Probing in vitro cells
Scientists from the ARC Training Centre in Biodevices at Swinburne University developed a microscale multi-electrode array device (MEA) as a tool that probes the electrical properties of adherent single cells to identify their biological characteristics.
Monitoring cellular parameters in vitro is a fundamental requirement at the core of cell biology and impacts all the medical field and beyond. This technology was investigated for its potential to be used to test cell characteristics produced for cell-based therapies and reduce the cost related to their production.
The research project was conducted by Dr Steve Beguin under the supervision of Prof. Sally McArthur and in collaboration with industry partner MiniFAB. The facilities at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication were extensively used by the researchers to develop a new method to manufacture microscopic electrodes that enabled high resolution and high-quality measurement of single cells in a culture of human stem cells.
The exceptionally flat topography of the microelectrodes allowed the tight cell-substrate sealing necessary to perform the measurements, which outperformed previously reported sealing resistance by 10 – 1,000-fold and allowed to directly measure the specific capacitance of the cell plasma membrane.
The project was one of the 10 PhD in Technology Innovation completed with industry in the ARC Training Centre in Biodevices at Swinburne.
Image captions
Header image – Left: Top view of MEA electrode array. Top Right: Cross section of device made using FIB-SEM. Bottom Right: The MEA Device.
Inset image – Top: Labelled cross section, made using FIB-SEM. Bottom: Human stem cells on MEA Device.
ANFF CEO appointed
Dr Ian Griffiths has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF), commencing this quarter. The decision was announced by ANFF’s Chairman and Board on 8 July 2019, following an extensive four-month search.
Dr Griffiths is currently CEO of Wound Innovations Pty Ltd, a spin-out from the Wound Management Innovation Cooperative Research Centre of which he was Director and CEO. Over an extensive career in Australia and the UK he has successfully established companies based on new technologies and worked with universities, industry and government in fostering high-end research and innovation.
As CEO of ANFF, Dr Griffiths will provide leadership and oversight to the eight ANFF nodes that are spread across Australia. Based primarily in Brisbane, QLD, Dr Griffiths will work with the ANFF team to ensure that ANFF and the 500+ micro and nanofabrication capabilities in its open access portfolio continue to enable ground-breaking research.
Publication of the year announced
MCN-enabled research published by Professor Qiaoliang Bao and colleagues at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET) has been selected as the ANFF-VIC Publication of the Year, following an internal selection process.
The team has, for the first time, demonstrated a bizarre behaviour of light that could enable ultra-efficient optoelectrical devices and superfast transmission of information.
The team were working with van der Walls (vdW) materials – a class of materials that feature many weakly-bound layers of atoms – and a hybrid particle called a polariton – a particle of light (a photon) which is bound to a particle of vibrational energy (a phonon).
The paper, In-plane anisotropic and ultra-low-loss polaritons in a natural van der Waals crystal, was chosen as the winner by ANFF-VIC’s selection panel due to its impact, pioneering nature and level of engagement with MCN. All papers that were published in 2018 that correctly acknowledged ANFF-VIC were eligible for selection.
For more information on the project, visit FLEET’s website.
Tickets on sale for ANFF-VIC Winter Workshop
Tickets are now on sale for ANFF-VIC’s Winter Workshop, a two-day event featuring technical talks and practicals aimed at researchers that are new to nanofab or the ANFF network. The Workshop is being held at MCN on 19 and 20 August 2019.
Hear from experts and ANFF-VIC users as they discuss the open-access nanofabrication capabilities made available by ANFF-VIC.
Each day, the mornings will be filled with ANFF-VIC hub-focused talks, presenting 7 locations’ flagship capabilities, example case studies and technical process talks. The afternoons comprise in-lab practicals, demonstrations, and tours of local facilities.
Click here for more information or click here to view the program flyer.
Nanoscale Horizons Outstanding Paper runner-up 2018 enabled by MCN
A paper by MCN resident users has been selected as the Nanoscale Horizons Outstanding Paper 2018 runner-up.
The paper, A location- and sharpness-specific tactile electronic skin based on staircase-like nanowire patches (DOI: 10.1039/C8NH00125A) was written by Shu Gong, Yan Wang, Lim Wei Yap, Yunzhi Ling, Yunmeng Zhao, Dashen Dong, Qianqian Shi, Yiyi Liu, Hemayet Uddin and ANFF-VIC Technology Ambassador, Wenlong Cheng.
According to the RSC, “The article reports on a tactile electronic skin sensor based on staircase-like vertically aligned gold nanowires. With a back-to-back linear or spiral assembly of two staircase structures into a single sensor, the authors were able to recognize pressure in a highly location-specific manner for both non-stretched and stretched states opening up a new route to highly specific second-skin-like tactile sensors for wearable sensing applications.”
Nanoscale Horizons, a journal published by the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry, put together a shortlist of articles published during 2018 based on the science presented and the article metrics including average article downloads and citations, and Altmetrics. The shortlist was reviewed by the journal’s Editorial and Advisory Board members.
Platform Manager Position Available At UniMelb
There is currently a Platform Manager position available at the University of Melbourne to lead the operations of the Materials Characterisation and Fabrication Platform (MCFP) at the Department of Chemical Engineering. This position is a maternity leave backfill for a period of 9 months.
The deadline for applicants is 1 May 2019, click here for more details.
ANFF-VIC Technology Ambassadors – Class of 2019
ANFF-VIC has welcomed three new Technology Ambassadors in March – Dr David Garrett, Dr Ranjith Unnithan and Professor Peter Kingshott.
Since the TA scheme was initiated in 2011, Ambassadors have been selected from a broad range of disciplines, each with their own unique demands for micro/nanotechnology.
In addition to their core research activities, ANFF-VIC TAs use their considerable expertise to create new processes that benefit the ANFF-VIC user community and undergo in-kind cooperative activities reflecting the current and emerging needs of researchers in their respective fields.
There is now a total 12 ANFF-VIC Technology Ambassadors: Saulius Juodkazis (Swinburne), Qialiang Bao (Monash), Victor Cadarso (Monash), Ranjith Unnithan (UniMelb), Sharath Sriram (RMIT), Grant van Riessen (La Trobe), David Garrett (UniMelb), Anthony Chesman (CSIRO), Peter Kingshott (Swinburne), Udo Bach (Monash), Wenlong Cheng (Monash), Lingxue Kong (Deakin)
Dr David J. Garrett
Senior Research Fellow – University of Melbourne
Dr David Garrett’s career has been aimed at overcoming the limitations of neural interface technology using carbon materials, resulting in a series of patents and more than 40 papers within eight years.
In 2015, Dr Garrett founded a start-up in Canada, based around commercialising a retinal prosthesis developed in his early career.
Dr Garrett will be focused on how to translate devices that harness the properties of nanometre-thick layers of diamond to industrially relevant applications, investigating both the abilities of these devices, and the way they connect with the outside world.
As such the team will be heavily using MCN’s diamond deposition suite, featuring two Seki MPCVD systems that are used for growing ultra-high purity and nitrogen vacancy diamond, or for growing boron-doped diamond.
Dr Ranjith Unnithan
Senior Lecturer – University of Melbourne
Dr Ranjith Unnithan’s research areas span CMOS image sensors, electronic sensors for biomedical applications, thermal image cameras and nanophotonic engineering.
In addition to publishing a string of high-impact papers, Dr Unnithan has demonstrated a talent for commercialising technologies, having won four innovation awards and co-founding Hort-Eye Pty Ltd – a precision drone sensing company – with a team from the University of Melbourne.
Dr Unnithan will be working to improve the ways in which nanostructures are incorporated with electrical devices such as CMOS image sensors. He aims to improve the fabrication process of these nanostructures to allow them to be created directly onto a sensor, which would reduce the size, weight and power consumption of these devices compared to traditional technologies.
Nanostructures are of interest to imaging applications as they can be used to tune a sensor to particular bands of the light spectrum, making them incredibly useful when trying to collect as much information about a field-of-view as possible. However, current methods to create the structures involve the use of heat, vacuums or plasmas which can reduce the sensitivity of the sensor instead of enhancing it – fabrication issues Dr Unnithan hopes to overcome using novel manufacturing processes.
Dr Unnithan’s project will be reliant on MCN’s high-resolution lithography systems, including the NanoFrazor which uses a heated cantilever tip to create structures with a resolution of ~10nm.
Professor Peter Kingshott
Department Research Director – Swinburne University of Technology
Professor Peter Kingshott has built an international profile in the multidisciplinary field of biointerface science – his expertise extends into nanomaterials, colloid and surface science, biomaterials, biomedical engineering, and regenerative medicine.
He has published more than 150 publications, holds a range of patents, and has been the editor for Applied Surface Science for more than five years.
Professor Kingshott and his researchers will be investigating advanced surface nanostructures for biomedical applications with a particular focus on the ways surface topography can encourage or manipulate stem cell growth.
This broad-scoped project will also delve into surface chemistries and patterns that could inhibit the growth or movement of bacteria.
Professor Kingshott will be using a range of both masked and maskless lithography techniques – in addition to characterisation, plasma polymerisation, and atomic layer deposition capabilities – from across the hubs of ANFF-VIC as he conducts his research.
MCN User Satisfaction Survey 2018
We would like to thank all of those that took part in this year’s survey – we have received the largest response to date.
Survey prize winner
Lars Esser has been selected as the winner of the MCN User Satisfaction prize draw, taking home the prize of $200 user credit to be added to his account for future projects.
Lars is a research fellow at CSIRO developing new strategies to diagnose and treat brain cancer.
The results
Overall, 90% of respondents described their experiences with MCN as good or very good, according to five questions relating to access times, quality of service, and communication – a particular highlight was that more than 95% of respondents stated that the consulting expertise of MCN Process Engineers was good, or very good.
The ANFF-VIC management team is now working to build on the successes that were highlighted and identifying the best ways to address the concerns raised within the responses to the survey. The results report will be published shortly after.
Microscopic Gardening wins Image of the Year 2018
It appears that the ANFF-VIC community has green fingers this year – Microscopic Gardening: Tiny Blossoms of Silicon by Vivek Garg has been voted the ANFF-VIC Image of the Year 2018.
The image shows a scanning electron micrograph (false-color) of Silicon (Si) nanoflowers, created using MCN’s Focused Ion Beam (FIB) in conjunction with wet chemical etching.
As winner of the competition, Vivek will take home a $200 prize.
Vivek and his colleagues are investigating fabrication of 3D freeform structures of Si, such as these nanoflowers, due to their unique optical properties. Such structures can be engineered to selectively absorb light, and produce various colours depending on their architecture – they have tremendous potential for future optics applications such as optical security, polarimetry, and spectral imaging.
“The bulk structuration of Si substrate, based on the ion implantation design and area, allows fabrication of exotic functional and 3D micro/nanostructures on Si substrate exhibiting unique optical properties for applications in nanophotonics and physical sciences,” Vivek explained.
Vivek is a PhD candidate with the IITB-Monash Research Academy, a collaboration between IIT Bombay, India and Monash University, Australia. He is working with Dr Rakesh Mote (IIT Bombay) and Dr Jing Fu (Monash) on the fabrication and controlled manipulation of freeform 3D micro/nanostructures with ion beams. This work is a part of his thesis project, in which he is investigating the use of FIB nanofabrication in creating novel nanostructures for diverse applications such as anti-reflection, colour filtering, sensors and more.
Read more about Vivek’s work here http://www.vivekgarg.org/, or view the full shortlist for the 2018 Image of the Year competition below.
The 2018 ANFF-VIC Image of the Year
Here is the shortlist for the ANFF-VIC Image of the Year, click on the images to see the original.
“Aboriginal art”
(Confocal fluorescence microscope) – Nazia Tabassum
'Mice skin histology: Confocal fluorescence microscope image showing different viable strata; top stratum corneum, epidermis, dermis and hypodermis, containing different cells such as sebaceous glands, hair follicle bulbs, adipocytes cells, panniculus carnosus and pigmentation in bulbs. This histology was conducted after topical delivery of fluorescent molecules using silicon nanoneedles. In future studies, this designed study will facilitate to investigate the penetration and permeation of fluorescent-labelled antineoplastic drug into viable layers of skin and drug delivery against skin cancer melanoma.'
"Rivalry"
(SEM) – Aaqil Rifai, Alastair Stacey, Kate Fox
'Polycrystalline diamond (PCD) coated on 3D printed titanium using the MCN CVD 6500 equipment. This is an SEM image which beautifully represents the 111 (triangular) facets training whereas the 100 (square) facets do not. Our work has been published in the article entitled: "Polycrystalline Diamond Coating of Additively Manufactured Titanium for Biomedical Applications".'
"NanoPiano"
(SEM) – Marina Adeeb Tadros
'It is Fibroblast cells plated on silicon nanowire. The image was taken at MCN at FEG-SEM.'
“Microscopic Gardening: Tiny Blossoms of Silicon” – Winner
(SEM) – Vivek Garg
'The image show scanning electron micrograph of Silicon nanoflowers realized with focused ion beams in conjunction with wet chemical etching. The bulk structuration of Si substrate, based on the ion implantation design and area, allows fabrication of exotic functional and 3D micro/nanostructures on Si substrate exhibiting unique optical properties for applications in nanophotonics and physical sciences.'
"The Tree of Life"
(SEM) – Stella Aslanoglou, Crystal Chen, Gediminas Gervinskas
'Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of a focused ion beam cut revealing the interface between a mouse immune B cell and a single silicon nanowire after 1 h of incubation. Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are employed for the intracellular delivery of biomolecules towards the development of a novel cell-based immunotherapy. SiNW fabrication and cell culture was performed at MCN facilities. FIB-SEM sample preparation and imaging was performed at the Ramaciotti Centre for Cryo-Electron Microscopy.'
Farewell, congratulations, and good luck to Rosie Hicks, ANFF’s inaugural CEO
ANFF CEO, Rosie Hicks and the ANFF-VIC team.
ANFF-VIC Director, Professor Nico Voelcker, bids best wishes to Rosie Hicks at her farewell event held at MCN.
The ANFF-VIC Collaboration Committee.
Rosie Hicks is presented with her gift from ANFF-VIC.
Rosie Hicks' parting gift from ANFF-VIC – The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai, made using a layer of SiO to create the blue background, gold deposition to colour the boats, and a lithography mask to provide the silver for the waves and border.
Rosie Hicks, ANFF CEO, has decided to move on to her next chapter after nearly 12 years at the helm of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF).
She will take up the position of CEO of the recently formed Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) on 15 April 2019.
Images from a farewell event held at MCN can be seen above.
