Biology & Biomedical
Effective biological and biomedical research requires specific control of the cellular microenvironment and biomaterial characteristics. Plasma treatment cleans and activates the surfaces of biomaterials through the introduction of functional groups without affecting the bulk. Increased hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity of material surfaces increase the adhesion, coverage and proliferation of cells or induce the formation of spheroids respectively. In addition, plasma treatment has been shown to improve biocompatibility characteristics for numerous applications. As a result plasma treatments is used extensively for cell seeding, protein adsorption, biomaterial coating and implant surface activation. This page contains brief application summaries and relevant articles concerning the use of plasma treatment in biological and biomedical research.
C. Elegans
Caenorhabditis elegans (C. Elegans) is an invaluable model organism in cell biology due to its simplicity, transparency, genetic tractability, and the conservation of many cellular processes. It has contributed significantly to our understanding of...
Microrobotics
Microrobotics is an emerging technology attractive to the biotechnology industry and environmental sciences because of its versatility and vast potential. While microrobot design and function varies widely, they are defined by their small size and...
Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)
Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), or deep sequencing, provides researchers and clinicians with extensive genetic data with a multitude of applications. By fragmenting genetic materials and performing millions to billions of reads simultaneously,...
3D Printing
3D printing is ubiquitous in modern professional and academic laboratories, where researchers continue to find innovative applications. Its essential function is to rapidly provide complex 3D structures with high precision. The technology is now...
Cryogenic Electron Microscopy (Cryo EM)
Cryogenic Electron Microscopy (Cryo EM) is a technique used to study the structure and function of macromolecules with near atomic resolution. Structural biologists employ Cryo EM to identify and map individual atoms, in the pursuit of understanding...
Single Cell Sequencing
Single cell RNA sequencing (ScRNA-seq) is a powerful tool developed to identify gene expression of individual cells in complex biological tissues. Conventional assays assume homogeneity, averaging gene characteristics across all cells within a...
Immunoassay Development
Immunoassays identify disease biomarkers in patient samples and enable the detection of viruses, cancers and various other pathogens by exploiting the relationship between antibodies and antigens [1]. Widely used diagnostic immunoassays such as...
Fluorescence Microscopy
Plasma cleaning is essential to the preparation of fluorescence microscopy samples. Plasma removes organic contamination and introduces polar groups to glass or quartz slide surfaces. As a result, plasma removes fluorescent impurities that would...
Organ on a Chip
Organ on a chip models, fabricated with plasma treatment, replicate key tissue structure, function and other physiological characteristics to better explore drug delivery, toxicology and disease progression in vitro. In medical research, in vivo...
Titanium Implants
Plasma treatment is used to tailor titanium and titanium alloy surface properties for improved osseointegration in dental and orthopedic implant research. Titanium is a well-known and frequently used implant biomaterial due to its biocompatibility,...
Cell Adhesion
Cell adhesion plays an integral role in cell culture and tissue engineering. In the native environment, cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) bind to the extracellular matrix and neighboring cells to provide structural support and chemical cues vital for...
DNA Combing
DNA Combing, a technique used in the analysis of single molecules of DNA, offers researchers an opportunity to better understand the dynamics of replication, transcription and individual molecule interactions. While advances in DNA sequencing...
Tissue Culture Plastic (Polystyrene)
Inexpensive, disposable and transparent, plasma treated polystyrene, or tissue culture plastic (TCP), is the most extensively used cell culture material, not only because of its aforementioned qualities but because of its biological affinity....
APTES
(3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES), an aminosilane originally developed as an adsorbent for affinity chromatography, has developed into a versatile tool for improving surface chemistry in cell studies and microfluidic device fabrication....
Microfluidic Cell Culture
Microfluidic devices are rapidly becoming a more advantageous cell culture platform than macroscopic culture vessels (dishes, flasks and well-plates) for numerous applications. Two dimensional cell culture benefits from a vast pool of established...
Neuron Morphology & Function
Neuron morphology, proliferation and function are regulated by a complex system of chemical and biophysical cues cumulatively termed the neuronal niche. Researchers endeavoring to model neuron activity, develop functional tissues or test drug...