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Single-cell force spectroscopy reveals rapid, biphasic integrin activation and reinforcement of cell–matrix bonds during the initial steps of fibroblast adhesion.
The influence of matrix stiffness and degradation on neural progenitor cell stemness was investigated in a three-dimensional culture system, highlighting the role of remodelling in enhancing cell-to-cell interaction and ultimately maintaining neural stemness.
Blocking the growth of new blood vessels has been shown to alter fibrosis in livers in a disease stage-specific manner. In vitro models of fibrosis were developed to understand this process, highlighting the role of environmental mechanics.
As the role of biophysical cues in regulating cell behaviour is increasingly understood, more evidence in the field of bioengineering indicates how such signals can affect cells and tissues.
Biomaterials engineered with specific bioactive ligands, tunable mechanical properties and complex architecture have emerged as powerful tools to probe cell sensing and response to physical properties of their material surroundings, and ultimately provide designer approaches to control cell function.
Advances in biomaterials have enabled control over desired cell responses. Here, the authors highlight key analytical and bioprocessing techniques, outlining a framework for incorporating these tools into designing functionally optimal biomaterials.
Although multivalent cation batteries based on magnesium, calcium or aluminium are technologically attractive, the metal anode still represents a challenge. It is now demonstrated that significant quantities of calcium can be plated and stripped at room temperature with low polarization.
Colloidal chiral springs and helices are formed by light inside a nematic liquid crystal suspension, predefining the mesoscopic superstructures self-assembled in such systems.
In situ transmission electron microscopy combined with theory modelling reveals that surface segregation in CuAu solid solution generates misfit dislocations, providing atomistic mechanisms of dislocation nucleation and dynamics at heterointerfaces.
Compositional grading of colloidal quantum dots enables electrically driven amplification of light, bringing electrically driven lasers from these materials very close.
Metallic stents have been widely used in coronary angioplasty. Here, the authors develop a resorbable self-expanding stent from polymeric elastomers with high mechanical strength for coronary applications.
The exchange bias effect in IrMn/FeCo is driven by a phase transition in the IrMn layer at room temperature, and occurs without the typical field-cooling sequence across the antiferromagnet Neel temperature.
An in-plane memory device based on multidomain BiFeO3 thin films is reported. Highly conductive domain walls appear only during the application of a read-out field, a non-destructive process that reduces accumulation of mobile defects on the walls.
Core/shell type-I semiconductor nanocrystals with compositionally graded shell and embedded in a current-focusing device architecture reach population inversion, a condition required for lasing, when excited with direct current.
Highly laminar graphene oxide flakes (10 to 20 μm in diameter) are fabricated. Reducing flake thickness to 10 nm enables water and organic solvent permeation, enabling the flakes to act as a highly effective organic solvent membrane.