We report the spatiotemporal control of a 3D coculture by combining photocurable and chemically degradable hydrogels for coculture of embryonic stem (ES) cells with HepG2 cells. ES cells were encapsulated in micropatterned photocurable poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels. The cell-laden PEG hydrogels were then encapsulated in calcium-alginate (Ca-Alg) hydrogel containing HepG2 cells. The ES c...

A clear understanding of the mechanical behavior of nanometer thick films on nanostructures, as well as developing versatile approaches to characterize their mechanical properties, are of great importance and may serve as the foundation for understanding and controlling molecular interactions at the interface of nanostructures. Here we report on the synthesis of thin, compressible polyethylene ...

The aims of this project were firstly to develop a protocol for the iterative synthesis of polyethers on a polymeric support, using suitably protected monomers. The synthesis of cyclic ethers by an intramolecular cyclisation/cleavage from the polymeric support, utilising a sulfonyl chloride linker, was also desired. The final aim was to develop a method for reductive amination on a polymeric su...

We have succeeded in dispersing single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) into an aqueous solution of poly(ethylene glycol)-terminated malachite green derivative (PEG-MG) through simple sonication. It was found that UV exposure caused reaggregation of these predispersed SWNTs in the same aqueous medium, as adsorbed PEG-MG photochromic chains could be effectively photocleavaged from the nanotube su...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to improve the drug loading, encapsulation efficiency, and sustained-release properties of supercritical CO(2)-based drug-loaded polymer carriers via a process of suspension-enhanced dispersion by supercritical CO(2) (SpEDS), which is an advanced version of solution-enhanced dispersion by supercritical CO(2) (SEDS). METHODS Methotrexate nanoparticles were ...

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is a non-ionic water soluble polymer that is used as an additive in protein solutions to induce protein crystallization. PEG in dilute solution concentrations and within a molecular weight range, induces an attractive protein-protein interaction. However the strength of this attractive proteinprotein interaction weakens with increasing PEG concentration and molecular w...

Large numbers of viable protoplasts of pea (Pisum sativum) and grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) were efficiently and reproducibly obtained and, for the first time, fused. Different procedures for fusion were compared, based either on electrofusion (750, 1000, 1250 or 1500 V cm(-1)), or on the use of macro or micromethods with a polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000 or PEG 1540), or a glycine/high pH soluti...

Salvia przewalskii Maxim. is an important Asian medicinal plant. The aim of the study was to investigate reaction seeds this species priming and storage temperature. germination, vigour health were determined for untreated osmoprimed diaspores, after harvest 12 months at 4 16°C. primed in polyethylene glycol (PEG) water solution with osmotic potential –0.8 –1.1 MPa. It has been found that osmop...

Amphiphilic polypeptide-containing hybrid dual brush block copolymers with controlled molecular weights and narrow molecular weight distributions were synthesized in one pot via ring-opening metathesis polymerization of sequentially added norbornyl-PEG and N-(2-((trimethylsilyl)amino)ethyl)-5-norbornene-endo-2,3-dicarboximide (M1) followed by ring-opening polymerization of amino acid N-carboxya...

Purified tubulin solutions stabilized and augmented the birefringence (BR) of isolated Chaetopterus spindles. Tubulin was extracted from pig brain tissue in cold PEG buffer (0.1 M piperazine-N-N'-bis[2-ethane sulfonic acid], 1 mM ethylene bis-[oxyethylenenitrilo]tetraacetate, [EGTA], 2.5 mM guanosine triphosphate, [GTP], pH 6.94, at 25 degrees C), and purified by two cycles of a reversible, tem...