Well, maybe that is overstating it. However, PLPs, as we call them, are pretty cool. This massive collaborative effort between Ashley Brown, Sarah Stabenfeldt, Tom Barker, Wilbur Lam, Nina Guzzetta, Alexander Alexeev, and yours truly was recently published online in Nature Materials. I won’t rehash the whole paper here – you should go read it for yourself.Continue reading “platelet-like particles will cure what ails you”
Category Archives: New Papers
catching up
Updates have been challenging with all of the cross-country move activities. However, I finally found a few minutes to at least post on the newest papers from the group. First comes a collaboration with the Fernandez-Nieves group and Urs Gasser at PSI that we published in JCP entitled “Form factor of pNIPAM microgels in overpacked states“. Actually,Continue reading “catching up”
new Accounts article
Shalini and Caroline recently collaborated to write an Accounts of Chemical Research article on “Microgel Mechanics in Biomaterial Design“. The work is a review of some of our efforts in at the microgel/bio interface, with the highlights being depicted in the artwork to the right (drawn by Prof. Lyon in ArtStudio on an iPad). InContinue reading “new Accounts article”
reconfigurable materials
Following up on the last post (December? Wow – sorry for the radio silence – things have been busy), I wanted to bring the special issue of Soft Matter on “Reconfigurable Soft Matter” to everyone’s attention. This issue was masterfully edited by Anna Balazs and Joanna Aizenberg to contain a rich array of approaches to softContinue reading “reconfigurable materials”
another new paper
I guess I should have just waited a few days to include this in the last post. Anyway, the manuscript “Microgel Film Dynamics Modulate Cell Adhesion Behavior” was published on line this week in the journal Soft Matter. This is another collaboration between my group and the Garcia group, with Shalini, Mark, Jeff, and HiroContinue reading “another new paper”
a few new papers
In the last few weeks we have seen three new papers show up online. First, we have “Host response to microgel coatings on neural electrodes implanted in the brain” published in Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A. Stacy Gutowski from the Garcia group did all the heavy lifting here, wherein she implanted neural electrodes inContinue reading “a few new papers”
new issue of polymer chemistry
A new themed issue of Polymer Chemistry came out today, including an article from the group that I have already written about. Note that we also got a little artwork on the back cover, thanks to artist Jesse Larson. Check it out – the issue is well edited and covers a broad range of approachesContinue reading “new issue of polymer chemistry”
some thoughts on the ECM
Just a quick post to note that a new review article from the group, “Colloid-matrix assemblies in regenerative medicine”, appeared online today in Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science. The paper is essentially a short discussion of the extracellular matrix, its properties, and how one might recapitulate its function by using colloidal particles as modifiers.Continue reading “some thoughts on the ECM”
makin’ raspberries
A new paper from the group came out today in ACS Macro Letters entitled “Packed Colloidal Phases Mediate the Synthesis of Raspberry-Structured Microgel Heteroaggregates“. The paper basically describes how you can take advantage of the “self-healing” properties of packed microgel assemblies to decorate other colloidal particles with microgels. Basically, a “hard” particle like a poly(styrene)Continue reading “makin’ raspberries”
two new papers from opposite ends of the group
This is just a quick post describing some new work that is now available online. First up, we have Development of Self-Assembling Mixed Protein Micelles with Temperature-Modulated Avidities that is online at Advanced Healthcare Materials. This is another collaborative effort between my group and Tom Barker’s, with his former student Allyson Soon being the lead author.Continue reading “two new papers from opposite ends of the group”
new issue of Colloid and Polymer Science
A new issue of Colloid and Polymer Science (volume 291, issue 1) hit the newsstands this week, and this issue is noteworthy for its focus on Functional Polymeric Microspheres. The issue was guest-edited by Haruma Kawaguchi and Masayoshi Okubo, and they did a great job of getting people from a wide span of areas to contribute.Continue reading “new issue of Colloid and Polymer Science”
a future in graphic design?
The latest Accounts of Chemical Research is a special issue on Gene Silencing and Delivery. We were fortunate to have been invited to contribute to the volume, while also having the issue adorned with cover art developed by our very own Mike Smith. Click the image for a higher resolution version. We should also thankContinue reading “a future in graphic design?”
delivering siRNA and cleaving cross-links
A couple of new papers from the group have appeared online. Jeff has written up his very nice work on disulfide containing microgels – the manuscript recently appeared online in Macromolecules. In this paper, we demonstrate the ability to synthesize redox-sensitive microgels using a low temperature synthesis approach originally developed in the group by XiaoboContinue reading “delivering siRNA and cleaving cross-links”
proteins in microgels
A new paper from the group just appeared in Macromolecules ASAP. “Tunable Encapsulation of Proteins within Charged Microgels” describes some light scattering studies by Mike Smith wherein he used the Calypso coupled to MALS and dRI detection to study the loading of cytochrome C within pNIPAm-AAc microgels. The take-home message here is that for theContinue reading “proteins in microgels”
A tight sqeeze
A new paper from the group is out today that has arisen out of our collaboration with Henry White at U. of Utah and his student Deric Holden. The basic idea is this: Grant Hendrickson from our group previously observed, using a simple filtration set-up, that microgels could pass through pores that were nearly 10-times smallerContinue reading “A tight sqeeze”