Integrated zeta/size analyzer for characterization of core-shell colloidal particles

逐层（LbL）技术是一种强大而通用的将纳米结构组装到衬底上的方法。这个过程是基于带相反电荷的聚电解质的静电相互作用，从而产生厚度从几十到几百纳米不等的多层结构。在过去的八年中，申请人进行了LbL组装的研究，主要使用带正电荷的透明质酸（HA）和带负电荷的壳聚糖（CH）来制造功能性生物界面。我们对这些生物界面的应用范围从再生医学（组织工程）到基因组学和蛋白质组学（载体和生物识别系统）。通过LbL控制生物结构界面特性的能力为我们的研究创造了令人兴奋的新途径。我们在血管内装置上的LbL多层膜的工作导致了新的治疗和诊断策略的发展。目前，LbL组装作为纳米壳是建立在人工（纳米粒子和纳米双层脂质系统）和生物（细菌细胞、血小板、红细胞）三维（3D）模板上的，用于各种医学应用。此外，利用生物活性分子（蛋白质、DNA、药物等）功能化LbL组装的能力，在我们专注于靶向治疗和药物输送的项目中取得了相当大的进展。例如，我们开发了不同的DNA多层杂交策略。我们结合成骨和血管生成生长因子来促进这些生物分子在感兴趣的模板上的细胞摄取，并创建有效的蛋白质和基因传递系统。在这些令人兴奋的领域进行我们的研究，试图通过测量至少两个主要参数来表征3D模板上的LbL组装，它们的大小和表面电荷，因为这两个参数极大地影响了它们的有效性。为购买具有更高灵敏度和能力的集成尺寸/电荷分析仪的提案提供资金，这将产生更多可重复的结果和时间有效的分析，这将对我们的研究和用于生产新生物界面的LbL组装产生重大影响。

The layer by layer (LbL) technique is a powerful and versatile means to assemble nanostructures onto a substrate. This process is based on the electrostatic interactions of polyelectrolytes with opposite charges to yield multilayer structures ranging in thickness from tens to hundreds of nanometers. During the past eight years, the applicant has undertaken research in LbL assembly using mainly positively charged hyaluronan (HA) and negatively charged chitosan (CH) to make the functional biointerfaces. Our application for such biointerfaces ranges from regenerative medicine (tissue engineering) to genomics and proteomics (vectors and biorecognition systems). The ability to control interfacial properties of biological structures by the mean of LbL led to the creation of exciting new avenues in our research. Our work on the LbL multilayers onto endovascular devices has led to the development of new therapeutic and diagnostic strategies. Currently, the LbL assembly as a nanoshell is build up on both artificial (nanoparticles and nanoscale bilayer lipid systems) and biological (bacterial cells, platelets, red blood cells) three-dimensional (3D) templates for various medical applications. Furthermore, the ability to functionalize this LbL assembly with bioactive molecules (proteins, DNA, drugs,...) has generated considerable developments in our projects focusing on targeted therapeutic and drug delivery. For instance, we develop different strategies for DNA hybridization into multilayers. We incorporate osteogenic and angiogenic growth factors to promote the cellular uptake of these biomolecules on the template of interest and create effective protein and gene delivery systems. Pursuing our research in these exciting areas seeks to characterize the LbL assembly on the 3D templates by measuring at least two main parameters, their size and their charge at the surface since both tremendously influence their effectiveness. Funding this proposal for the purchase of an integrated size/charge analyzer with increased sensitivity and capabilities which will generate more reproducible results and time-effective analysis will have a great impact on our research and on the LbL assembly for producing new biointerfaces.