Highlights of Our Recent Work
Significance:
- Research discovers implications for impaired collagen and other biomaterials function during growing stem cells under controlled conditions on them.
- Our custom designed optical microscopy imaging/spectroscopy resource at UCR made this work possible.
Referee(s) comments:
- "Pubmed returns only 32 results for “collagen hydrogel” AND “embryonic stem cells” ...
- "...content ... original"
- "...excellent and detailed study for the increasingly important area of gel based, 3D cell culture."
- "The work is well documented ..."
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Significance:
- A novel gelatin-based material we made is ideal for embryonic stem cell guidance of bone formation.
- This work is important for developing bones from stem cells.
Referee(s) comments:
- “… touches on an important topic of advancement of biocompatible materials with controllable properties.”
- “…written in a concise, logical manner, data are statistically relevant and a novelty of a material is unquestionable.”
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Featured on the inside front cover
Significance:
- First experimental evidence that ions, naturally present in the body, affect the structure of collagen fibers and can prevent the formation of collagen.
- Understanding the factors involved in material formation is critical for potential manufacturing/production of these materials.
- Our custom designed optical microscopy imaging/spectroscopy resource at UCR made this work possible.
Referee(s) comments:
- “…the authors combine different methods in an original way, including in situ SHG imaging. The latter method has been rarely used in that context so far…”
- “…characterization of interesting structural features of the hydrogels.”
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Significance:
- First experimental evidence that fructose – a simple sugar found in fruit and corn syrup - has a strong propensity to modify collagen material microstructure.
- Work has a direct connection to ageing, diabetes, fatty liver and cardiovascular diseases.
- Our custom designed optical microscopy imaging/spectroscopy resource at UCR made this work possible.
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Significance:
- First example of Raman micro-spectroscopy examining the effect of fabrication parameters on the molecular structure of 3D collagen hydrogels.
- Provides a critical fundamental framework to understanding and monitoring the reactions frequently used to stabilize 3D hydrogels for tissue engineering applications.
- The work would not be possible without our custom- designed optical setup.
Referee(s) comments:
- "A deeper understanding of the chemical structure of collagen hydrogels and chemical methods to stabilize their structure is important to this field. The authors have provided an analysis that addresses this need."
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Significance:
- Work has a direct connection to ageing, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
- First experimental evidence that the collagen fiber structure becomes significantly modified by some sugars.
Referee(s) comments:
- “…a fresh look at the properties of collagen-based 3-D matrices upon glycation, a process of collagen cross-linking with reducing sugars.”
- “The cross-linking of collagen is one of the processes naturally occurring in live organisms that was specifically linked to skin ageing. Optical methods, particularly multi-photon microscopy and spectroscopy, are becoming a modality of choice when applied to characterization of such structures.”
see EDITORIAL: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ac2026749
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Significance:
- First experimental evidence, observed at the micro and nano-level scales, that the chemical genipin - which has a stabilizing influence on mechanics - modifies the underlying collagen structure.
- Establishes baselines and standards for potential manufacturing and production of these materials.
Referee(s) comments:
- “The topic is significant.”
- “The results of the research … of interest to others in the same field.”
- “From biomaterials science perspective, the study of method for structural analysis is crucial for robust tissue engineering applications of newly developed hydrogel scaffolds.”
- “…provides important information…”
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Featured on the inside front cover 
Significance:
- First critical insights into collagen assembly processes at all levels.
- Establishes baselines and standards for potential manufacturing and production of these materials (e.g, tissue engineering).
Referee(s) comments:
- "This is an important problem"
- "...the authors should indicate how novel the application of the SHG method is to this project in the manuscript."
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Significance:
- First time detection, in 3D, of the dynamic changes of actin protein of brain cancer (glioblastoma) cells. This protein is involved in cell motion. Understanding how cancer cells move allows development of more effective brain cancer therapies.
Referee(s) comments:
- “…work is novel, important …”
- “work is interesting and has the potential to provide a great deal of detailed information concerning the mechanisms of growth and metastasis in this [brain cancer (glioblastoma) cells] disease.”
- “imaging of a number of interesting features of cellular morphology, chemistry, and metabolism in migrating glioblastoma [brain cancer] cells in a 3-D matrix.”
- “the idea of having a paper showing a new technique is good” ______________________________________________________________________________________
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