Label-free DNA detection plays a crucial role in developing point-of-care biochips. Capacitance detection is a promising technology for label-free detection. However, data published in literature often show evident time drift, large standard deviation, scattered data points, and poor reproducibility. To address these problems, mercapto-hexanol or similar alkanethiols are usually considered as b...

This study developed a digital volume correlation (DVC) algorithm based on fast normalized cross-correlation to measure the 3-dimensional deformation of soft gels, which was further utilized as a force sensor for cell mechanics studies. The developed algorithm was applied to the 3-D volume images of a gel acquired by confocal microscope to measure the deformation of the gel. The gel contained u...

Brainbow is a genetic engineering technique that randomly colorizes cells. Biological samples processed with this technique and imaged with confocal microscopy have distinctive colors for individual cells. Complex cellular structures can then be easily visualized. However, the complexity of the Brainbow technique limits its applications. In practice, most confocal microscopy scans use different...

Pyrene is a common organic luminescent material. To improve the fluorescence properties of pyrene, we have designed a pyrene-2,7-diyl bridged macrocage in which the pyrene moiety is sterically protected by the outside alkyl chains. The macrocage shows intense fluorescence from a monomeric excited state without excimer fluorescence even in saturated solutions, although the parent pyrene shows ex...

Am-Fe-N films have been made by dc magnetron sputtering and heating in-situ in nitrogen atmosphere. It is observed that the anisotropy changes from perpendicular to in-plane by nitrogenation. The Curie temperature is about 380 K. Aspects of structure, hysterisis loops, initial magnetization curves and temperature dependence of coercivity are discussed. SQUID magnetometer was used to measure the...

Most protein purification procedures include an affinity tag fused to either the N or C-terminal end of the protein of interest as well as a procedure for tag removal. Tag removal is not straightforward and especially tag removal from the C-terminal end is a challenge due to the characteristics of enzymes available for this purpose. In the present study, we demonstrate the utility of the divale...

This article presents design and testing of a microfluidic platform for immunoassay. The method is based on sandwiched ELISA, whereby the primary antibody is immobilized on nitrocelluose and, subsequently, magnetic beads are used as a label to detect the analyte. The chip takes approximately 2 h and 15 min to complete the assay. A Hall Effect sensor using 0.35-μm BioMEMS TSMC technology (Taiwan...

The primo vascular system is a novel circulatory system forming a network throughout an animal's body. Primo vessels were recently observed in the fourth ventricle of the brain and in the spinal cord of a rat by using fluorescent nanoparticles. In order to quantify the nanoparticles in the primo vessels, we measured the florescence of the nanoparticles and calibrated the measurements by using a...