My last post dealing with this project was the first to definitively demonstrate HMM diffusion through pnc-Si. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a difference between the HMM filtrate signal for intact and digested (+RNAse) samples. As a reminder, HMM is a large…
Category: NRG
Deflection of perforated silicon nitride membrane
In order to verify our measurement technique for the determination of Young’s modulus of pnc-Si, I decided to look at a PECVD silicon nitride membrane SiMPore is using for cell culture applications. The membrane window is 1 mm x 1…
Posted in NRG
Membrane deflection revisited
In my initial report on the Young’s modulus of pnc-Si, I used the generalized pressure-displacement equation to fit my experimental data to extract a Young’s modulus of around 100 GPa (Polysilicon is ~150 GPa). Unfortunately, there was quite a bit…
Posted in NRG
Epithelium on transwells(2)
My last post was the first experiment I performed with rat lung epithelial cells on transwells. It seemed like there was vacuolization but it was delayed compared to endothelial cells (and only happened on 1 of 2 pnc-Si transwells). Here,…
Posted in NRG
Lung epithelial cells on transwells(1)
A couple weeks ago when I presented at lab meeting, Angela Glading suggested that I look at epithelial cell vacuolization on transwells. This was in order to determine if vacuole formation was endothelial cell-specific. If I’m remembering correctly, the rationale…
Posted in NRG
HMM Diffusion through pnc-Si Sepcons
Carrie and I have been trying to detect HMM (APOBEC3G) diffusion through Sepcons without much luck. We determined that the dilution factor (~1:30) for diffusion in our 384-well plate format was too high to detect HMM in the basolateral well. …
Posted in NRG
Diffusion through non-porous membranes figure
A couple weeks ago, I presented a potential figure for my paper that didn’t make sense. So, I did a couple more controls and put together this new figure. This is the “diffusion through ‘non-porous’ SC348/cut-off of nonporous membranes” figure. …
Posted in NRG
Contributions to membrane resistance
In the soon to be submitted paper on diffusion models, we list two contributions to membrane resistance. The first is due to the steric and frictional hindrance a molecule encounters as it enters and diffuses through a pore (Renkin, Deen).…
Posted in NRG
PDMS-filled wells don't increase sensitivity for HMM detection
This post is related to the HIV drug screening project that Carrie has been working on. To refresh everyone’s memory, the aim of this project is to use pnc-Si as a filter to separate high molecular mass (HMM) protein-RNA complexes…
Posted in NRG
Annealing free-standing membranes
I first reported the crystallization of free-standing amorphous silicon membranes in this post in January. The last experiment was done inside the susceptor (top and bottom piece). This week, I annealed a set of amorphous 15 nm and 30 nm…
Posted in NRG
