Academia Sinica

Many microfluidic devices have been developed for use in the study of electrotaxis. Yet, none of these chips allows the efficient study of the simultaneous chemical and electric-field (EF) effects on cells. We developed a polymethylmethacrylate-based device that offers better-controlled coexisting EF and chemical stimulation for use in electrotaxis research.

Studies have shown that cathodal transcranial direct-current stimulation can produce suppressive effects on drug-resistant seizures. In this study, an in vitro experimental setup was devised in which the direct-current stimulation and multielectrode array recording of seizure-like activity were evaluated in mice brain slice preparation. The direct-current stimulation parameters were evaluated.

We present a protocol to measure [¹⁴C]-iodoantipyrine (IAP) uptake and assess the activation of neural substrates that are involved in central post-stroke pain (CPSP) in a rodent model.

An EEG experimental protocol is designed to clarify the interplay between conscious and non-conscious representations of emotional faces in patients with Asperger's syndrome. The technique suggests that patients with Asperger's syndrome have deficits in non-conscious representation of emotional faces, but have comparable performance in conscious representation with healthy controls.

Micro-fabricated devices integrated with fluidic components provide an in vitro platform for cell studies mimicking the in vivo micro-environment. We developed polymethylmethacrylate-based microfluidic chips for studying cellular responses under single or coexisting chemical/electrical/shear stress stimuli.

A protocol for reducing spatial heterogeneities of ion signals in MALDI mass spectrometry by regulating substrate temperature during sample drying processes is demonstrated.

This manuscript describes the bending process of an organic single crystal-based field-effect transistor to maintain a functioning device for electronic property measurement. The results suggest that bending causes changes in the molecular spacing in the crystal and thus in the charge hopping rate, which is important in flexible electronics.

This protocol describes a simple Hybrid-Cut tissue sectioning method that is useful for recalcitrant plant tissues. Good quality tissue sections enable anatomical studies and other biological studies including in situ hybridization (ISH).

Here, we present a protocol for a mosaic labeling technique that permits the visualization of neurons derived from a common progenitor cell in two distinct colors. This facilitates neural lineage analysis with the capability of birth-dating individual neurons and studying gene function in the same neurons of different individuals.

The control of chemical and oxygen gradients is essential for cell cultures. This paper reports a polydimethylsiloxane-polycarbonate (PDMS-PC) microfluidic device capable of reliably generating combinations of chemical and oxygen gradients for cell migration studies, which can be practically utilized in biological labs without sophisticated instrumentation.

Here, the authors present a simple and efficient protocol to define a linear antigenic epitope using a purified monoclonal antibody and peptide scanning through dot-blot hybridization. The identified epitope can then be used in therapeutic and diagnostic applications.

This protocol describes a detailed method for the long-term ex vivo culture and live imaging of a Drosophila imaginal disc. It demonstrates photoreceptor differentiation and ommatidial rotation within the 10 h period of live imaging of the eye disc. The protocol is simple and does not require expensive setup.

In this protocol, caged protein kinase A (PKA), a cellular signal transduction bioeffector, was immobilized on a nanoparticle surface, microinjected into the cytosol, and activated by the upconverted UV light from near-infrared (NIR) irradiation, inducing downstream stress fiber disintegration in the cytosol.

A modular approach to the synthesis of N-glycans for attachment to an aluminum oxide-coated glass slide (ACG slide) as a glycan microarray has been developed and its use for the profiling of an HIV broadly neutralizing antibody has been demonstrated.

This manuscript describes how to design and fabricate efficient inverted SMPV1:PC₇₁BM solar cells with ZnO nanorods (NRs) grown on a high quality Al-doped ZnO (AZO) seed layer. The well-aligned vertically oriented ZnO NRs exhibit high crystalline properties. The power conversion efficiency of solar cells can reach 6.01%.

Through the sulfurization of pre-deposited transition metals, large-area and vertical 2D crystal hetero-structures can be fabricated. The film transferring and device fabrication procedures are also demonstrated in this report.

In this protocol, we demonstrate the application of serial-section electron tomography to elucidate mitochondrial structure in Drosophila indirect flight muscle.

We have successfully generated two substrate-specific γ-secretase assays. Both cell-based assays presented here are designed to quantify γ-secretase enzymatic activities via the output of firefly luciferase reporters.

Here, we describe a protocol for visualizing motor neuron projection and axon arborization in transgenic Hb9::GFP mouse embryos. After immunostaining for motor neurons, we used light sheet fluorescence microscopy to image embryos for subsequent quantitative analysis. This protocol is applicable to other neuron navigation processes in the central nervous system.

A protocol for enhancing carbohydrate ion signals in MALDI mass spectrometry by reforming crystalline structures during sample preparation processes is demonstrated.

Several methods are available for the fabrication of channels of non-rectangular sections embedded in polydimethylsiloxane microfluidic devices. Most of them involve multistep manufacturing and extensive alignment. In this paper, a one-step approach is reported for fabricating microfluidic channels of different geometric cross sections by polydimethylsiloxane sequential wet etching.

This protocol demonstrates how to use the Auto-CHO software for hierarchical and programmable one-pot synthesis of oligosaccharides. It also describes the general procedure for RRV determination experiments and one-pot glycosylation of SSEA-4.

In this study, we present a protocol for the differentiation of neural stem and progenitor cells (NPCs) solely induced by direct current (DC) pulse stimulation in a microfluidic system.

This paper provides a detailed protocol for preparing sample grids at temperatures as high as 70 °C, prior to plunge freezing for cryo-EM experiments.

AlPcS_2a-mediated chromophore-assisted laser inactivation (CALI) is a powerful tool for studying spatiotemporal damage of intracellular vesicles (IVs) in live cells.

This protocol provides instructions for triggering and monitoring Stub1-mediated pexophagy in live cells.

Here, we present a protocol to perform two-photon calcium imaging in the dorsal forebrain of adult zebrafish.