BLINKING IN QUANTUM DOTS AND ENDOTHELIAL CELLS UNDER CURVATURE AND SHEAR STRESS

Quantum dots;kinetic Monte Carlo;nanobiotechnology;blood-brain barrier;image processing;shear stress;Physics

Ye, MaoSearson, Peter C. ;

Johns Hopkins University

关键词: Quantum dots;    kinetic Monte Carlo;    nanobiotechnology;    blood-brain barrier;    image processing;    shear stress;    Physics;   

Others  :  https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/37950/YE-DISSERTATION-2015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: JOHNS HOPKINS DSpace Repository

【 摘 要 】

Two research topics at the interface of physics, materials science, and biology are presented in this dissertation, (1) blinking in quantum dots, and (2) endothelial cells under curvature and shear stress. Quantum dot (QD) blinking is characterized by switching between an ;;on” and an ;;off” state, and power-law distributions of on and off times with exponents from 1.0 to 2.0.The origin of blinking behavior in QDs, however, has remained a mystery.We report an energy-band model for QDs that captures the full range of blinking behavior reported in the literature and provides new insight into features such as the gray state, power-law distributions of on and off times, and the power-law exponents. The highly specialized endothelial cells in brain capillaries are a key component of the blood-brain barrier, forming a network of tight junctions that almost completely block paracellular transport.In contrast to vascular endothelial cells in other organs, we show that brain microvascular endothelial cells resist elongation in response to curvature and shear stress.Since the tight junction network is defined by endothelial cell morphology, these results suggest that there may be an evolutionary advantage to resisting elongation by minimizing the total length of cell-cell junctions per unit length of vessel.