Investigating the Physiological Use of an Organ-on-a-Chip Device through the Design and Fabrication of a micro-Electrical Blood-Brain Barrier (μE-BBB) System

Aging is considered the main risk factor for various neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Aging is associated with an increase in neuroinflammation, which is a significant contributor to cognitive impairment observed in these age-related neurodegenerative diseases. However, studying brain behavior remains a challenge due to the complex nature of isolating brain tissue from an organism. Modeling the brain allows for further study of these neurodegenerative diseases. Organ-on-a- chip (OoC), a system containing engineered or natural tissues grown within microfluidic chips, has emerged as a promising tool for mimicking human physiology in a controlled microenvironment. A healthy blood-brain barrier (BBB) is essential for maintaining brain tissue, while disruption of the BBB results in toxins and immune cells entering the central nervous system. This impairment is associated with neurodegenerative diseases like AD and PD. Here, a brain-on-a-chip system has been created to mimic the human BBB. Results were validated through light microscopic imaging of the triple co-culture of cells associated with the BBB, namely, microglial, endothelial, and astrocyte cells, in the device. The development of this device can be an effective platform for studying neurodegeneration and testing new therapeutics

Mapping Chemical Selection Pathways for Designing Multicomponent Alloys: an informatics framework for materials design

A data driven methodology is developed for tracking the collective influence of the multiple attributes of alloying elements on both thermodynamic and mechanical properties of metal alloys. Cobalt-based superalloys are used as a template to demonstrate the approach. By mapping the high dimensional nature of the systematics of elemental data embedded in the periodic table into the form of a network graph, one can guide targeted first principles calculations that identify the influence of specific elements on phase stability, crystal structure and elastic properties. This provides a fundamentally new means to rapidly identify new stable alloy chemistries with enhanced high temperature properties. The resulting visualization scheme exhibits the grouping and proximity of elements based on their impact on the properties of intermetallic alloys. Unlike the periodic table however, the distance between neighboring elements uncovers relationships in a complex high dimensional information space that would not have been easily seen otherwise. The predictions of the methodology are found to be consistent with reported experimental and theoretical studies. The informatics based methodology presented in this study can be generalized to a framework for data analysis and knowledge discovery that can be applied to many material systems and recreated for different design objectives

Synthesis and structure of a mixed ligand copper(II) compound based on a distorted {CuN2O3} square pyramid

The synthesis, spectra, thermal study and crystal structure of a mixed ligand copper(II) compound viz. [Cu(biq)(acac)(NO3)] 1 (biq = 2,2′-biquinoline, acac = acetylacetonate) are reported. The {CuN2O3} coordination sphere is made up of two oxygen atoms of an unique acac ligand, an oxygen of the nitrate group and one N atom of biq ligand which form the basal plane {CuNO3} of a square pyramid. A second nitrogen atom of the biq ligand occupies the apical position resulting in a distorted square pyramidal {CuN2O3} polyhedron. In the crystal structure, each neutral square pyramidal copper(II) species is linked with two symmetry related molecules with the aid of intermolecular C-H×××O hydrogen bonding interactions. A study of fifteen mixed ligand copper(II) acetylacetonates reveals that in this series of compounds, 1 exhibits maximum deviation of the {CuN2O3} polyhedron from square pyramidal towards trigonal bipyramidal geometry.

Synthesis and structure of a mixed ligand copper(II) compound based on a distorted {CuN2O3} square pyramid

499-505The synthesis, spectra, thermal study and crystal structure of a mixed ligand copper(II) compound viz. [Cu(biq)(acac)(NO3)] 1 (biq = 2,2′-biquinoline, acac = acetylacetonate) are reported. The {CuN2O3} coordination sphere is made up of two oxygen atoms of an unique acac ligand, an oxygen of the nitrate group and one N atom of biq ligand which form the basal plane {CuNO3} of a square pyramid. A second nitrogen atom of the biq ligand occupies the apical position resulting in a distorted square pyramidal {CuN2O3} polyhedron. In the crystal structure, each neutral square pyramidal copper(II) species is linked with two symmetry related molecules with the aid of intermolecular C-H...O hydrogen bonding interactions. A study of fifteen mixed ligand copper(II) acetylacetonates reveals that in this series of compounds, 1 exhibits maximum deviation of the {CuN2O3} polyhedron from square pyramidal towards trigonal bipyramidal geometry

using Multiclass Hierarchical Support Vector

This paper presents an efficient method for recognizing printed Tamil characters exploring the interclass relationship between them. This is accomplishe

The Microfluidic Toolbox for Analyzing Exosome Biomarkers of Aging.

As the fields of aging and neurological disease expand to liquid biopsies, there is a need to identify informative biomarkers for the diagnosis of neurodegeneration and other age-related disorders such as cancers. A means of high-throughput screening of biomolecules relevant to aging can facilitate this discovery in complex biofluids, such as blood. Exosomes, the smallest of extracellular vesicles, are found in many biofluids and, in recent years, have been found to be excellent candidates as liquid biopsy biomarkers due to their participation in intercellular communication and various pathologies such as cancer metastasis. Recently, exosomes have emerged as novel biomarkers for age-related diseases. Hence, the study of exosomes, their protein and genetic cargo can serve as early biomarkers for age-associated pathologies, especially neurodegenerative diseases. However, a disadvantage of exosome studies includes a lack in standardization of isolating, detecting, and profiling exosomes for downstream analysis. In this review, we will address current techniques for high-throughput isolation and detection of exosomes through various microfluidic and biosensing strategies and how they may be adapted for the detection of biomarkers of age-associated disorders

The Microfluidic Toolbox for Analyzing Exosome Biomarkers of Aging

As the fields of aging and neurological disease expand to liquid biopsies, there is a need to identify informative biomarkers for the diagnosis of neurodegeneration and other age-related disorders such as cancers. A means of high-throughput screening of biomolecules relevant to aging can facilitate this discovery in complex biofluids, such as blood. Exosomes, the smallest of extracellular vesicles, are found in many biofluids and, in recent years, have been found to be excellent candidates as liquid biopsy biomarkers due to their participation in intercellular communication and various pathologies such as cancer metastasis. Recently, exosomes have emerged as novel biomarkers for age-related diseases. Hence, the study of exosomes, their protein and genetic cargo can serve as early biomarkers for age-associated pathologies, especially neurodegenerative diseases. However, a disadvantage of exosome studies includes a lack in standardization of isolating, detecting, and profiling exosomes for downstream analysis. In this review, we will address current techniques for high-throughput isolation and detection of exosomes through various microfluidic and biosensing strategies and how they may be adapted for the detection of biomarkers of age-associated disorders