1,721,029 research outputs found
Microfluidic device for cell screening and patch-clamp analysis
No full textThe purpose is to realize a Lab-On-Chip based device for cell screening and electrophysiological assay to introduce the Patch-Clamp as a routine clinical test. Patch-Clamping is the gold standard technique to investigate function and regulation of ion channels, specialized transmembrane proteins that play important roles in various physiological and pathological cell processes. The concept of ion channels as therapeutic targets or prognostic biomarkers attracts increasing interest, but the intrinsic limits of both traditional and automated patch-clamp technologies are a critical point for better understanding their roles in many diseases such as Channelopathies, Neurodegenerative diseases and Cancer .
The aim of the project is to develop a polymeric chip, designed for planar patch-clamp, adapting it to pathological cell screening. Preliminary results show the possibility to realize a seal, a tight junction formed between the cell membrane and the planar pore. Starting from one micro/nano-structured master it is possible to produce many polymeric PolyDiMethylSiloxane (PDMS) replicas with well-defined geometry
Realizzazione di Nuova Tecnologia Microfluidica per lo Sviluppo delle Indagini Cellulari Elettrofisiologiche su Chip Polimerico
No full textMicrofluidic polymeric device for improved planar patch-clamp
No full textIon channels are under-exploited membrane protein target class, due to the labour-intensive and low-throughput nature of traditional patch-clamp. Basic and clinical research require much efficiency, higher throughput and procedures simplification. Automatic devices, like the planar array patch-clamp (PAPC) may address these problems.
Our intention is to establish a PAPC based system: Planar-Patch-Clamp-Chip (PPCC) designed, developed and engineered to be accurate, easy to use and innovative to introduce the Patch-Clamp as a routine clinical test. SEM-FIB systems are used to determine the characteristics of the cell-planar pore interface. We are validating the prototype polymeric chips and developing a microfluidic array system
Temperature dependence of rippled corrugations induced on the Rh(1 1 0) surface via ion sputtering
No full textMetal surfaces can be easily nanopatterned via ion sputtering: mounds or ripples can be created depending on the surface symmetry and temperature. However, in many cases these structures are unstable at room temperature and above, due to the adatom fast diffusion. This fact prevents the use of such systems as substrate or nanostamps for a technological implementation. In this paper we present a spot profile analysis low energy electron diffraction (SPA-LEED) study on the nanopatterning of a Rh(1 1 0) single crystal. Like the other (1 1 0) metal surfaces, previously investigated, also Rh(1 1 0) shows for increasing temperatures a transition between different rippled morphologies. The main advantage of this system is its stability at room temperature. From SPA-LEED data we can measure the structural features (average periodicity and local faceting) of the observed rippled structures. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
New insights on the stereodynamics of ethylene adsorption on an oxygen-precovered silver surface
No full textThe smoothing kinetics of Ag(110) studied by thermal energy He atom scattering
No full textThe smoothening process of nanometer-scale ripples grown on the (110) surface of silver is investigated using thermal energy He atom scattering. Morphological equilibration the corrugated surface is followed in real time in the temperature range between 205 and 230 K. The mean ripple wavelength, Lambda, is observed to increase during surface recovery. To take this effect into account the decay time is assumed to scale as Lambda(3). Within this approximation the ripple amplitude is observed to decay linearly with time. The activation energy of the mechanism driving surface relaxation is estimated as (0.46 +/- 0.02) eV. The underlying rate limiting process, i.e. adatom detachment from the open <001> step edges is evidenced. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Developing poly(dimethylsiloxane) planar chips for nano patch-clamp applications
No full textIon channels (i.c.) are transmembrane proteins involved in nearly all physiological processes and in many human diseases.
Nowadays, conventional Patch-Clamp (PC) is the gold technique for both ion channel drug discovery and research. However, i.c. remain an under-exploited target class, because of the PC laborious approach. Trends in i.c. screening technologies have focused on increasing throughput of patch-clamp by planar approaches, i.e. Population PC (PPC) and Nano PC (NPC). We rely on a NPC device based on poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) planar chips because of high processability and low cost of that alternative material
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