Andreea Matei

Deposition and Characterization of Laccase Thin Films Obtained by Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation

Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE) was used as an alternative technique within strategies for enzyme immobilization to produce Laccase thin films.

A study on matrix assisted pulsed evaporation (MAPLE) of organic materials

Organic films can be produced either by MAPLE or directly by PLD (Pulsed laser deposition). For a reasonable deposition rate of ng/cm2 per pulse for film production by MAPLE a fluence of 1-1.5 J/cm2 is required at the laser wavelength of 355 nm, while the fluence can be considerably lower at 248 nm. At high fluence the deposition rate of proteins by MAPLE seems to decrease. The surface roughness is still an issue, but at low fluence it seems to be acceptable. The fragmentation rate increases with fluence, and seems to be less pronounced for MAPLE than for PLD. Also this issue is not yet resolved.

MG63 cells behavior on rough polypyrrole scaffolds investigated by digital holographic microscopy

The study of cells-substrate interaction became a stringent subject in the past decades, since an increasing variety of new materials and methods have been involved in tissue engineering or implants techniques. The investigation of this interaction using optical methods is a challenge, especially since these substrates are not optically polished. Due to their roughness in the micrometric or submicrometric range, the polymeric substrates offers good conditions for cells adhesion, but the characterization of cells properties can be hindered. In this study, we use Polypyrrole thin films, acting as substrates for cultured osteoblast-like MG63 cells having applications in tissue engineering for in vivo-like scaffolds. As characterization technique, we chose digital holographic microscopy, a single-shot technique, to obtain quantitative information about the sample features in a plane perpendicular to the substrate. Different parameters were tested in the experimental setup with the aim of finding the optimal conditions for details visualization. The reconstructed 3D images were filtered using a combination of analytical and implicit functions from MATLAB to exclude small/large objects, which correspond to Polypyrrole droplets to clearly identify the cells contour for quantitative measurements regarding their dimensions. These data were correlated with the effects on osteoblasts viability and differentiation. Also, the thickness and the refractive index of the substrate were determined using the decoupling procedure.