University researchers have developed technologies for on-demand dispensing and delivery of scents. (more...)

Blood saving techniques and artificial blood are the two principal approaches currently used to remedy the shortage in blood supply. In emergencies, the first priority of clinicians facing significant blood loss in patients is to re-establish a patient’s blood volume to prevent microvascular collapse, which may be accomplished with a transfusion of plasma expanders. The next priority is to restore oxygen transportation through blood transfusion. The use of many commercial plasma expanders is often limited by sides effects such as red blood cell aggregation (hydroxyethyl starch), nephrotoxicity (dextran) and extravasation (albumin). (more...)

A major goal for synthetic biology is to develop non-natural cellular systems. The substitution of efficient man-made reactions for key biochemical processes may offer a general route toward synthetic biological systems. One such biomimetic reaction is the generation of phospholipid membranes, useful not only in the study of synthetic biology, but having commercial applications for bulk synthesis in a variety to package a number of compounds including therapeutics, cosmetics, imaging agents, and genetic material. (more...)

UC San Diego bioengineers have developed smart, self-healing hydrogels with far-reaching applications including medial sutures, targeted drug delivery, industrial sealants and self-healing plastics.  Photo Credit: Joshua Knoff, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. The gels, when damaged and then healed, have excellent mechanical properties including stretching, weight support, heat resistance and recovery from deformation. A recent paper in PNAS provides details of the development of these materials and discussion regarding some of  their possible applications can be found below under "Related Materials". (more...)

Proteins have found utility for numerous commercial and clinical purposes, including use in biochemical and chemical processes, and as agents for the treatment and prevention of human and veterinary disease. A major challenge associated with the use of proteins is their inherent instability. Many proteins rapidly degrade in response to "environmental stresses," such as changes in temperature, pH, light, and desiccation, which has implications for their production, transport, use and storage. Attachment of poly(ethylene glycol) to therapeutic proteins, a process commonly referred to as PEGylation, has been used successfully to increase their stability in vivo by reducing both protease degradation and renal clearance. However, PEGylation does not necessarily increase protein stability in response to environmental stresses. The development of a technology that enhances the stability of proteins to such stresses would dramatically increase the number of proteins that could be used commercially, reduce costs associated with protein production, storage and transportation, and increase protein shelf-life. (more...)

Complex mixtures of aroma compounds are often responsible for the overall aroma of a food, beverage, cosmetic or other product.  Two or more odorants can frequently lead to an aroma that is not similar to any of its components.  A new method and apparatus allow for more precise and informative analysis and characterization of aromas and volatile constituents. (more...)

Surfaces are frequently micropatterned with proteins in order to capture and culture cells in distinct gerometric configurations. Researchers at UC Davice have developed a novel method for micropatterning surfaces with photoliabile protein to capture and release of cells, triggered by UV light. (more...)

A method of using a novel quasi-living metal catalyst for homo-polymerization of olefins such as ethylene, α-olefins, and functionalized olefins and for co-polymerization of olefins with functionalities such as acetates. (more...)

Investigators at UC Berkeley have developed an alternative approach to engineer the shikimate pathway in E. coli. The native pathway was reconstructed in a modular fashion to remove bottlenecks and optimize the flux and production by improving promoters and regulatory elements.Using these modifications to the shikimate pathway resulted in strains that produce high yields of tyrosine and other valuable intermediates such as shikimate and dehydroshikimate and also dehydroquinate and quinate.This pathway engineering can also be used for production of other aromatic amino acids, tryptophan and phenylalanine at high yields as well as additional intermediates such as phenylpyruvate, anthranilate, and others. These constructed metabolic pathways can be transferred to other strains or microorganisms. (more...)

UC Davis researchers have delveoped strains of Escherichia coli capable of producing the valuable chemical feedstock, isobutyraldehyde.  This strain is specifically optimized for the production of isobutyraldehyde. (more...)

Solution-processing of semiconductors is being pursued as a more economic route to large-scale production. So far various deposition methods have been attempted such as: electrodepositing, doctor blading, bar coating, and inkjet printing; however, these methods all suffer from small grain sizes in the resulting material that is produced. (more...)

This invention describes a modular approach to build chiral calixarene phosphite and phosphate ligands. The chiral ligands can be used to for a asymmetric catalysis such as reduction, hydroformylation, sulfoxidation, epoxidations, and chiral acid catalysis. The invention also describes a mthod of controlling the reactivity ot metals by coordination with the chiral calixarene-related moities. (more...)

Presented here is the novel mechanical application of adhesive hydrophobic materials to substrates, the patterning of these materials, and the controlled dip-coating of the resulting patterned substrates to allow the control of the spatial and volumetric attributes of liquid droplets. By controlling the speed with which the substrates are dip-coated, and the viscosity of the polymer bath, fine control over the volumes of liquid that are deposited at particular locations on the substrate is obtained. These techniques may be utilized in a variety of applications including microlens arrays, waveguides, bonding, and fluidic handling. (more...)

The Overman laboratory at the University of California, Irvine has generated a library of ~1,200 unusually diverse small drug-like molecules. (more...)

Using the Tacky Dot® technology, University researchers have adapted the technology to the area of dry-screening phosphor displays which greatly reduces toxic decomposition products. The technology uses a powder of phosphor particles in a dry process using just a few steps to produce a phosphor pattern, including steps for the removal of excess charge and powder. This method removes the need for the use of a flux found in wet methods, and does not rely on spin coating or phosphor-specific adhesives (as found in earlier photo-tacky dusting methods). And unlike earlier methods that produce corrosive and toxic gases during decomposition, the research results using this method has uncovered no toxic decomposition products. This method is capable of producing phosphor patterns whose size is just a few microns. (more...)

The automatic assembly of biological and chemical agents on marked nanoscale locations is an attractive technology, both scientifically and commercially. Desirable features of any practical immobilization device include functionality to a wide range of molecules, a high degree of spatial resolution, and the ability to control the surface coverage and orientation. Until now, most solid phase methods have not fully met the aforementioned considerations, mostly due to the optical diffraction effects of small mask features. (more...)

In the race for achieving miniaturization of useful machines and devices to the microscale and nanoscale, it would be useful to have a means of connecting components to build devices. One-off production of assemblies of components might be made using laser tweezers or microfluidics, yet it would be highly desirable to assemble millions or billions of copies of the same multicomponent device in solution in parallel at the same time. Heretofore, such massively parallel off-chip assembly processes have been only poorly controlled because the interactions have not been strongly dependent on the nature of the geometry and shape of the components. (more...)

Biomacromolecule-polymer conjugates are widely utilized in medicine and biotechnology for the treatment of a broad spectrum of diseases. This type of therapeutic is comprised of the biomolecule drug linked to a biocompatible polymer, which usually functions as an inert portion of the drug delivery construct. These conjugates share the same features as other macromolecular drugs and immunoconjugates, such as improved pharmacokinetics and reduced toxicity. However, the versatility of synthetic polymer chemistry allows for specific tailoring of molecular weight and/or biomimetic features, resulting in improved drug targeting. Current synthetic methods employ post-polymerization modification - the preparation of a polymer chain and subsequent conjugation of this preformed polymer to the biomolecule. Purifying conjugates formed in this manner is difficult and time consuming. Because applications of bioconjugates are increasing, a simple and effective preparation of biomacromolecule-polymer conjugates is needed. (more...)

BACKGROUND:   Liposomes have been used in many drug, nutritional, and cosmetic delivery applications due to their unique properties that mimic the phospholipid bilayer of cell membranes. In all of their applications, liposome stability is crucial for efficient delivery stable liposomes mimimize leakage and loss of the payload. Sterols such as cholesterol have been proven to to greatly improve liposome stabilization. Consequently, cholesterol is widely used in liposome formulations. Sterols, as phytosterols, are also used in a variety of nutritional products to reduce cholesterol levels in humans. UNMET NEED: When liposomes composed of free cholesterol and phospholipids are combined with biological fluids containing biological lipids and serum, cholesterol rapidly transfers out of the liposome into the biological lipids. This loss of cholesterol from the liposome results in decreased liposome stability and the subsequent leakage or loss of the encapsulated payload. Additionally, serum lipoproteins absorb free cholesterol, further increasing the rate of cholesterol loss from the liposome. Efforts to solve this problem have led to the development of water soluble sterol derivatives as well as hydrophobic sterols. However, neither have proven to be suitable for improving liposome stability. A new technology is needed that will allow liposomes with high amounts of sterols to remain stable when exposed to biological fluids.   SUMMARY: Scientists at UCSF have developed sterol derivatives that improve liposome stability both in vitro and in vivo. These derivatives can be incorporated into liposome formulations in the high amounts necessary to produce a stabilizing effect, and are resistant to transfer out of the liposome into biological fluid components. Cholesterol transfer out of a liposome in in a lipid laden environment typically occurs with a half-life of two hours, whereas the transfer of the UCSF sterol derivatives under the same conditions is undetectable after eight hours. Furthermore, liposomes containing UCSF sterol derivatives have demonstrated 80% less leakage in serum than liposomes containing free cholesterol.  As an example of an oncology application, UCSF sterol-containing liposomes encapsulating doxorubicin showed equivalent therapeutic effect when compared to DoxilTM in a mouse cancer model.  In an infectious disease application, UCSF sterol-containing liposomes encapsulating amphotericin B showed lower toxicity and improved activity against a panel of fungi compared to AmBisomeTM. (more...)

In the pharmaceutical industry, synthetic chemists often alkylate starting compounds to generate compounds that have more desirable properties. However, the current reagents used in this modification process can be expensive or harmful to the chemist. (more...)

In the past decade, droplets have been intensively used by the industries as an agent for drug preparations, for plastic polymerizations, and chemical processing. Recent advancements in microfluidic droplet technology has enabled the precise sampling and processing of small volumes of fluids (picoliter to femtoliter) by the controlled viscous shearing in microchannels. Microfluidic technologies has transformed droplets to be used as liquid reaction vessels for screening protein crystallization conditions, as micro templates for assisting self-assembling of materials, as molds for curing polymeric micro spheres, and as components for micro electrical actuator. Programmable fluidic assays for sampling glucose concentration of human physiological fluids, DNA analysis, nano particle synthesis machinery have been individually demonstrated using droplet based microfluidic system. However two drawbacks limit the use of these technologies: 1) the generation of satellite droplets have always being a problem limiting the volume and accuracy of the metered fluid sample. 2) Generation of monodispersed droplets smaller than 1?m has been difficult to achieve. The solution to both problem lies in the use of satellite sorting technologies, in which, satellite droplets, the by product of droplet generation can not only be filtered but also simultaneously be used as a production mechanism for nano-particle synthesis. (more...)

An epidemic of metabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes and obesity is undermining the health of people living in industrialized societies. There is an urgent need to develop innovative therapeutics. (more...)

There is great variability among different organisms in their ability to naturally or artificially synthesize and accumulate lipids, hydrocarbons, and polymers. Consequently, many organisms must be screened in order to achieve the desired maximal bio-product accumulation. After an ideal organism is selected, its product content can vary with lifecycle stage, cultivation conditions, cellular stress and/or time. This variability must be understood and controlled during R&D, process development and manufacturing scale-up in order to maximize product yields. The above process of screening and development can be time-consuming and consequently costly.  To address this situation, scientists at UC Berkeley have developed a method for quick and precise estimation of lipid, hydrocarbon or biopolymer content in live cells -- whether grown as single cells or in colonies. This method can be used for screening a variety of microorganisms for product accumulation (microorganism prospecting), and to check yields throughout the production process -- allowing for more rapid improvement of production methods and shortened R&D timelines. (more...)

Method for Forming Polymer Brush Patterns on a Substrate Surface (more...)

Implantable Active Prosthetic Devices and Methods for Animation of Paralyzed Tissues (more...)

A composition for a self-doped conducting polymer. These polymers are capable of decreased response times in doping operations and of maintaining a stable, doped state for longer than traditionally doped polymers. (more...)