MEMS micro-coils for magnetic neurostimulation.

Micro-coil magnetic stimulation of brain tissue presents new challenges for MEMS micro-coil probe fabrication. The main challenges are threefold; (i) low coil resistance for high power efficiency, (ii) low leak current from the probe into the in vitro experimental set-up, (iii) adaptive MEMS process technology because of the dynamic research area, which requires agile design changes. Taking on these challenges, we present a MEMS fabrication process that has three main features; (i) multilayer resist lift-off process to pattern up to 1800-nm-thick metal films, and special care is taken to obtain high conductivity thin-films by physical vapor deposition, and (ii) all micro-coil Al wires are encapsulated in at least 200 nm of ALD alumina and 6-µm-thick parylene C such the leak resistance is high (>210 GΩ), (iii) combining a multi-step DRIE process and maskless photolithography for adaptive design and device fabrication. The entire process requires four lithography steps. Because we avoided SOI wafers and lithography mask fabrication, the design-to-device time is shortened significantly. The resulting probes are 4-mm-long, 60-µm-thick, and down to 150 µm-wide. Selected MEMS coil devices were validated in vivo using mice and compared to previous work.

Airport emission particles: exposure characterization and toxicity following intratracheal instillation in mice.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the exposure levels and adverse health effects of occupational exposure to airplane emissions. Diesel exhaust particles are classified as carcinogenic to humans and jet engines produce potentially similar soot particles. Here, we evaluated the potential occupational exposure risk by analyzing particles from a non-commercial airfield and from the apron of a commercial airport. Toxicity of the collected particles was evaluated alongside NIST standard reference diesel exhaust particles (NIST2975) in terms of acute phase response, pulmonary inflammation, and genotoxicity after single intratracheal instillation in mice. RESULTS: Particle exposure levels were up to 1 mg/m3 at the non-commercial airfield. Particulate matter from the non-commercial airfield air consisted of primary and aggregated soot particles, whereas commercial airport sampling resulted in a more heterogeneous mixture of organic compounds including salt, pollen and soot, reflecting the complex occupational exposure at an apron. The particle contents of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and metals were similar to the content in NIST2975. Mice were exposed to doses 6, 18 and 54 µg alongside carbon black (Printex 90) and NIST2975 and euthanized after 1, 28 or 90 days. Dose-dependent increases in total number of cells, neutrophils, and eosinophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid were observed on day 1 post-exposure for all particles. Lymphocytes were increased for all four particle types on 28 days post-exposure as well as for neutrophil influx for jet engine particles and carbon black nanoparticles. Increased Saa3 mRNA levels in lung tissue and increased SAA3 protein levels in plasma were observed on day 1 post-exposure. Increased levels of DNA strand breaks in bronchoalveolar lavage cells and liver tissue were observed for both particles, at single dose levels across doses and time points. CONCLUSIONS: Pulmonary exposure of mice to particles collected at two airports induced acute phase response, inflammation, and genotoxicity similar to standard diesel exhaust particles and carbon black nanoparticles, suggesting similar physicochemical properties and toxicity of jet engine particles and diesel exhaust particles. Given this resemblance as well as the dose-response relationship between diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer, occupational exposure to jet engine emissions at the two airports should be minimized.

Parasites in Myodes glareolus and their association with diet assessed by stable isotope analysis.

Vertebrates are hosts to numerous parasites, belonging to many different taxa. These parasites differ in transmission, being through either direct contact, a faecal-oral route, ingestion of particular food items, vertical or sexual transmission, or by a vector. Assessing the impact of diet on parasitism can be difficult because analysis of faecal and stomach content are uncertain and labourious; and as with molecular methods, do not provide diet information over a longer period of time. We here explored whether the analysis of stable isotopes in hair provides insight into the impact of diet and the presence of parasites in the rodent Myodes glareolus. Twenty-one animals were examined for parasites and their hair analysed for stable isotopes (C and N). A positive correlation between δ15N and one species of intestinal parasite was observed in females. Furthermore, several ectoparasites were negatively correlated with δ15N, indicating that infections are further associated with foraging habits (size and layout of the home range, length and timing of foraging, interaction with other rodents, etc.) that set the rodents in direct contact with infected hosts. Although a limited number of animals were included, it seemed that the isotope values allowed for identification of the association between diet and parasite occurrence in this rodent. We therefore propose that this method is useful in providing further insight into host biology, feeding preferences and potential exposure to parasites species, contributing to the understanding of the complex relationship between hosts and parasites.

Nanodisc Films for Membrane Protein Studies by Neutron Reflection: Effect of the Protein Scaffold Choice.

Nanodisc films are a promising approach to study the equilibrium conformation of membrane bound proteins in native-like environment. Here we compare nanodisc formation for NADPH-dependent cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (POR) using two different scaffold proteins, MSP1D1 and MSP1E3D1. Despite the increased stability of POR loaded MSP1E3D1 based nanodiscs in comparison to MSP1D1 based nanodiscs, neutron reflection at the silicon-solution interface showed that POR loaded MSP1E3D1 based nanodisc films had poor surface coverage. This was the case, even when incubation was carried out under conditions that typically gave high coverage for empty nanodiscs. The low surface coverage affects the embedded POR coverage in the nanodisc film and limits the structural information that can be extracted from membrane bound proteins within them. Thus, nanodisc reconstitution on the smaller scaffold proteins is necessary for structural studies of membrane bound proteins in nanodisc films.