Programme and The Book of Abstracts / Twentieth Annual Conference YUCOMAT 2018, Herceg Novi, September 3-7, 2018

The First Conference on materials science and engineering, including physics, physical chemistry, condensed matter chemistry, and technology in general, was held in September 1995, in Herceg Novi. An initiative to establish Yugoslav Materials Research Society was born at the conference and, similar to other MR societies in the world, the programme was made and objectives determined. The Yugoslav Materials Research Society (Yu-MRS), a nongovernment and non-profit scientific association, was founded in 1997 to promote multidisciplinary goal-oriented research in materials science and engineering. The main task and objective of the Society has been to encourage creativity in materials research and engineering to reach a harmonic coordination between achievements in this field in our country and analogous activities in the world with an aim to include our country into global international projects. Until 2003, Conferences were held every second year and then they grew into Annual Conferences that were traditionally held in Herceg Novi in September of every year. In 2007 Yu-MRS formed two new MRS: MRS-Serbia (official successor of Yu-MRS) and MRS-Montenegro (in founding). In 2008, MRS – Serbia became a member of FEMS (Federation of European Materials Societies)

Investigating physical factors that regulate morphogenesis and fate of mouse embryonic midline sutures

Stem cells are crucial players during development, homeostasis and tissue regeneration and their interactions with the surrounding microenvironment are key to regulate stem cell fate. The skull's stem cell niches reside in the fibrous joints that connect flat bones of the skull. In the embryo, bone and sutures develop in concert to form a complex, multi-facted structure that requires interaction with multiple differentiating cell types to maintain balance between growth and differentiation. Disruption of this balance drives changes in size and shape of skull bones and can severely impact quality of life. Cranial sutures, often seen as simple extracellular matrix-rich structures bridging the rigid plates of the skull, are major actors in craniofacial morphogenesis of as they harmonize bone growth with expansion of the developing brain and participate in providing osteoblasts during repair. The complexity of the extracellular environment and the important role for sutures in skeletal development makes these niches a compelling structure to investigate how interactions with the surrounding microenvironment can modulate stem cells fate. The key role of sutures in development is highlighted by the numerous severe dysmorphisms arising from failure to maintain suture patency. The ability of the suture to respond to brain growth or trauma and the dysmophisms presented by patients with defective sutures is mediated by both biochemical and mechanical cues but the cell biology of these niches remains elusive, especially during their development. In particular, few studies have shed light on the underlying cellular behaviors behind microenvironmental regulation of cranial suture stem cell fate and what role mechanical inputs play in the establishment of this niche. In my thesis, I addressed gaps in our understanding of suture biology by characterizing the suture stem cell niche microenvironment and exploring how cell-ECM interactions serve as regulators of suture stem cell fate. Making use of various microscopy and analytical techniques I first characterized the composition of the microenvironment in a developing suture niche, such as organization of ECM, cytoskeleton and nuclear morphologies. My work builds on an incomplete transcriptional understanding of suture cell development, such that specific genetic markers are rarely useful for identifying distinct suture cell populations during its morphogenesis. By applying shape description tools to parse suture cells and test whether shape correlates to cell identity, we concluded that suture nuclei are distinct and less spherical than those of other cranial tissues. Using 'global' markers such as nuclear stains, I have also identified physical distinctions between suture nuclei and neighboring tissues, indicating that cell shape is an integral part of midline suture identity and can be used to explore coordination of fate choice and morphogenesis in this enigmatic structure. In addition, I present evidence that supports that maturation of extracellular matrix begins during early stages of suture development. In particular, embryonic midline sutures express high levels of fibrillary collagen, which contributes to the formation of a complex extracellular environment that provides the suture with physical properties distinct from those of developing bones. My work shows the presence of cell-ECM and cell-cell adhesions in the developing midline sutures, as well as a complex actin cytoskeleton that is, in part, mediated by physical stresses resultant from underlying brain expansion. Secondly, I aimed to address how perturbations in ECM composition can affect cell specification. To investigate the importance of ECM maturation in regulating suture cell fate I inhibited the function of lysyl oxidase, a collagen crosslinker, during embryonic development. Disruption of collagen crosslinking altered expression of collagen and ECM receptor encoding genes. In addition, this inhibition induced changes in the shape and size of collagen fibers in the embryonic midline suture and decreased tissue bulk stiffness relative to WT. These abnormal properties of the ECM impact tissue delineation in the cranial mesenchyme through nuclear shape analyses. This might be explained by observed changes in the composition of the nuclear envelop of suture cells as we find altered lamin concentration and localization upon lysyl oxidase inhibition. The work developed during myPhD steps away from the traditional genetic approaches used to study the embryonic suture and provides the first in-depth analysis of the physical properties of the developing midline suture at stages preceding known establishment of the niche. The various methods and analyses applied reveal a complex organization of embryonic suture ECM and its tight relationship with shape and fate in this tissue. This work serves as a foundation for future studies that can explore the mechanisms through which ECM regulates fate and development of the suture niche, and potentially skeletal development more generally

The National Nanotechnology Initiative: Supplement to the President’s 2017 Budget

This Supplement to the President’s Budget is the annual report of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), a partnership of 20 Federal agencies and departments with activities in nanotechnology research and development (R&D), policy, and regulation. Since the inception of the NNI in 2001, participating agencies have invested nearly 24 billion (including the President’s 2017 Budget request) in fundamental and applied nanotechnology R&D; technology transfer; world-class characterization, testing, and fabrication facilities; education and workforce development; and efforts directed at understanding and controlling the environmental, health, and safety (EHS) aspects of nanotechnology. In 2015, Federal agencies invested a total of 1.5 billion in nanotechnology-related activities. The 2017 request calls for a total investment of over $1.4 billion, affirming the important role nanotechnology continues to play in the Administration’s innovation agenda. This report highlights accomplishments over the past year, discusses activities currently underway, and outlines plans for how agencies will work both in dividually and collectively in 2017 to build upon these accomplishments and further advance the goals of the NNI

Mesoporous materials for dental and biotechnological applications, curcumin polymers and enzymatic saccharification of biomass

The nonsurfactant templated sol–gel route has been demonstrated to be a cost effective, green and biofriendly pathway to obtain mesoporous materials with an interconnected network ofwormhole–like pores. It involves the formation of a metal–oxide network around an inert organic molecule (e.g., sugar molecules) which functions as a template and can be later removed bysimple extraction with water or other solvents.This research describes the preparation of mesoporous zirconia and organo–functionalized silica by the acid–catalyzed nonsurfactant templated sol–gel route and also describes the use of sublimation as a method for the template removal. Mesoporous silica nanospheres with tunable particle size were also prepared by modifying the base–catalyzed Stober process with the addition of various sugar molecules as templates. The materials were characterized using TGA, nitrogen adsorption–desorption, SEM, TEM, XRD and FTIR.The application of nonsurfactant templated mesoporous materials in the area of enzyme encapsulation and stabilization is explored in this research. A novel ‘double encapsulation’approach that enables a sol–gel encapsulated protease to retain 60 % of its original activity after 4 weeks in harsh environments, such as high pH buffer and laundry detergent, is demonstrated.The need for aesthetic, as well as durable, dental restorations has led to extensive research in the area of dental composites. This study examines the use of nonsurfactant templated mesoporous materials as fillers in dental composites. Mesoporous materials of irregular morphology prepared by acid–catalyzed sol–gel routes as well as mesoporous silica spheres prepared via base–catalyzed sol–gel reactions were both employed as fillers in experimental dental composites. This research led to the development of novel ‘dental monomertemplated mesoporous materials’, which were also evaluated as fillers in dental composites. Various approaches, such as dense packing, addition of nanosilica and spherical fillers, etc., were employed to fabricate nanocomposites with improved mechanical properties. The composites were evaluated using flexural and compression testing.Curcumin, the ground rhizome of Curcuma longa, a common South Asian herb has attracted much attention due to its chemopreventive and anti–inflammatory properties. This research describes the synthesis of a series of poly [(arylenedioxy)(diorganylsilylene)]s via polycondensation between curcumin and various diorganodichlorosilanes. These novel polymersincorporate the β–diketone unit of curcumin as well as the Si–O bond in the backbone. The polymer structure was characterized by means of 1HNMR, FTIR and elemental analysis, whileGPC results showed high molecular weights. Preliminary cell culture results suggested lack of cytotoxicity, which is important for potential applications, such as implants and tissueengineering scaffold materials. The unique and interesting thermal behavior of these polymers was studied by DSC.The technology of enzymatically degrading biomass into simple sugars, such as glucose, is a critical step towards viable production of bio–based ethanol from non–food related sources.This research demonstrates the use of a biosensor–based diabetic blood glucose monitor as a rapid glucose detector and compares it to time consuming UV assays that are currently employed in research laboratories. Pretreatment of wood shavings with ferric chloride, followed by treatment in cold NaOH/urea solution was found to significantly enhance glucose production upon enzymatic hydrolysis.Finally, accounts of exploratory experiments in the areas of thermally crosslinkable high temperature elastomers and inorganic–organic hybrid materials are provided in the appendixsections of this thesis.Ph.D., Polymer Chemistry -- Drexel University, 200