Protein micropatterning on bifunctional organic-inorganic sol-gel hybrid materials

Recent Advances in Biomaterial-Based High-Throughput Platforms

High-throughput systems allow screening and analysis of large number of samples simultaneously under same conditions. Over recent years, high-throughput systems have found applications in fields other than drug discovery like bioprocess industries, pollutant detection, material microarrays, etc. With the introduction of materials in such HT platforms, the screening system has been enabled for solid phases apart from conventional solution phase. The use of biomaterials has further facilitated cell-based assays in such platforms. Here, the authors have focused on the recent developments in biomaterial-based platforms including the fabricationusing contact and non-contact methods and utilization of such platforms for discovery of novel biomaterials exploiting interaction of biological entities with surface and bulk properties. Finally, the authors have elaborated on the application of the biomaterial-based high-throughput platforms in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, cancer and stem cell studies. The studies show encouraging applications of biomaterial microarrays. However, success in clinical applicability still seems to be a far off task majorly due to absence of robust characterization and analysis techniques. Extensive focus is required for developing personalized medicine, analytical tools and storage/shelf-life of cell laden microarrays.

Chemically Modified Plastic Tube for High Volume Removal and Collection of Circulating Tumor Cells

In this preliminary effort, we use a commercially available and chemically modified tube to selectively capture circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from the blood stream by immobilizing human anti-EpCAM antibodies on the tube's interior surface. We describe the requisite and critical steps required to modify a tube into a cancer cell-capturing device. Using these simple modifications, we were able to capture or entrap about 85% of cancer cells from suspension and 44% of cancer cells from spiked whole blood. We also found that the percentage of cells captured was dependent on the tube's length and also the number of cancer cells present. It is our strong belief that with the utilization of appropriate tube lengths and procedures, we can ensure capture and removal of nearly the entire CTC population in whole blood. Importantly after a patient’s entire blood volume has circulated through the tube, the tube can then be trypsinized to release the captured live CTCs for further analysis and testing.

Capillary force lithography: the versatility of this facile approach in developing nanoscale applications

Since its inception as a simple, low cost alternative to more complicated lithographic techniques such as electron-beam and dip-pen lithography, capillary force lithography (CFL) has developed into a versatile tool to form sub-100 nm patterns. Utilizing the concept of a polymer melt, structures and devices generated by the technique have been used in applications varying from surfaces regulating cell growth to gas sensing. In this review, we discuss various CFL methodologies which have evolved, their application in both biological and non-biological research, and finally a brief outlook in areas of research where CFL is destined to make an enormous impact in the near future.