Hilal Gul-Uludag, Weibing Lu, Peng Xu, James Xing, and Jie Chen Paper highlights:
Monocyte-based gene therapies in cancer have been hampered by either the resistance of these cells to non-viral molecular delivery methods or their poor trafficking to the tumor site after their ex-vivo manipulations. It has been recently shown that magnetic nanoparticles (MNP)-loaded, genetically engineered monocytes were efficiently delivered to tumor site by external magnetic field. However, MNP have not been ideal magnetic delivery tools due to their spherical shape. Hence in this work, we investigated the cellular uptake efficiency and cytotoxicity of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) labelled magnetic carbon nanotubes (FITC-mCNT) in human monocytic leukemia cell line THP-1 for their future application in cell-based gene therapy against cancer. We found that the uptake of FITC-mCNT into THP-1 cells reached 100% only 1 hr after the delivery. Confocal imaging confirmed that FITC-mCNT entered the cell cytoplasm and even into the nucleus. We have also demonstrated that FITC-mCNT uptake did not compromise cell viability. In summary, we suggest that this novel mCNT-based delivery system might enhance cell-based cancer gene therapies.

Close-Proximity, Real-Time Thermoacoustic Sensors: Design, Characterization, and Testing Michael Choi, Woon Ang, and Jie Chen accepted by IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems 2012, May, South Korea
Paper highlights: The application of ultrasound can promote cell growth. However, under-treatment of ultrasound can lead to an incomplete treatment that may not produce the desired results, while over-treatment of ultrasound can lead to cell death. Thermal sensors that measure the transformation of the incident ultrasonic energy into heat, otherwise known as thermoacoustic sensors, have the potential to be a simple, inexpensive method for determining the acoustic intensity outputted by an ultrasound transducer. The advantage of a thermoacoustic sensor is its simplicity: it does not require any complicated setup procedures, or calculations. Previous thermoacoustic sensor operation has required the sensor and transducer to be placed in a water tank, similar to hydrophone or radiation force balance measurements. To further simplify the thermoacoustic sensor operation, we have designed and tested a close-proximity thermoacoustic sensor that can determine radiated ultrasound intensities when placed in contact with a transducer. Furthermore, our device performs all the required computations in real time using an embedded system design, allowing the user to quickly and conveniently measure ultrasound intensities.

*3.0 (fi 6) (3-0-0) Microfluidic and nanobiotechnological devices. Fabrication techniques for devices: self-assembly, lithographic technologies. Applications of nanobiotechnology in computing, electronics, human health, environment and manufacture. For details, please refer to the course syllabus. Syllabus for EE455

      Dear Graduate Students,

We have been advised by FGSR that the application and Handbook and Guidelines for the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures Graduate Student Scholarship is now available on their web site at

http://www.gradstudies.ualberta.ca/awardsfunding/scholarships/albertainnovates.htm
Registered students will need to submit the application, 2 reference letters and copies of all transcripts (they do not require original transcripts). Potential new students will need to provide original transcripts.

FGSR does not know if applications will need to go through the Department first, if they do, the departmental deadline will be in early February. FGSR's deadline for submission of applications is February 15, 2012  

加拿大阿尔伯塔大学博士生项目 一、项目简介 阿尔伯塔大学(The University of Alberta)成立于1908年。是全加拿大五所最大的以科研为主的综合性大学之一，其科研水平居加拿大大学前列，科研收入与所得资助总额居全国第五位。其工学院的五个系都颇具实力，科研水平和教育质量在加拿大的学术界和工业界都有很好的声誉，是一所全面发展的大学。阿尔伯塔大学的主要院系有：农业，林业及家政学院、文学院、商学院、教育学院、工学院、理学院、法学院、医学及牙医学院、土著居民研究学院、护理学院、制药及药理学院、体育及康乐学院等。 根据国家留学基金管理委员会（China Scholarship Council）与阿尔伯塔大学签署的合作备忘录，双方共同设立了国家留学基金管理委员会与阿尔伯塔大学联合奖学金项目,选派我国优秀人员赴阿尔伯塔大学攻读博士学位。 二、选派计划 1．选派规模：不限 2．选派类别及留学期限 博士研究生：留学期限至多48个月 3．选派学科、专业领域 阿尔伯塔大学的全部专业均将向我候选人开放。优先支持能源、资源、环境、农业、制造、信息等关键领域及生命、空间、海洋、纳米、新材料等战略领域和人文及应用社会科学（详见国家留学网“国家留学基金优先资助学科、专业领域”）� [ ... ]

Dr. Jie Chen’s application for the promotion to the rank of professor has been granted in Dec. 2011.

“Exploring Cell Uptake Mechanism of Phopholipid and Pegylated Gold Nanoparticles” Yuzhi Hao , Xiaoyang Yang, Steven Song, Min Huang, Chuan He, MingYang Cui, Jie Chen has been accepted by Journal of Nanotechnology Paper highlights: Recently, there has been a lot of interest in using gold nanoparticles (GNPs) for biomedical applications due to GNP’s biocompatibility. To increase GNP cell uptake and circulation half-life, and to improve its bio-distribution in-vivo, we chose to coat GNPs with 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-snglycero-3-phospho-(1'-rac-glycerol) (sodium salt) (POPG) and polyethylene glycol (PEG). Two different methods were used to synthesize POPG-GNP or PEG-GNP, but the resulting nanoparticle size and morphology were similar. Under the same incubation conditions, POPG GNP can be uptaken quicker than PEG-GNP by cells, specifically the maximum uptake was 8 hours versus 16 hours after incubation. In addition, the uptake amount of POPG-GNPs was more than that of PEG-GNPs. The uptake processes were confirmed by SEM and TEM images. The main reason for more uptake of POPG-GNP can be attributed to the structural similarities between the POPG coating and the cell membrane as well as GNP aggregation. Figure  SEM images of POPG-GNP and PEG-GNP after 3 hours incubation.

  “Cationic Liposome-Mediated CXCR4 Gene Delivery into Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells: Implications for Clinical Transplantation and Gene Therapy” by Hilal Gul-Uludag, Peng Xu, Leah A. Marquez-Curtis, James Xing, Anna Janowska Wieczorek, and Jie Chen has been accepted by Stem Cells and Development   Paper highlights: The chemokine stromal cell-derived factor (SDF)-1α/CXCL12 and its receptor CXCR4 play a crucial role in the homing/engraftment and retention of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPC) in the bone marrow. It has been shown using the viral gene transfer technique that CXCR4 overexpression on human CD34+ HSPC significantly improves their engraftment in murine models. However, clinical trials with gene therapy have revealed safety concerns related to the immunogenicity of the viral carriers, due to the random integration of viral genes into the host genome. Therefore, a method for CXCR4 gene delivery into HSPC that is safe, non-viral, and highly efficient is needed to improve clinical transplantation and gene therapies. In this work, we investigated the non-viral CXCR4 gene delivery into HSPC using cationic liposome IBAfect. We used CD34+ cells from cord blood and the models of immature hematopoietic cells expressing CD34 antigen, namely leukemic cell lines KG-1a and KG-1. Transfection efficiency was determined by flow cytometric analysis 12, 24, 48 and 72 h after transfection, and the viability of cells analyzed by trypan blue exclusion and  [ ... ]

Ultrasound Enhanced Stem Cells - ch

During the summer of 2011, Binary Research Group provided opportunities to 12 undergraduate / high school students to conduct biomedical research. Our efforts to foster research interest in young minds epitomizes goals of the University of Alberta's Undergraduate Research Initiative. Below are some of their stories: 1. "Students wiser for spending WISEST program in engineering labs - University of Alberta Research - University of Alberta" 2. Undergraduate student Ben Wiltshi expounds on his positively positive experience working on liposomes at Binary Research Group. Watch his inspirational video below: Wiltshi Interview

Our research publication "Thio-glucose bound gold nanoparticles enhance radio-cytotoxic targeting of ovarian cancer," has been downloaded over 250 times from NANOTECHNOLOGY journal during the past quater, placing it among the top 10% of articles. Link: http://stacks.iop.org/0957-4484/22/285101   Paper Highlights Ovarian cancer is particularly insidious in nature and is the leading cause of death among gynecological malignancies. In 2009, 21550 new cases were diagnosed and 14600 women died of ovarian cancer in the United States alone. Only 20% of patients are diagnosed early enough for treatment to be effective. Traditional methods of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy can control cancer symptoms; however, these procedures lack targeting specificity. In particular, radiotherapy covers all cancer cells within its radiation field, inevitably subjecting abdominal organs, such as the liver, kidneys, and small bowel, to lethal radiation. For radiotherapy to be effective, a therapeutic mechanism is needed in order to enhance the cancer killing effects while minimizing cytotoxicity to surrounding tissues. This paper reports that thio-glucose bound gold nanoparticles (Glu-GNPs) can be used as a sensitizer to enhance ovarian cancer radiotherapy. We also provide insight on GNP enhanced radiation therapy on ovarian cancer cells.  

  Dr. Jie Chen is running for IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Board of Governors.  If you agree with his aims and objectives, and are an IEEE member, please show your support by voting for him in the upcoming IEEE election which will open on August 7, 2011 and close on October 7, 2011. Cast your ballot at https://www.directvote.net/ieeecas Excerpt from position statement: "My long-term initiative is to promote cross-disciplinary research in life-science applications and systems. Just as Information Technology dominated the unprecedented progress of the last half century, I believe that biomedical applications and systems will bring the next wave of revolutionary change. As human life expectancy continues its ascent, our population will face growing incidence of age related illness and its associated consequences of physical trauma, emotional distress, and financial burden of medical expenses. Our greatest challenge at present is to improve quality of life for human beings. The field of Circuits and Systems can lead the way in developing new medical devices which provide early diagnosis of disease, targeted drug delivery, and personalized treatment. The quest to inspire circuits and systems engineers to participate in biomedical research is an endeavour I will passionately pursue if elected. I believe it imperative that CASS foster research interest among members and community by providing services such as: (a) Outreach programs to motivate young engineers, and e [ ... ]

Our recent paper: A New Purification Method for Carbon Nanotubes and Associated Atomic Force Microscope Force-Distance Curve Analysis; Chuan He, Yuzhi Hao, Hongbo Zeng, Tian Tang, James Xing and Jie Chen has been accepted by Separation and Purification Technology (Impact factor: 2.774, 5-year impact factor: 3.258, Issues per year: 18).

On July 23, members of Binary Research Group and their families embarked on an annual picnic at Rundle park.

"Systematic Methods to Evaluate Fault-Tolerant Behavior of Nanoscale Circuits" has been published in Advanced Science Letters Vol. 4, 1–12, 2011.

This image entitled “Self-assembled Nanoflower of Phospholipid Coated Gold Nanoparticles” was photographed using Atomic Force Microscopy is featured in the NINT 2011 Calender. It is a joint work of Binary Research Group and Dr. Nils Petersen.

Dr. Jie Chen will share his inspiration on Interdisciplinary Research in Biomedical Nanotechnology at Faculty of Engineering Graduate Research Symposium 2011. Excerpt: "With the burst of the Information Technology (IT) bubble at the beginning of this century, people are looking for the next wave of technology in which to invest. While we believe that biomedical applications and systems are this next stage, unfortunately, the engineering and bioscience communities are unprepared for the challenges Fundamental changes in conducting cross-disciplinary research are required if we are to step forward — cutting down ‘silos’ and breaking down walls of traditional scientific boundaries, and embracing ‘team work’ or ‘team science,’ concepts that are so alien to traditional academic communities. If the engineering and biomedical science communities refuse to see the need for change, this golden era of biological discovery may never come."

Our two latest research papers: 'Thio-glucose bound gold nanoparticles enhance radio-cytotoxic targeting of ovarian cancer', and 'Impact of carbondiimide crosslinker used for magnetic carbon nanotube mediated GFP plasmid delivery' have been published to the journal NANOTECHNOLGY, issue 22, June 2011.

Our research paper: 'REAL-TIME CELL-IMPEDANCE SENSING ASSAY AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO CLONOGENIC ASSAY IN EVALUATING CANCER RADIOTHERAPY' has been published in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry.

Our innovative research on "Carbon Nanotube-Mediated Labelling Platforms for Stem Cells" will be published as the culminating chapter of Carbon Nanotubes / Book 1, ISBN 978-953-307-566-2. The text will be available in June.