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Friday, November 15 2013: The number of arthroplasties is rapidly increasing, however most materials used for such applications lack in osseointegration. The improvement of the bone/implant interface has received great attention for many years, with special reference to titanium-based implants. The interface between bone and implant has been considered both by physical approaches focused on surface topography and by chemical/biochemical surface modification by incorporation of organic molecules. The work described here is focused on the fabrication of implant coatings by layer by layer self-assembly of Collagen I (COL) and Hyaluronic acid (HA). The multilayer structure has been characterized by SEM and AFM, and the Titanium substrates coated with this multilayers have been tested with 3T3 cells seeded on Titanium supports. The results show that these coatings are promising for the improvement of implant... + continue reading

Thursday, September 12 2013: High resolution imaging with differential infrared absorption micro-spectroscopy Abstract: Although confocal infrared (IR) absorption micro-spectroscopy is well established for far-field chemical imaging, its scope remains restricted since diffraction limits the spatial resolution to values a little above half the radiation wavelength. Yet, the successful implementations of below-the-diffraction limit far-field fluorescence microscopies using saturated irradiation patterns for example for stimulated-emission depletion and saturated structured-illumination suggest the possibility of using a similar optical patterning strategy for infrared absorption mapping at high resolution. Simulations are used to show that the simple mapping of the difference in transmitted/reflected IR energy between a saturated vortexshaped beam and a Gaussian reference with a confocal microscope affords the... + continue reading

Monday, June 24 2013:       Real time chemical and structural imaging at nanoscale and under ambient conditions has been considered critical to enable ‘safe, reliable and superior’ commercial products [1]. The metrology of bio-nanotechnology is thus gaining increasing importance due to the inroad of bio-nano products such as glucose sensors, antimicrobial socks and textiles in the market and the near market and trial stages of products such as nanomedicine for cancer therapy[1]. A quick survey of the current state of the art microscopy and imaging techniques will reveal that there is no single technique applicable to bio-nano metrology, issues related to which area priority research agenda in the area of nanometrology [2]. For example, far field optical vibrational spectroscopy based imaging tools such as Infra Red (IR) and Raman microscopy have been widely used in... + continue reading

Saturday, February 23 2013: The Month 12 Meeting took place in Mons, Belgium and was hosted by Multitel (14/15 February 2013). The meeting also consisted of a visit of to a partners facility, Laserspec, at Namur, Belgium. The meeting developed action plans for the next 6 months, to be reviewed at the M15 Consortium meeting in June 2013 at the EuroNanoForum2013 in Dublin. It was concluded during the meeting that there will be a delay in some deliverables due to the knock on effect of the late arrival of some key equipment procured for Partner facilities.The meeting also looked to manage risks and address any other knock on issues that may arise. The upcoming reporting during Month 18 was discussed during a presentation on administrative and financial matters. The meeting concluded with the excellent news and confirmation that all major procurement for the project has been completed and... + continue reading