Distinguished iNANO Lecture: From marine fouling prevention to antibacterial surfaces: The role of protein adsorption
Professor Julius Vancso, University of Twente, The Netherlands
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iNANO Auditorium (1593-012), Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus C
Professor Julius Vancso, MESA+ Institute of Nanotechnology, University of Twente, The NetherlandsFrom marine fouling prevention to antibacterial surfaces: The role of protein adsorptionBiofilm forming, bacterial adhesion, and settlement of fouling species in marine environment depend on several physico-chemical parameters related to the surface of the fouling objects. To study the influence of only one parameter while keeping the others essentially unchanged is a challenge. In this presentation we first discuss substrates decorated by mixed monolayers at different compositions without electrostatic charge, but exhibiting different wettability. AFM was used to characterize the monolayers and protein deposits (adhesion, spreading, morphology) showing notable differences in protein deposit size and adhesion forces vs. surface polarity for the cyprid larvae of a well-known marine fouling barnacle species. We then report on a molecular fabrication approach to precisely control surface zeta potentials of polymeric thin layers constructed by electrostatic layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly methods. The fouling behavior of barnacle cyprids and bacteria on the LbL films with similar hydrophilicity and roughness but different surface charge densities were studied. Finally, we show how AFM based force spectroscopy can be used to determine isoelectric point values for proteins with unknown sequence distributions that are available only in minute amounts. Short bio:G. Julius Vancso studied physics and materials science at the University of Budapest, Hungary, and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zürich), and holds a PhD in solid state physics. Following a tenured faculty appointment at the University of Toronto he joined the University of Twente in the Netherlands in 1994 and is at present Professor and Chairholder in Polymer Materials Science and Technology. He carries out his research in the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology of the same university. His current interests involve materials science of smart soft matter for applications in biomaterials and medicine, fluidics and sensing; single molecule studies, surface engineering with polymers, and materials chemistry of organometallic polymers. He has been appointed as Visiting Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 2014.Prof. Vancso is Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He published over 500 papers, which earned him over 11,500 citations and an h-factor of 51. He is co-inventor of 7 patents, and co-owner of the spin-off Aerotech B.V., which specializes on nanocellular polymer composites. | |
Host: Associate professor Brigitte Städler, Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Aarhus University |