Near-field photochemical and radiation-induced chemical fabrication of nanopatterns of a self-assembled silane monolayer

• Ulrich C. Fischer,
• Carsten Hentschel,
• Florian Fontein,
• Linda Stegemann,
• Christiane Hoeppener,
• Harald Fuchs and
• Stefanie Hoeppener

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1441–1449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.156

• templates are found in catalysis [9], biochemical surface engineering [10], cell adhesion [11], and biomineralization [12]. It has been shown previously that chemically nanostructured surfaces can be used as platforms for the graphoepitaxial growth of block-copolymer nanostructures [13] and to control the

Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii

• Sören B. Gutekunst,
• Carsten Grabosch,
• Alexander Kovalev,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1393–1398, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.152

• cell adhesion area of A. castellanii trophozoites on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates with different Young’s moduli (4 kPa, 29 kPa, and 128 kPa), we find significant differences in cell adhesion area as a function of substrate stiffness. In particular, the cell adhesion area of A. castellanii

• in the human body are the eye and the brain, i.e., very soft environments. Thus, our study provides first hints towards the relevance of mechanical aspects for the pathogenicity of eukaryotic parasites. Keywords: acanthamoeba; cell adhesion; elastic substrates; mechanosensing; silicones

• stiffness plays a decisive role for controlling cell adhesion on soft substrates, but also the specific mechanical anchorage of adhesion molecules [11]. The mechanosensory function of cells is supposed to be closely linked to the mechanisms of active force generation in cells. Analyzing cellular traction

Model systems for studying cell adhesion and biomimetic actin networks

• Dorothea Brüggemann,
• Johannes P. Frohnmayer and
• Joachim P. Spatz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1193–1202, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.131

• 10.3762/bjnano.5.131 Abstract Many cellular processes, such as migration, proliferation, wound healing and tumor progression are based on cell adhesion. Amongst different cell adhesion molecules, the integrin receptors play a very significant role. Over the past decades the function and signalling of

• be incorporated into lipid vesicles, too. We here review the mechanisms of integrin-mediated cell adhesion and recent advances in the field of minimal cells towards synthetic adhesion. We focus on reconstituting integrins into lipid structures for mimicking cell adhesion and on the incorporation of

• actin networks and talin into model cells. Keywords: actin network; cell adhesion; giant unilamellar vesicle; integrin; lipid bilayer; synthetic cell; protein reconstitution; talin; Review Introduction Since Hooke first described a biological cell in 1665 tremendous progress has been made in

Controlling mechanical properties of bio-inspired hydrogels by modulating nano-scale, inter-polymeric junctions

• Seonki Hong,
• Hyukjin Lee and
• Haeshin Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 887–894, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.101

• -immobilization [15], facilitating cell adhesion [16], attenuating in vivo toxicity [17], initiating bio-mineralization [18], graphene nano-composites [19], and bio-inspired adhesives [20][21]. In addition to the interface science and engineering, methods to prepare bulk materials such as poly(ethylene glycol

Site-selective growth of surface-anchored metal-organic frameworks on self-assembled monolayer patterns prepared by AFM nanografting

• Tatjana Ladnorg,
• Alexander Welle,
• Stefan Heißler,
• Christof Wöll and
• Hartmut Gliemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 638–648, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.71

• studies. It is known that cell adhesion depends strongly on both the chemical functionalization of the surface as well as on the distribution of the chemical functionalities [31][32]. In this work we demonstrate the successful growth of micrometer sized HKUST-1 structures on patterns inside thiolate-based

Polymer blend lithography: A versatile method to fabricate nanopatterned self-assembled monolayers

• Cheng Huang,
• Markus Moosmann,
• Jiehong Jin,
• Tobias Heiler,
• Stefan Walheim and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 620–628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.71

• , partly because of their interesting properties and partly because of interesting perspectives for potential applications as functional, ultrathin coatings [2][3][4][5]. Due to their functionality SAMs play an important role for the construction of sensors [6][7] or, e.g., the controlling of cell adhesion

• platform for constructive lithography [1], cell adhesion studies, or the study of other template-induced phenomena. The FDTS-SAM could be replaced by other silanes, such as octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) or polyethylene glycol (PEG) silane, for desired applications [63][64]. The bare silicon surface at the

• applications [65][66][67]. Silane-based follow-up reactions can be used to produce silane multilayers [68], which only grow in the predefined areas. This type of SAM template has also potential applications for the selective growth of titanium oxide or graphene on surfaces [69][70], or in cell-adhesion studies

Fabrication of multi-parametric platforms based on nanocone arrays for determination of cellular response

• Lindarti Purwaningsih,
• Tobias Schoen,
• Tobias Wolfram,
• Claudia Pacholski and
• Joachim P. Spatz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 545–551, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.58

• substrates through a thiol linker system. Improved neural cell adhesion can be obtained and is dependent on the nature of the nanocone surface, thus illustrating the influence of different surface topographies on the nanometer length scale, on a complex cellular behavior such as cell adhesion. Substrate and

• surface functionality are shown to last over several days, leading to the conclusion that the features of our substrates can also be used for longer term experiments. Finally, initial neural cell adhesion is found to be more prominent on substrates with short intercone distances, which is an important

• finding for research dealing with the reactions of neuron-like tissue in the immediate moments after direct contact with an implanted surface. Keywords: block copolymer nanolithography; cell adhesion; nanostructures; surface chemistry; surface topography; Introduction Nanostructured materials for