Composite alginate gels for tunable cellular microenvironment mechanics

Corrigendum: Composite alginate gels for tunable cellular microenvironment mechanics

The mechanics of the cellular microenvironment can be as critical as biochemistry in directing cell behavior. Many commonly utilized materials derived from extra-cellular-matrix create excellent scaffolds for cell growth, however, evaluating the relative mechanical and biochemical effects independently in 3D environments has been difficult in frequently used biopolymer matrices. Here we present...

Tunable composite nanoparticle for plasmonics.

We present a numerical study of the tunability properties of a plasmonic subwavelength particle deposited on a metallic slab. The particle is composed of a metallic part, supporting a localized plasmon mode, separated from the slab by a dielectric spacer. It is shown that the position of the resonance wavelength can be modified over a large spectral range by changing either the spacer thickness...

Alginate-Collagen Fibril Composite Hydrogel

We report on the synthesis and the mechanical characterization of an alginate-collagen fibril composite hydrogel. Native type I collagen fibrils were used to synthesize the fibrous composite hydrogel. We characterized the mechanical properties of the fabricated fibrous hydrogel using tensile testing; rheometry and atomic force microscope (AFM)-based nanoindentation experiments. The results show...

Two-component dendritic gels: easily tunable materials.

This paper reports the tunability of a two-component gel system based on dendritic l-lysine with a focal point carboxylic acid group and aliphatic diamines. The microscopic structure and macroscopic properties of the gel can be modulated by changing the concentration of the components, altering their molecular structures, or tuning their relative molar ratio. In the latter case, there is a comp...

Tunable Composite Membranes for Gas Separations