The complexity of biological soft matter at the sub-micrometer level is fundamentally correlated to the functionalities at the larger scale. Reflecting the level of heterogeneities in the properties of systems remains challenging when probing small scales, due to the mismatch between the area surveyed with the tools offering nanoscale resolution, such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the scale of natural variations inherent to biology. Hence, to understand the physiological and mechanical alterations that occur within a single cell relative to a cell population, a multiscale approach is necessary. In this work we show that it is possible to observe molecular, chemical and physical alterations in both plant and human cells with a multiscale approach. Biophysical and biochemical traits of cell populations are studied with Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and in turn, guide higher resolution discovery with Raman spectroscopy and nanoscale infrared spectroscopy using AFM (NanoIR) to access finer details. We illustrate this with three examples of biological soft matter systems: 1) a preliminary study of cellular interactions with naturally occurring vehicles applicable to human health, 2) a qualitative examination of antibiotics and new pesticide treatments in food crop systems, and 3) a fundamental investigation of the deconstruction mechanisms of plant cells during pre-treatments in preparation for biofuel production.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-7212 |
| Date | 01 January 2018 |
| Creators | Ciaffone, Nicholas |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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