A method of coating a surface with nanoparticles for biological analysis of cells that includes the steps of cleaning the surface with an oxidizing acid, treating the surface with an organosilane, coating the surface with nanoparticles, and then growing cells on the surface coated with the nanoparticles. The surface may be a glass surface, a silica-based surface, a plastic-based surface or a polymer-based surface. The nanoparticles may be gold-based nanomaterials.

Hollow glass microspheres (HGMS) with a controlled nanotopographical surface structure (.sup.NSHGMS) demonstrate improved isolation and recovery of cell from biological fluid. .sup.NSHGMS can be achieved by applying layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of negatively charged SiO2 nanoparticles and positively charged poly-L-arginine molecules. Then, a sheathing can be applied to the surface with an enzymatically degradable LbL film made from biotinylated alginate and poly-L-arginine. Further, a cap of anti-EpCAM antibodies and anti-fouling PEG molecules can be applied to the sheathed film covering the microspheres. Compared to smooth-surfaced HGMS, NSHGMS reveals shorter isolation times, enhanced capture efficiency and lower detection limit in, for example, commonly used cancer cell lines. An .sup.NSHGMS-based cell isolation method does not require specialized lab equipment or an external power source, and thus, can be used for separation of targeted cells from blood or other body fluid in a resource-limited environment.

A method of manufacturing a transparent microbial energy device includes disposing a first transparent electrode, disposing a first hydrogel layer including an algal cell on the first transparent electrode, disposing a Nafion layer on the first hydrogel layer, disposing a second hydrogel layer including potassium ferricyanide on the Nafion layer, and disposing a second transparent electrode on the second hydrogel layer.

The present invention provides tissue scaffolds, methods of generating such scaffolds, and methods of use of such scaffolds to generate aligned and functional neural tissues for use in methods including regenerative medicine, wound repair and transplantation.

A reinforced biocompatible scaffold facilitates integration of biological tissue. The reinforced scaffold comprises a porous biocompatible scaffold and an arrangement of at least one biocompatible filament embedded within and fixed to the biocompatible scaffold, and/or at least one biocompatible conduit embedded within and fixed to the biocompatible scaffold.

Methods for engineered cellular magmatic microbial habitat and articles thereof are disclosed. For example, the magmatics may include one or more infiltration materials that are configured not to sinter when a foamed mass is formed. The infiltration materials may be enclosed in cells of the foamed mass and may be floating and/or fixed to the cell walls.

Disclosed herein is a material that may be useful as a coating for optical slides and medical implants. The material may aid or restrict grown of cells on a coating of the composite material. As such, there is provided a composite material having a substrate on the surface of which a coating layer of an amorphous metal oxide is formed. The metal oxide may be one or more of Ag.sub.2O, ZnO, ZrO.sub.2, TiO.sub.2, CuO, and Y.sub.2O.sub.3 and the coating layer may be from 5 to 100 nm thick and have a root mean square roughness of the coating surface is from 0.1 to 0.7 nm.

A bioactive glass-ceramic composition as defined herein. Also disclosed are methods of making and using the disclosed compositions.

The present invention it was determined that dendritic cells could be derived from various sources including peripheral blood monocytes in the presence of only GM-CSF without other cytokines if the monocytes were not activated. By preventing activation, such as by preventing binding of the cells to the surface of the culture vessel, the monocytes do not require the presence of additional cytokines, such as IL-4 or IL-13, to prevent differentiation into a non-dendritic cell lineage. The immature DCs generated and maintained in this manner were CD14.sup.− and expressed high levels of CD1a. Upon maturation by contact with an agent such as, for example, BCG and IFNγ, the cells were determined to express surface molecules typical of mature dendritic cells purified by prior methods and cultured in the presence of GM-CSF and IL-4. The mature dendritic cells produced from monocytes without activation and cultured in GM-CSF alone are suitable for use in dendritic cell-based immunotherapy methods, such as for use in the treatment of disease, including cancer.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a cell culture substratum which has excellent resistance to liquid culture media and low cytotoxicity, can achieve a high cell adhesion ratio and a high viability of cultured cells, has excellent thermal stability, and is less likely to absorbs ultraviolet ray. A cell culture substratum which is provided with a substrate made from an inorganic material and has multiple concavo-convex structures on a culturing surface thereof, wherein, when the concavo-convex structures are measured with an atomic force microscope in accordance with JISB0601 and JISR1683 (measured area: a 1 μm-square, cut-off value of a low-pass contour curve filter: 1 nm, cut-off value of a high-pass contour curve filter: 170 nm), the average of the lengths of contour curve elements of the concavo-convex structures is 1 to 170 nm as measured in at least one direction (when a curve showing long-wavelength components that are blocked by the high-pass contour curve filter is converted to a straight line by the least square method, the average line is a line that is parallel with the straight line and indicates a height cumulative relative frequency distribution in the contour curve of 50%).