| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/T23657/01 |
| Title: |
Nanomanipulation to Probe Biological Particles in Environmental SEM |
| Principal Investigator: |
Zhang, Professor Z |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Department: |
Chemical Engineering |
| Organisation: |
University of Birmingham |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 May 2005 |
Ends: |
30 April 2008 |
Value (£): |
189,894
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Biomaterials |
Complex fluids & soft solids |
| Surfaces & Interfaces |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Understanding the mechanical properties of biological particles (e.g. yeast, bacteria and chondrocytes) has a wide range of applications in the bioprocessing industry, product formulation and tissue engineering, which requires determination of both the force exerted on them and their deformation simultaneously in order to obtain a stress-strain relationship. However, accurate determination of their three-dimensional deformation under load has not been possible due to their small sizes (1-15 microns in diameter). Environmental SEM is a very powerful tool to visualise materials on micro- or nano- scales under wet mode. It has been recently demonstrated that a nanomanipulaton device with a force probe can be built in an environmental scanning electron microscope. However, the image quality of a test specimen strongly depends on the interactions between the electrons generated in the microscope and the materials (e.g. water layer, glass, metal) present, including their size, surface properties and chemical composition. There is lack of understanding of the physics of such interactions, which prevents accurate determination of the mechanic rties ofmaterials on micro- or nano- scales. The objective of this project is to bring the expertise of micromanipulation at Birmingham and ESEM at bridgein order to develop a novel nanomanipulation technique, to investigate the physics of electron-material interactions in order to get high quality images of biological particles under wet mode, and to determine their mechanical properties of model cells.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.bham.ac.uk |