Most membrane-enveloped viruses depend on host proteins of the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) machinery for their release. HIV-1 is the prototypic ESCRT-dependent virus. The direct interactions between HIV-1 and the early ESCRT factors TSG101 and ALIX have been mapped in detail. However, the full pathway of ESCRT recruitment to HIV-1 budding sites, which culminates wit...

The development of eco-friendly approach for the preparation of monodispersed gold nanoparticles (GNPs) has received much attention for their easy application. Most of the current methods involve known protocols which employ toxic chemicals and hazardous byproducts. This greatly limits their use in biomedical fields, particularly in clinical applications. Recent research has been focused on gre...

The knowledge of three-dimensional structures at atomic resolution of membrane transport proteins has improved considerably our understanding of their physiological roles and pathological implications. However, most structural biology techniques require an optimal candidate within a protein family for structural determination with (a) reasonable production in heterologous hosts and (b) good sta...

BACKGROUND It is well documented that Silver Nanoparticles (SNPs) are potent antimicrobial agents. However, little is known about antimicrobial effects of biologically synthesized SNPs at molecular level. In the present study, efficacy of the green microalgae Chlorella vulgaris in biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles and inhibitory effect of the biosynthesized SNPs on growth and virulence of St...

Novel magnetic-antimicrobial-fluorescent multifunctional hybrid microspheres with well-defined nanostructure were synthesized by the aid of a poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) template. The hybrid microspheres were fully characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and digital fluorescenc...

The synthesis of stable and isolable iridium nanoparticles with an average core size of ∼1.2 ± 0.3 nm was achieved by employing sodium S-dodecylthiosulfate as a ligand precursor during the modified Brust-Schiffrin reaction. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of the isolated Ir nanoparticles revealed a high degree of monodispersity. Further characterizations with 1H NMR, FT-IR, UV-vis spectr...

Many efforts have been devoted towards the fabrication of multifunctional (mesoporous, magnetic and fluorescent) nanocomposites due to their growing applications as adsorbents, catalysts, and biomedical application, etc. Novel, flower-structured multifunctional Fe3O4/YVO4:Eu(3+)@SiO2 microspheres were successfully synthesized through a simple self-assembled process. The as-obtained products wer...

Breakup of droplets at bi-layer bifurcating junction in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannel has been investigated by experiments and numerical simulation. The pressure drop in bi-layer bifurcating channel was investigated and compared with single-layer bifurcating channel. Daughter droplet size variation generated in bi-layer bifurcating microchannel was analyzed. The correlation was propo...

Metallic nanoparticles have diverse applications in biomedicine, as diagnostics, image contrast agents, nanosensors and drug delivery systems. Anisotropic metallic nanoparticles possess potential applications in cell imaging and therapy + diagnostics (theranostics), but controlled synthesis and growth of these anisotropic or branched nanostructures has been challenging and usually require use o...

Electrowetting (EW) is widely used in digital microfluidics for the manipulation of drops sandwiched between two parallel plates. In contrast, demonstrations of closed microfluidic channels enhanced with EW functionality are scarce. Here, we report a simple, low-cost method to construct such microchannels enclosed between two glass plates, each of which comprises electrodes and insulating layer...