Highlights

Penicillin, long used in medications, is now being studied as a coating, a novel weapon against bacteria that could protect medical implants and the surgical tools used to insert them. The development could potentially save thousands of lives, as many patients contract infections following surgery.
The innovation was developed by researchers at the […]

Precisely controlled adhesion, and specifically the ability to reversibly control adhesion, is a long term challenge to the scientific community, and of intense interest for biomaterials problems including antifouling and cell adhesion. We have developed self-assembly behavior of a variety of hydrophobin molecules in solution.

Exposure of ePTFE surfaces to bacteria: Photographs of test tubes containing the following specimens in Staphylococcus aureus cultures: ePTFE (1), MA-ePTFE (2), PEG-MA-ePTFE (3), PEN-PEG-MA-ePTFE (4) and PEN-ePTFE (5). Only specimen #4 exhibits clear solution indicating that bacteria growth has been retarded.
N. Aumsuwan, S. Heinhorst, and M.W. Urban, “Antibacterial Surfaces on Expanded Polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE); Penicillin […]

Using Reversible Addition Fragmentation Chain Transfer (RAFT), ABA block copolymers can be synthesized, where the A blocks exhibit a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) and the B blocks are permanently hydrophilic. The polymeric solution will transition from a liquid to a gel as the temperature is increased to physiological conditions, 37°C. These reversible polymeric gels […]

In a human body, phospholipids form all kinds of different membranes and self-arrange into different objects. Some form unstable tubes.
Such tubes in water may serve as templates for making nanotubes which may store drugs or other chemicals, or may suck up other species.
Such templates were used for redox-initiated polymerization to form nanotubes
Using this approach, polymer […]

The nanometer scale polyhedral protein compartments (carboxysomes) found in many bacteria harbor an enzyme (RubisCO) that converts carbon dioxide to sugars, which in turn are used by the cell to synthesize other biomolecules. One of the carboxysome shell proteins (e-carbonic anhydrase) was found to catalyze the dehydration of bicarbonate and to direct the resulting CO […]

Holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystals are fabricated with the illumination of a laser light. The phase separated morphology of H-PDLC films allows the refractive index modulation within the matrix. Due to presence of LC in the polymer, H-PDLC films are switchable by the applied external field which makes them candidates for display, fiber optics, […]