Thesis (Ph. D.)--Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007. / Radhakrishna, Harish, Committee Member ; Zhu, Cheng, Committee Member ; LaPlaca, Michelle C., Committee Member ; Garca, Andrs J., Committee Chair ; Kowalczyk, Andrew P., Committee Member.

Plasma polymerization techniques were used to synthesize and deposit hydrogel on silicon (Si) substrate. Hydrogel is a network of polymer chains that are water-insoluble and has a high degree of flexibility. The various fields of applications of hydrogel include drug release, biosensors and tissue engineering etc. Hydrogel synthesized from different monomers possess a common property of moisture absorption. In this work two monomers were used namely 1-amino-2-propanol (1A2P) and 2(ethylamino)ethanol (2EAE) to produce polymer films deposited on Si ATR crystal. Their moisture uptake property was tested using FTIR-ATR technique. This was evident by the decrease in -OH band in increasing N2 purging time of the films. Secondly, two monomer compounds namely vinyl acetic acid and glycidyl methacrylate which have both amine and carboxylic groups are used as solid surface for the immobilization of bovine serum albumin (BSA). Pulsed plasma polymerization was used to polymerize these monomers with different duty cycles. Initial works in this field were all about protein surface adsorption. But more recently, the emphasis is on covalent bonding of protein on to the surface. This immobilization of protein on solid surface has a lot of applications in the field of biochemical studies. The polymerization of vinyl acetic acid and glycidyl methacrylate were shown as successful method to attach protein on them. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of Cu is one of the processes in the integrated chips manufacturing industry. Benzotriazole is one of the constituents of this CMP slurry used as corrosion inhibitor for Cu. Benzotriazole (C6H5N3) is a nitrogen heterocyclic derivative having three nitrogen atoms, each with an unshared pair of electrons, forming five-membered ring structure. This molecule coordinates with Cu atoms by loosing a proton from one of its nitrogen atom and thereby forming a film which is polymeric in nature that prevents further oxidation of Cu. In this work, aqueous solution of BTA was used to study the adsorption characteristics on Cu when a Cu electrodeposited Si was immersed in to it. This study was performed using ATR-FTIR technique. The adsorption of BTA on Cu surface was evident by the presence of aryl C-H stretching band at 3061 cm-1.

by Yao Hong-Bing. / "January 2002." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-135). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix (ECM) provides tissue structure and integrity as well as triggers signals that regulate complex biological processes such as cell cycle progression and tissue-specific cell differentiation. Hence, cell adhesion is critical to numerous physiological and pathological processes, including embryonic development, cancer metastasis, and wound healing, as well as biotechnological applications, such as host responses to implanted devices and integration of tissue-engineered constructs. During the adhesion process, integrin surface receptors bind ECM proteins, cluster, and associate with the actin cytoskeleton. Subsequent strengthening of the integrin/actin cytoskeleton interaction occurs via complexes of proteins known as focal adhesions. Due to the close association between biochemical and biophysical processes within adhesion complexes, mechanical analyses can provide important new insights into structure/function relationships involved in regulating the adhesion process. The objective of this project was to investigate the role of the protein tyrosine kinase FAK in cell adhesion strengthening. Our central hypothesis was that FAK regulates adhesion strengthening by modulating interactions between integrins and FA structural components. Using a novel combination of genetically engineered cells to control the interactions of FAK, a spinning disk adhesion assay with micropatterned substrates to obtain reproducible and sensitive measurements of adhesion strength, and quantitative biochemical assays for analyzing changes in adhesive complexes, we demonstrate that FAK modulates adhesion strengthening via two distinct mechanisms: (1) FAK expression results in elevated integrin activation leading to regulation of strengthening rate and (2) FAK regulates steady-state adhesion strength via vinculin recruitment to focal adhesions. We also show that the autophosphorylation and catalytic sites of FAK are critical to this regulation of adhesion strengthening. This work is significant because it both identifies functional mechanisms of FAK and provides the first evidence that focal adhesion signaling regulates the adhesion strengthening process. Furthermore, this research demonstrates that the dependency of migration on adhesion strength is highly complex and establishes a need for adhesion strengthening metrics in analyzing the functional mechanisms of molecules within adhesion complexes.