The dynamic assembly of microtubules is a key factor in many of their functions in the cell and recent experiments give new insight into this process at the molecular level.

OBJECTIVE To ascertain the efficacy of polymerization of self-etching dental adhesives in different solvent evaporation conditions. MATERIAL AND METHODS Four self-etching adhesive systems were studied. Two of them are classified as mild two-step self-etching adhesives (Clearfil SE Bond, Protect Bond) and the other two are strong one-step systems (Xeno III, ADP-Prompt-L-Pop). The influence of ...

Abundant nonfibrillar oligomeric intermediates are a common feature of amyloid formation, and these oligomers, rather than the final fibers, have been suggested to be the toxic species in some amyloid diseases. Whether such oligomers are critical intermediates for fiber assembly or form in an alternate, potentially separable pathway, however, remains unclear. Here we study the polymerization of...

Contemporary reports by Polish authors on the application of mass spectrometric methods for the elucidation of the subtle molecular structure of biodegradable polymers and their degradation products will be presented. Special emphasis will be given to natural aliphatic (co)polyesters (PHA) and their synthetic analogues, formed through anionic ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of β-substituted β...

Ring-expansion metathesis polymerization (REMP) mediated by recently developed cyclic Ru catalysts has been studied in detail with a focus on the polymer products obtained under varied reaction conditions and catalyst architectures. Depending upon the nature of the catalyst structure, two distinct molecular weight evolutions were observed. Polymerization conducted with catalysts bearing six-car...

Bacterial pilogenesis is a remarkable example of biological non-templated self-assembly where a small number of different building blocks are arranged in a specific order resulting in a macroscopic hair-like fiber containing up to thousands copies of protein subunits. A number of advanced experimental techniques have been used to understand pilus growth. While details such as the conformation o...

Polypyrrole is a material with immensely useful properties suitable for a wide range of electrochemical applications, but its development has been hindered by cumbersome manufacturing processes. Here we show that a simple modification to the standard electrochemical polymerization method produces polypyrrole films of equivalently high conductivity and superior mechanical properties in one-tenth...

We present a template-free method for "polymerizing" nanoparticles into long chains without side branches. A variety of nanoparticles are encapsulated in polystyrene-block-poly(acrylic acid) (PSPAA) shells and then used as monomers for their self-assembly. Spherical PSPAA micelles upon acid treatment are known to assemble into cylindrical micelles. Exploiting this tendency, the core-shell nanop...

Chair of Chemical Materials Science, Department of Chemistry, University of Konstanz, Germany Introduction Poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV) and its derivatives are amongst the most widely studied class of conjugated polymers since the discovery of their electroluminescent properties in 1990. These polymers are studied for applications in numerous photonic devices such as organic solar cells, or...