Photocopy of typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Thesis (M.Sc.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2005. / Bibliography: leaves 86-96.

The research presented within this dissertation explores the photocatalytic deposition of metal carried out within sealed microfluidic channels. Micro scale patterning of metals inside sealed microchannels is investigated as well as nanoscale control over the surface morphology of the nanoparticles making up the patterns. This is achieved by controlling solution conditions during deposition. Finally, the nanoparticle patterns are used in fabricating a sensor device, which demonstrates the ability to address multiple patches within a sealed channel with different surface chemistries. Also presented here is the construction of the first epifluorescence/total internal reflection macroscope. Its ability to carry out high numerical aperture imaging of large arrays of solid supported phospholipid bilayers is explored. For this, three experiments are carried out. First, imaging of a 63 element array where every other box contains a different bilayer is preformed, demonstrating the ability to address large scale arrays by hand. Next, a protein binding experiment is preformed using two different arrays of increasing ligand density on the same chip. Finally, a two-dimensional array of mixed fluorescent dyes contained within solid supported lipid bilayers is imaged illustrating the ability of the instrument to acquire fluorescent resonance energy transfer data. Additionally, the design and fabrication of an improved array chip and addressing method is presented. Using this new array chip and addressing method in conjunction with the epifluorescence/total internal reflection macroscope should provide an efficient platform for high throughput screening of important biological processes which occur at the surfaces of cell membranes.

Ligand-receptor interactions are ubiquitous on cell membranes. Indeed, many important physiological functions primarily involve such interactions. These include cell signaling, pathogen binding, trafficking of lymphocytes, and the immune response.1-4 Therefore, studying ligand-receptor interactions at appropriate model membrane is of importance for both proper understanding of biological functions and applications to biosensors and bioseparations. Supported lipid bilayers are composed of the same lipid molecules found in the plasma cell membranes of living cells and possess the same two-dimensional fluidity as cell membranes, making them capable of mimicking the cell surface. Moreover, supported lipid bilayer-based in vitro assays are appealing because they require only very small sample volumes and they are suitable for multiplexing and high-throughput screening. Recently, our laboratory has combined supported lipid bilayer-coated microfluidic platforms with total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy to obtain equilibrium dissociation constant data for protein-ligand interactions. Using this method, it was found that equilibrium dissociation constants of antibody-ligand interactions at lipid membrane interfaces can be strongly affected by ligand lipophilicity and linker length/structure. These results are described in Chapter III. Monitoring protein-ligand interactions is routinely performed by fluorescently labeling the proteins of interest. Protein labeling can, however, interfere with detection measurements and be highly inconvenient to employ. To solve these problems, a simple and highly sensitive technique for detection of protein-ligand binding at biointerfaces has been developed. The method is based upon modulation of the interfacial pH when the protein binds. This change is detected by pH-sensitive fluorescent dye molecules embedded into the biointerface. The dye fluoresces strongly in the protonated state but becomes inactive upon deprotonation. These results are demonstrated in Chapter IV. Finally, the study of supported lipid bilayer-based electrophoresis is described in Chapter V. Bilayer electrophoresis is an attractive alternative to gel electrophoresis for the separation of membrane components such as lipids and membrane proteins because it is run in native-like environments and avoids exposing the analytes of interest to harsh chemicals. In this study, lipid rafts of varying size were used as separation matrices to separate two similar lipids with different alkyl chains. Lipid rafts of varying size were formed by a process controlled by varying treatment of the solid substrate. Depending on which method was employed, the results showed that lipid raft size could be modulated over five orders of magnitude. Moreover, it was found that the electrophoretic separation of the two lipid components depended on the size of rafts in the bilayer matrix.

The charge-carriers of the organic layers are one of the dominant factors to influence the performance of OLEDs. Thus, it is very important to study and understand the charge transporting behaviors in the organic layers of OLED. However, the organic materials show usually to have very high resistivity and very low carrier mobility, and then using general modeling techniques suitable for common semiconductors cannot conveniently simulate that. First, a transporting model of the bilayer organic OLED are proposed in this dissertation, in which model were based on the current-voltage characteristics simulation proposed by Lampert and the continuous equation of current transport. The model contains a description of ohmic contacts, thermal emission and tunneling injection, space charge effects, trap effect, field dependent mobility and recombination processes. In addition, the method of Monte Carlo is a computational technique by using random numbers to compute an approximation to something whose exact value is difficult or impossible to compute, and that is used to simulate the bilayer organic OLED. In this study, a numerical model proposed is successfully applied to describe the characteristics of the bilayer organic light-emitting diode. The model is satisfyingly demonstrated not only for applying to simulate several bilayer devices (1-Naphdata/Alq3¡BTPD/Alq3) reported but also for some devices obtained in our results. Finally, it can be extended to optimize the analysis and fabrication of bilayer devices.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2003.

No description available.

The cell membrane is a complex structure with many functions that can affect cellular processes. For this reason, a model possessing characteristics similar to those of the natural cell membrane is required for the investigation of various functions and properties belonging to this important structure. Presented is the synthesis of a glycolipid analogue possessing both a C-4’ thiol functionalization (for binding to an Au(111) electrode) and an anomeric triazole-linked phytanyl chain (for integration into a phospholipid bilayer). Additionally, a similar analogue without thiol functionalization was synthesized for use as a dilution molecule to prevent aggregation of the tether analogue during monolayer assembly. Aqueous compartments will exist above and below the bilayer allowing for future integration and functional analysis of membrane proteins. Glycosylation at the anomeric position of a lactosyl donor with propargyl alcohol gave a propargyl lactoside that underwent several steps of selective protection to give access at O-4’ for triflation. Displacement of the triflate gave a thioacetate functionalized disaccharide. Both the propargyl lactoside and the thioacetate functionalized disaccharide underwent copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloadditions with phytanyl azide. Subsequent deprotections gave two novel glycolipid analogues. / NSERC

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology, 1990.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-62).