The C-type lectin DC-SIGN expressed on dendritic cells (DCs) facilitates capture and internalization of a plethora of different pathogens. Although it is known that DC-SIGN organizes in nanoclusters at the surface of DCs, the molecular mechanisms responsible for this well defined nanopatterning and role in viral binding remain enigmatic. By combining biochemical and advanced biophysical techniq...

Research is turning toward nanotechnology for solutions to current limitations in biomedical imaging and analytical detection applications. New to fluorescent nanomaterials that could help advance such applications are protein-stabilized gold nanoclusters. They are potential candidates for imaging agents and sensitive fluorescence sensors because of their biocompatibility and intense photolumin...

Uniform clusters of Pt have been deposited on the surface of capping-agent-free CeO2 nanooctahedra and nanorods using electron beam (e-beam) evaporation. The coverage of the Pt nanocluster layer can be controlled by adjusting the e-beam evaporation time. The resulting e-beam evaporated Pt nanocluster layers on the CeO2 surfaces have a clean surface and clean interface between Pt and CeO2. Diffe...

Currently several combination treatments of mTor- and Ras-pathway inhibitors are being tested in cancer therapy. While multiple feedback loops render these central signaling pathways robust, they complicate drug targeting.Here, we describe a novel H-ras specific feedback, which leads to an inadvertent rapalog induced activation of tumorigenicity in Ras transformed cells. We find that rapalogs s...

Nanoclusters are manufactured by various techniques, including organic precursor-based synthetic chemistry, aqueous colloidal processing, low temperature thermalization of organorare-earth clusters, metallo-organic pyrolysis, and laser ablation of different materials. All of these synthesis techniques rely upon cluster growth mechanisms, which are controlled by the chemistry of participating sp...

Predicting the equilibrium ordered structures at internal interfaces, especially in the case of nanometer-scale chemical heterogeneities, is an ongoing challenge in materials science. In this study, we established an ab-initio coarse-grained modeling technique for describing the phase-like behavior of a close-packed stacking-fault-type interface containing solute nanoclusters, which undergo a t...

Photocatalytic degradation of organic compounds requires photoexcited holes with strong oxidative power in the valence band (VB) of semiconductors. Although numerous types of doped semiconductors, such as nitrogen-doped TiO2, have been studied as visible-light-sensitive photocatalysts, the quantum yields of these materials were very low because of the limited oxidation power of holes in the nit...