Probiotics possess potential therapeutic and preventative effects for various diseases and metabolic disorders. One important limitation for the oral delivery of probiotics is the harsh conditions of the upper gastrointestinal tract (GIT) which challenge bacterial viability and activity. One proposed method to surpass this obstacle is the use of microencapsulation to improve the delivery of bac...

Multiple growth factors can be administered to mimic the natural process of bone healing in bone tissue engineering. We investigated the effects of sequential release of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) from polylactide-poly (ethylene glycol)-polylactide (PELA) microcapsule-based scaffolds on bone regeneration. To improve the double emulsion/sol...

Alginate-poly-L-lysine-alginate (APA) microcapsules continue to be the most widely studied device for the immuno-protection of transplanted therapeutic cells. Producing APA microcapsules having a reproducible and high level of biocompatibility requires an understanding of the mechanisms of the immune response towards the implants. Here, we investigate the adsorption of immunoglobulins (IgG, IgM...

The NANOMA project aims at the development of a drug delivery microrobotic system (consisting of nanoActuators and nanoSensors) for the propulsion and navigation of ferromagnetic microcapsules in the cardiovascular system through the induction of force from magnetic gradients generated by a clinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The main motivation for the NANOMA project is the early diagno...

Herein, we develop a novel integrated strategy for the preparation of theranostic chitosan microcapsules by encapsulating ion liquids (ILs) and Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The as-prepared chitosan/Fe3O4@IL microcapsules exhibit not only significant heating efficacy in vitro under microwave (MW) irradiation but also obvious enhancement of T2-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, besides the excelle...

The aim of this research was to enhance bioethanol production via immobilization and microencapsulation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae CICC 1001 into delignified cellulosic material (DCM), prepared from sawdust and Na alginate. It has been demonstrated that microencapsulation process using Alginate: DCM ratio of (1:1.5) and alginate solution of 2.5% by wt, attained the highest microencapsulation e...

Observation techniques for measuring the vibration of a single microcapsule with a hard plastic shell in an acoustic standing wave field are discussed. First, optical observation of a microcapsule vibration by using a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV), which can observe small capsule vibration amplitudes at high-frequency, was investigated. Capsules of tens of micrometer size were trapped at the a...

Biological quorum sensing refers to the ability of cells to gauge their population density and collectively initiate a new behavior once a critical density is reached. Designing synthetic materials systems that exhibit quorum sensing-like behavior could enable the fabrication of devices with both self-recognition and self-regulating functionality. Herein, we develop models for a colony of synth...

Controlled-release drug delivery systems are capable of treating debilitating diseases, including cancer. Brain cancer, in particular glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is an extremely invasive cancer with a dismal prognosis. The use of drugs capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier has shown modest prolongation in patient survival, but not without unsatisfactory systemic, dose-limiting toxicity...