binding single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) from a randomized DNA mixture using a combination of solid-phase extraction and electrophoresis. Strands of ssDNA in a randomized mixture are captured via specific binding onto target-functionalized microbeads in a microchamber. The strands are further separated from impurities and enriched on-chip via electrophoresis. The microchip consists of two microchambers that are connected by a channel filled with agarose gel. In the isolation chamber, beads functionalized with human immunoglobulin E (IgE) are retained by a weir structure. An integrated heater elevates the temperature in the chamber to elute desired ssDNA from the beads, and electrophoretic transport of the DNA through the gel to the second chamber is accomplished by applying an electric potential difference between the two chambers. Experimental results show that ssDNA expressing binding affinity to IgE was captured and enriched from a sample of ssDNA with random sequences, demonstrating the potential of the microchip to enhance the sensitivity of ssDNA detection methods in dilute and complex biological samples.

Organic sensitizers have been recently improved and reached high efficiencies in the range of 8-9% in the performance of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). In particular, carbazole based dyes (MK dyes) and bis-fluorenylamine based dyes (JK dyes) have shown to have high efficiencies and long-term stability in DSSCs preformance. Koumura et al. has recently reported that the existence of long alkyl chains on the oligothiophene linkage of MK dye molecules can increase the electron lifetime and the open-circuit voltage by suppressing the aggregation of the dyes and electron recombination. However, for MK dyes, there is a problem to be addressed in terms of relatively low short-circuit current density compared with other efficient organic dyes. The low short-circuit current density (10-14 mAcm) in MK dyes based DSSCs is originated from weak light harvesting ability in the long wavelength region (650-750 nm) due to the weak donor ability of carbazole. While bis-fluorenylamine based JK dyes have shown to have high short-circuit current density (> 14 mAcm) in DSSCs performance. This high current density can be due to the strong donor ability of amine and absorption in the long wavelength region compared to MK dyes. Therefore, we envision that the combination of the oligothiophene linkage with long alkyl chains and carbazolefunctionalized amine donor in organic dyes will be highly desirable. Moreover, there is no report on the DSSC performance base on this kind of dyes until now. These facts prompted us to develop new organic dyes containing carbazole and thiophene linker with long alkyl chain. Herein, we describe the results of our investigation on the preparation

Recently, organic sensitizers-based dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted much attention due to their several advantages such as low cost preparation, structural diversity, and high power conversion efficiency (η: 8-9%). Organic sensitizers consist typically of three segments of donor, π-linker, and acceptor (D-π-A), which are shown to have efficient intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) characteristics. Particularly, organic sensitizers bearing dithienosilole (DTS) as a π-linker have shown to have high efficiencies (η: 7.6-10.5%) in DSSCs performance due to its unique photophysical properties (σ-π conjugation) and coplanarity. In addition, the efficiency in DSSC performance is a quite sensitive depending on the nature of substituents at 3position of DTS ring. For examples, the bulky substitution on silicon atom of DTS ring may reduce the π-π stacking interactions of dyes and may be beneficial to high electron injection yield and the power conversion efficiency. These facts prompted us to develop new organic dyes containing DTS π-linker and investigate the effect of bulky substituent at 3-position of DTS ring in DSSC performance. Herein, we report the results of our investigation on the preparation, photophysical properties, electrochemical behavior, and DSSC performance of two novel DTS dyes.

Several fluorene or carbazole-based dithienosiloles (DTSs) have been synthesized and their thermal, photophysical, and electrochemical properties have been systematically investigated. These compounds show high thermal stability with glass transition temperature above 110 °C as well as decomposition temperatures at ∼400 °C. Intense green emission is observed in the spectral region of 500–510 nm for all compounds (ΦPL=0.31–0.80), that is, attributed to both the 5,5′-substituents of the DTS ring and DTS-based π–π∗ transition. Based on the emission spectra at 77 K, the triplet energy for these compounds was calculated to be within 2.1–2.2 eV, indicating that they may be used as host materials for red emitters in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). All compounds exhibit reversible oxidation and possess low-lying LUMO energies, owing to the conjugated fluorene/carbazole substituents on the DTS. This along with the high thermal/electrochemical stabilities and high fluorescent quantum efficiencies makes the new DTSs compounds promising candidates for use in OLEDs as emitters, host and electron-transporting materials.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an orphan neurodegenerative disease currently without a cure. The arylsulfanyl pyrazolone (ASP) scaffold was one of the active scaffolds identified in a cell-based high throughput screening assay targeting mutant Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) induced toxicity and aggregation as a marker for ALS. The initial ASP hit compounds were potent and had favorable ADME properties but had poor microsomal and plasma stability. Here, we identify the microsomal metabolite and describe synthesized analogues of these ASP compounds to address the rapid metabolism. Both in vitro potency and pharmacological properties of the ASP scaffold have been dramatically improved via chemical modification to the corresponding sulfone and ether derivatives. One of the ether analogues (13), with superior potency and in vitro pharmacokinetic properties, was tested in vivo for its pharmacokinetic profile, brain penetration, and efficacy in an ALS mouse model. The analogue showed sustained blood and brain levels in vivo and significant activity in the mouse model of ALS, thus validating the new aryloxanyl pyrazolone scaffold as an important novel therapeutic lead for the treatment of this neurodegenerative disorder.

A methanol-tolerant cathode electrode composed of heterogeneous composites was developed to overcome CO poisoning and large O2 mass transfer overpotential generated by methanol crossover as well as the limitation of a single alloy catalyst with methanol-tolerance in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Two additives, PtRu black and PTFE particles, were well distributed in the Pt/C matrix of the cathode electrode, and had significant effects upon open circuit voltage (OCV) and performance. A small amount of PtRu black protected the Pt surface during the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) by decreasing CO poisoning. In addition, hydrophobic PTFE particles reduced the O2 mass transfer overpotential induced by water and permeated methanol in the cathode. Despite only 0.5 mg cm−2 of metal catalysts in the cathode, the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with 3 M methanol showed high performance (0.117 W cm−2), which was larger than that of the traditional MEA (0.067 W cm−2).

E-mail: sjonglee@lgdisplay.comReceived August 5, 2011, Accepted September 14, 2011Key Words : Triazine, Host, Red phosphorescence, OLEDsOrganic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using organicfluorescent dyes as emitting materials have multilayeredstructure of the following order in general: cathode/holeinjection layer/hole transporting layer/emissive layer/elec-tron-transporting layer/electron-injection layer/anode.

Water management is one of the most important factors for improving the performance in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The micro-porous layers (MPLs) in the membrane-electrode assembly provide proper pores and paths for mass transport, thereby allowing for the control of the water balance. In this study, a copolymer containing hydrophilic functional groups is introduced into the binder materials of the MPL instead of a highly hydrophobic binder. When 10 wt.% of the binder is incorporated in the MPL on the cathode side, the best performance is exhibited and the ohmic resistance is decreased. Although the charge transfer resistance at low potential is higher than that of the hydrophobic treated MPL, due to the flooding effects, the charge transfer resistance at high potential becomes smaller. This indicates that excess liquid absorption from the catalyst layer to the hydrophilic MPL occurs more strongly than in the case of the hydrophobic MPL. This may bring about an increase in the accessibility of oxygen to the active sites, because the excess liquid near the catalyst agglomerates is expelled as fast as possible. Consequently, the hydrophilicity control in the MPL has a positive effect on the water management in PEMFCs.

The dose-dependent perturbations in urinary metabolite concentrations caused by naproxen toxicity were investigated using 1H NMR spectroscopy coupled with multivariate statistical analysis. Histopathologic evaluation of naproxen-induced acute gastrointestinal damage in rats demonstrated a significant dose-dependent effect. Furthermore, principal component analysis (PCA) of 1H NMR from rat urine revealed a dose-dependent metabolic shift between the vehicle-treated control rats and rats treated with low-dose (10 mg/kg body weight), moderate-dose (50 mg/kg), and high-dose (100 mg/kg) naproxen, coinciding with their gastric damage scores after naproxen administration. The resultant metabolic profiles demonstrate that the naproxen-induced gastric damage exhibited energy metabolism perturbations that elevated their urinary levels of citrate, cis–aconitate, creatine, and creatine phosphate. In addition, naproxen administration decreased choline level and increased betaine level, indicating that it depleted the main protective constituent of the gastric mucosa. Moreover, naproxen stimulated the decomposition of tryptophan into kynurenate, which inhibits fibroblast growth factor-1 and delays ulcer healing. These findings demonstrate that 1H NMR-based urinary metabolic profiling can facilitate noninvasive and rapid diagnosis of drug side effects and is suitable for elucidating possible biological pathways perturbed by drug toxicity.

OBJECTIVE: The underlying cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, remains unknown. However, there is strong evidence that one pathophysiological mechanism, toxic protein misfolding and/or aggregation, may trigger motor neuron dysfunction and loss. Since the clinical and pathological features of sporadic and familial ALS are indistinguishable, all forms of the disease may be better understood and ultimately treated by studying pathogenesis and therapy in models expressing mutant forms of SOD1. METHODS: We developed a cellular model in which cell death depended on the expression of G93A SOD1, a mutant form of superoxide dismutase found in familial ALS patients that produces toxic protein aggregates. This cellular model was optimized for high throughput screening to identify protective compounds from a >50,000-member chemical library. RESULTS: Three novel chemical scaffolds were selected for further study following screen implementation, counter-screening and secondary testing, including studies with purchased analogs. All three scaffolds blocked SOD1 aggregation in high content screening assays and data on the optimization and further characterization of these compounds will be reported separately. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that optimization of these chemicals scaffolds may produce therapeutic candidates for ALS patients.

Fluorophore plays an important role in fluorescent chemosensors since it evolves a detecting signal (fluorescence) upon metal recognition of macrocycles. For this reason, anthracene derivatives with high quantum effi-ciency are mainly used as fluorophore in fluorescence chemo-sensors.

The homoleptic Ir(III) complex, fac-tris{2-(3′-trimethylsilylphenyl)-5-trimethylsilylpyridinato}iridium, has been synthesized and characterized to investigate the effect of the substitution of bulky silyl groups on the photophysical properties and electroluminescence (EL) characteristics of Ir(ppy)3 (ppy = 2-phenylpyridine). The absorption, emission, cyclic voltammetry and electroluminescent performance of the complex have also been evaluated. A power efficiency of 17.3 lm/W at 10 mA/cm2 compared to 11.7 lm/W for Ir(ppy)3 is achieved with the new complex as a dopant in phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). In addition, the complex shows a narrow emission band of a small full width at half-maximum (fwhm, ca. 50 nm) value.

High-density polyethylene (HDPE) hollow fiber membranes were prepared by stretching the melt spun hollow fiber precursors. Slit-shaped pores were successfully developed by cold and hot stretching processes. Annealing before stretching had a great influence on the precursor properties such as orientation, crystallite size and crystallinity. These property changes directly affected the membrane structure, and stretching without annealing failed to make a microporous structure. Take-up speed affected the lamellar thickness and interlamellar amorphous domain size, which in turn determined the pore size. Installation of an air-cooling unit determined the cooling time for crystallization for various take-up speeds. A decrease of cooling time prohibited an increase in orientation, and caused the decrease of crystallite size and crystallinity of the precursor. Take-up speed and annealing conditions were optimized for proper structure formation by stretching.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder for which there is no current therapy preventing cumulative neuronal loss. There is substantial evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and associated caspase activity underlie the neurodegeneration observed. One potential drug therapy is the potent free radical scavenger and antioxidant cystamine, which has demonstrated significant clinical potential in models of neurodegenerative disorders and human neurological disease. This study examined the oral efficacy of cystamine in the MPTP and 6-hydroxydopamine neurotoxin models of PD. The neuroprotective effects of cystamine treatment significantly ameliorated nigral neuronal loss, preserved striatal dopaminergic projections, and improved striatal dopamine and metabolite levels, as compared to MPTP alone. Cystamine normalized striatal 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine levels and ATP concentrations, consistent with reduced oxidative stress and improved mitochondrial function. Cystamine also protected against MPTP-induced mitochondrial loss, as identified by mitochondrial heat shock protein 70 and superoxide dismutase 2, with concomitant reductions in cytochrome c and caspase-3 activities. The neuroprotective value of cystamine was confirmed in the 6-hydroxydopamine model. Together these findings show cystamine's therapeutic benefit to reduce neuronal loss through attenuation of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, providing the rationale for human clinical trials in PD patients.

We present a microfluidic approach to integrated isolation of DNA aptamers via systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). The approach employs a microbead-based protocol for the processes of affinity selection and amplification of target-binding oligonucleotides and an electrophoretic DNA manipulation scheme for the coupling of these processes, which are required to occur in different buffers. This achieves the full microfluidic integration of SELEX, thereby enabling highly efficient isolation of aptamers in drastically reduced times and with minimized consumption of biological material. The approach as such also offers broad target applicability by allowing selection of aptamers with respect to targets that are either surface-immobilized or solution-borne, potentially allowing aptamers to be developed as readily available affinity reagents for a wide range of targets. We demonstrate the utility of this approach on two different procedures, respectively for isolating aptamers against a surface-immobilized protein (immunoglobulin E) and a solution-phase small molecule (bisboronic acid in the presence of glucose). In both cases aptamer candidates were isolated in three rounds of SELEX within a total process time of approximately 10 hours.

Due to their unique photophysical properties, highly fluorescent compounds are currently of great interest for material science applications, such as photo-electronics, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and chemical sensors. In particular, efforts have focused on the improvement of fluorescence quantum yields (ΦF), since the ΦF of emitting materials and the device efficiency in OLEDs are generally related. For this purpose, several approaches have been suggested including the attachment of anthracene and/or pyrene units having high ΦF to the molecular framework, the extension of π-conjugation and the introduction of electronwithdrawing groups (F, CN, etc) as substituents. Among such approaches, the introduction of electron-withdrawing groups to the molecular backbone has received greater attention, because the molecules containing these groups have shown unusual and high fluorescence quantum efficiency through the intermolecular interactions. Such phenomenon is often called aggregation induced emission (AIE). During our ongoing efforts on the development of luminescent materials, we have observed that fluoreneand anthracene-based compounds linked by a perfluorocyclopentene core unit have high fluorescence quantum efficiency as compared to 9,10-diphenylanthracene (DPA). Our interest in the synthesis of highly fluorescent materials containing a perfluorocyclopentene core unit, which can provide binding sites for hydrogen atoms of adjacent molecules via intermolecular interactions, has prompted us to investigate the syntheses and photophysical properties of their derivatives. Here, we report on the syntheses, crystal structure and optical properties of a series of V-shaped molecules containing the linker of an electron-withdrawing moiety. In addition, the effect of electron-withdrawing substituents on fluorescence quantum efficiency has been systematically evaluated at the molecular level. Scheme 1 outlines the synthesis of the series of benzothiophene derivatives. Compound 1 and 2 were prepared by the addition of octafluorocyclopentene to the corresponding lithiated compound, prepared from the reaction of a small excess of n-BuLi and the bromoarene at −78 C. The standard work up and crystallization from CH2Cl2/hexane produces compounds as colorless or pale yellow solids in moderate yields (45-55%). In addition, to evaluate the effect of a perfluorocyclopentene ring on structural features and photoluminescence, we have synthesized an aromatic analogue of compound 3, through Pd-mediated Suzuki coupling. The structures of 1-3 have been characterized by H-NMR, C-NMR and elemental analyses, including Xray diffraction analysis of 2. Yellow crystals of 2 that were suitable for X-ray analysis were obtained by the slow evaporation in CH2Cl2 and hexane. The crystal structures and selected bond lengths and angles of 1 are presented in Figure 1. As shown in the Figure, two benzothiophene groups connected by the hexafluorocyclopentene linker are twisted with respect to each other. Note that the hexafluorocyclopentene linker and one (S1 ring) of two benzothiophene rings are arranged a nearly coplanar manner with a dihedral angle of 5.44, while the other (S2 ring) is highly tilted toward the hexafluorocyclopentene core with a dihedral angle of 71.96. This observation is very uncommon in diarylethene derivatives

In many cases, the fluorescentchemosensors have been made through the combination of areceptor molecule and a fluorophore. Owing to their selec-tive complexation with metal species, macrocyclic ligandsmake them ideal candidates for the receptor molecules.However, the introduction of such cyclic receptors is oftenlimited by high cost and the synthetic complexity. The alter-nate way to avoid such limitations is to develop the acyclicanalogues for the cyclic receptors. Our interest has focusedon the dipodal receptors containing quinoline moietybecause this receptor has shown not only similar behaviorswith cyclic receptors

This study was conducted in order to generate model particles which were similar to particles in diesel emission. Spark discharge was used for carbon agglomerates and hydrocarbon condensation for particles that consist of carbon agglomerates and hydrocarbon. The size of the carbon agglomerates, whose mean size were 30 and 70 nm, ranged between 15 and 200 nm, and the total number concentration of the particles ranged from 3 to 5 × 107#/cm3 as the controllable variables in spark discharge generator changed. The result of the hydrocarbon condensation experiment showed that the final sizes of the particles enlarged by condensation did not depend on the initial sizes, but the maximum condensational growth of carbon agglomerates by dodecane (C12 H26) condensation was 112 times the initial size of 40 nm, while the size of the agglomerates by benzene (C6H6) was 3.25 times its initial size.

A new compound, miroestrol-3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, was isolated from the roots of Pueraria mirifica (white kwao krua). The structure of the compound was established on the basis of NMR, ESI-MS, and IR spectroscopic data.

This paper presents a microfluidic device that integrates the entire process of aptamer selection via bead-based biochemical in which affinity selected target-binding oligomers are electrokinetically transferred for amplification, while the amplification product is transferred back for affinity-selection via pressure-driven fluid flow. This hybrid oligomer manipulation leverages the advantages of both electrokinetic and pressure-driven oligomer manipulation by reducing the amount of flow control elements (e.g. valves) while avoiding exposure of the target to electric field induced, potentially structure altering, environmental conditions (e.g. pH). Efficient manipulation of reagents and reaction products is achieved through bead-based affinity selection and amplification, which, combined with hybrid transfer, allows integration of all steps of the SELEX process on a single chip. The microfluidic device is thus capable of closed-loop, multi-round aptamer enrichment without manual intervention or use of off-chip instruments, as demonstrated by selection of DNA aptamers against the protein IgE with high affinity (K D = 12 nM) in a rapid manner (4 rounds in 10 hours).

The effect of a compatibilizer (poly(ester imide), PEsI) on the biaxial deformation of a thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer (TLCP, poly(ester amide)) in a poly(ether imide) and the properties of biaxially deformed in situ composites were studied. The compatibilizer improved dispersion of the TLCP and the adhesion between TLCP and the matrix. The properties of blown films were affected by the amount of the compatibilizer used. The morphology evidently shows that ca. 0.6 wt% PEsI provides the best morphology when 10 wt% VB phase is included. The mechanical properties, especially in the hoop direction, were significantly improved for the compatibilized films compared to uncompatibilized one. The impact strength of a compatibilized blend film with 0.6 wt% PEsI was almost twice that of an uncompatibilized blend film.