Mar 2023 • Cancer Nanotechnology 14 (1), 72, 2023
Yoray Sharon, Menachem Motiei, Chen Tzror-Azankot, Tamar Sadan, Rachela Popovtzer, Eli Rosenbaum
Cisplatin (CP) is the first-line standard of care for bladder cancer. However, a significant percentage of advanced bladder cancer patients are ineligible to receive standard CP treatment, due to the drug’s toxicity, and in particular its nephrotoxicity. These patients currently face suboptimal therapeutic options with lower efficacy. To overcome this limitation, here we designed CP-conjugated gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with specific properties that prevent renal toxicity, and concurrently preserve the therapeutic efficacy of CP. Safety and efficacy of the particles were studied in bladder tumor-bearing mice, using clinically-relevant fractionated or non-fractionated dosing regimens. A non-fractionated high dose of CP-GNP showed long-term intratumoral accumulation, blocked tumor growth, and nullified the lethal effect of CP. Treatment with fractionated lower doses of CP-GNP was also superior to an equivalent treatment with free CP, demonstrating both anti-tumor efficacy and prolonged mouse survival. Moreover, as opposed to free drug, CP-conjugated GNPs did not cause fibrosis or necrosis in kidney. These results indicate that conjugating CP to GNPs can serve as an effective, combined anti-cancer and renoprotective approach, and thus has potential to widen the range of patients eligible for CP-based therapy.
Show moreMar 2023 • Advanced Materials Interfaces
Meital Ozeri, TR Devidas, Hen Alpern, Eylon Persky, Anders V Bjorlig, Nir Sukenik, Shira Yochelis, Angelo Di Bernardo, Beena Kalisky, Oded Millo, Yossi Paltiel
Unconventional superconductivity was realized in systems comprising a monolayer of magnetic adatoms adsorbed on conventional superconductors, forming Shiba‐bands. Another approach to induce unconventional superconductivity and 2D Shiba‐bands was recently introduced, namely, by adsorbing chiral molecules (ChMs) on conventional superconductors, which act in a similar way to magnetic impurities as verified by conductance spectroscopy. However, the fundamental effect ChMs have on the strength of superconductivity has not yet been directly observed and mapped. In this work, local magnetic susceptometry is applied on heterostructures comprising islands of ChMs (α‐helix L‐polyalanine) monolayers adsorbed on Nb. It is found that the ChMs alter the superconducting landscape, resulting in spatially‐modulated weaker superconductivity. Surprisingly, the reduced diamagnetic response is located …
Show moreMar 2023 • Physical Review A
Roy Elbaz, Yaakov Yudkin, Panagiotis Giannakeas, Jan-Michael Rost, Chris H Greene, Lev Khaykovich
We report the observation of coherent oscillations in conversion efficiency of weakly bound dimers formed from a thermal gas of ultracold atoms. Finite thermal energy of the gas causes loss of coherence when a broad continuum is resonantly coupled to a discrete bound state. Restoration of the coherence can be achieved through nonadiabatic transitions of the dressed molecular energy level that are induced by a strong modulation pulse with fast envelope dynamics. Conditions to observe coherent oscillations are verified and control of their properties is demonstrated. The main experimental findings are supported by theoretical modeling and numerical calculations. The observed results may lead to a renewed interest in general studies of a discrete energy level coupled to a broadband continuum when the properties of both are fully controlled.
Show moreMar 2023 • The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Jerry A Fereiro, Tatyana Bendikov, Andreas Herrmann, Israel Pecht, Mordechai Sheves, David Cahen
We demonstrate that the direction of current rectification via one of nature’s most efficient light-harvesting systems, the photosystem 1 complex (PS1), can be controlled by its orientation on Au substrates. Molecular self-assembly of the PS1 complex using four different linkers with distinct functional head groups that interact by electrostatic and hydrogen bonds with different surface parts of the entire protein PS1 complex was used to tailor the PS1 orientation. We observe an orientation-dependent rectification in the current–voltage characteristics for linker/PS1 molecule junctions. Results of an earlier study using a surface two-site PS1 mutant complex having its orientation set by covalent binding to the Au substrate supports our conclusion. Current–voltage–temperature measurements on the linker/PS1 complex indicate off-resonant tunneling as the main electron transport mechanism. Our ultraviolet photoemission …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Nanophotonics
Adamantia Logotheti, Adi Levi, Doron Naveh, Leonidas Tsetseris, Ioanna Zergioti
Due to their atomic-scale thickness, handling and processing of two-dimensional (2D) materials often require multistep techniques whose complexity hampers their large-scale integration in modern device applications. Here we demonstrate that the laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) method can achieve the one-step, nondestructive printing of the prototypical 2D material MoS2. By selecting the optimal LIFT experimental conditions, we were able to transfer arrays of MoS2 pixels from a metal donor substrate to a dielectric receiver substrate. A combination of various characterization techniques has confirmed that the transfer of intact MoS2 monolayers is not only feasible, but it can also happen without incurring significant defect damage during the process. The successful transfer of MoS2 shows the broad potential the LIFT technique has in the emerging field of printed electronics, including printed devices based …
Show moreFeb 2023 • arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.00726
Loris Maria Cangemi, Chitrak Bhadra, Amikam Levy
Engines are systems and devices that convert one form of energy into another, typically into a more useful form that can perform work. In the classical setup, physical, chemical, and biological engines largely involve the conversion of heat into work. This energy conversion is at the core of thermodynamic laws and principles and is codified in textbook material. In the quantum regime, however, the principles of energy conversion become ambiguous, since quantum phenomena come into play. As with classical thermodynamics, fundamental principles can be explored through engines and refrigerators, but, in the quantum case, these devices are miniaturized and their operations involve uniquely quantum effects. Our work provides a broad overview of this active field of quantum engines and refrigerators, reviewing the latest theoretical proposals and experimental realizations. We cover myriad aspects of these devices, starting with the basic concepts of quantum analogs to the classical thermodynamic cycle and continuing with different quantum features of energy conversion that span many branches of quantum mechanics. These features include quantum fluctuations that become dominant in the microscale, non-thermal resources that fuel the engines, and the possibility of scaling up the working medium's size, to account for collective phenomena in many-body heat engines. Furthermore, we review studies of quantum engines operating in the strong system-bath coupling regime and those that include non-Markovian phenomena. Recent advances in thermoelectric devices and quantum information perspectives, including quantum measurement …
Show moreFeb 2023 • The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Shmuel Gonen, Oran Lori, Noam Zion, Lior Elbaz
Extensive research work has been invested in the past decade in finding replacements for platinum-based electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells. The majority of these alternative electrocatalysts are based on transition-metal ions coordinated by organic ligands. Different from previously reported approaches for electrocatalysts, we describe here the synthesis, characterization, and oxygen reduction reaction activity of lanthanide complex electrocatalyst with ytterbium as the metal center. A metal–organic framework of Yb and benzene tricarboxylic acid as a ligand was synthesized on activated carbon (Yb(III)BTC@AC) to achieve electrical conductivity in a procedure similar to M-BTC@AC electrocatalysts with transition-metal centers. The Yb complex in activated carbon presents oxygen reduction reaction activity in alkaline solution with high onset potential relative to other nonpyrolyzed …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Cold Spring Harbor Protocols
Anne C von Philipsborn, Galit Shohat-Ophir, Carolina Rezaval
Courtship in Drosophila melanogaster involves a series of innate, complex behaviors that allow male and female flies to exchange sensory information and assess the quality of a potential mate. Although highly robust and stereotypical, courtship behaviors can be modulated by internal state and experience. This protocol describes methods for designing and carrying out experiments that measure courtship performance in single-pair assays, in which a male is paired with a female, or in competitive assays, in which a male is presented with a female and with a male competitor. It also includes approaches for measuring female sexual receptivity during courtship.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Physical Review E
Lucianno Defaveri, Eli Barkai, David A Kessler
We study the motion of an overdamped particle connected to a thermal heat bath in the presence of an external periodic potential in one dimension. When we coarse-grain, ie, bin the particle positions using bin sizes that are larger than the periodicity of the potential, the packet of spreading particles, all starting from a common origin, converges to a normal distribution centered at the origin with a mean-squared displacement that grows as 2 D* t, with an effective diffusion constant that is smaller than that of a freely diffusing particle. We examine the interplay between this coarse-grained description and the fine structure of the density, which is given by the Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) factor e− V (x)/k B T, the latter being nonnormalizable. We explain this result and construct a theory of observables using the Fokker-Planck equation. These observables are classified as those that are related to the BG fine structure, like the …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Nature communications
Xuan Trung Nguyen, Katrin Winte, Daniel Timmer, Yevgeny Rakita, Davide Raffaele Ceratti, Sigalit Aharon, Muhammad Sufyan Ramzan, Caterina Cocchi, Michael Lorke, Frank Jahnke, David Cahen, Christoph Lienau, Antonietta De Sio
Coupling electromagnetic radiation with matter, e.g., by resonant light fields in external optical cavities, is highly promising for tailoring the optoelectronic properties of functional materials on the nanoscale. Here, we demonstrate that even internal fields induced by coherent lattice motions can be used to control the transient excitonic optical response in CsPbBr3 halide perovskite crystals. Upon resonant photoexcitation, two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy reveals an excitonic peak structure oscillating persistently with a 100-fs period for up to ~2 ps which does not match the frequency of any phonon modes of the crystals. Only at later times, beyond 2 ps, two low-frequency phonons of the lead-bromide lattice dominate the dynamics. We rationalize these findings by an unusual exciton-phonon coupling inducing off-resonant 100-fs Rabi oscillations between 1s and 2p excitons driven by the low-frequency …
Show moreFeb 2023 • IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity
A Roitman, A Shaulov, Y Yeshurun
Coplanar microwave resonators made of NbN and YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-δ show similar behavior under the influence of magnetic field. In particular, the two resonators exhibit marked difference between zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) measurements, which is attributed to the presence of screening currents in ZFC but not in FC measurements.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Cold Spring Harbor Protocols
Anne C von Philipsborn, Galit Shohat-Ophir, Carolina Rezaval
Naive males court both virgin and mated females but learn through experience to discriminate between them, thus minimizing futile investments in nonreceptive female flies. In the laboratory, we can exploit the innate courtship enthusiasm of males and manipulate their behavior by placing them with a nonreceptive female (immature virgin females, decapitated mature virgin females, or mature mated females), termed as the courtship suppression/conditioning assay. Early studies showed that male flies that experience failure to mate upon interaction with nonreceptive previously mated females show decreased motivation to court (courtship suppression). Courtship suppression is an important experimental paradigm for studying genes and neuronal circuits that mediate short-and long-term memory. The anti-aphrodisiac male-specific pheromone 11-cis-vaccenyl-acetate plays a key role in this conditioned response, as …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Results in Surfaces and Interfaces
Naftali Kanovsky, Taly Iline-Vul, Shlomo Margel
Superhydrophobic surfaces are receiving increasing attention due to their real-world applications. However, these surfaces suffer from a lack of durability and complicated synthetic processes. This research uses a combination of a simple in-situ coating process between oxygen-activated polypropylene films and unreacted silane monomers. The in-situ process uses a modified Stöber method with the addition of the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) which aggregates silica (SiO 2) particles in a basic aqueous solution. This resulted in a layer of covalently bonded hierarchical coating of individual and aggregated SiO 2 “flakes” and particles. These coatings were found to have at least double the surface roughness than samples prepared without CTAB with superhydrophilic properties due to their high surface roughness and hydrophilic surface chemical groups. A second layer of fluorocarbon silane …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Physical Review Research
Gal Amit, Yonathan Japha, Tomer Shushi, Ron Folman, Eliahu Cohen
Cold atoms hold much promise for the realization of quantum technologies, but still encounter many challenges. In this work we show how the fundamental Casimir-Polder force, by which atoms are attracted to a surface, may be temporarily suppressed by utilizing a specially designed quantum potential, which is familiar from the hydrodynamic or Bohmian reformulations of quantum mechanics. We show that when harnessing the quantum potential via suitable atomic wave-packet engineering, the absorption by the surface can be dramatically reduced. As a result, the probing time of the atoms as sensors can increase. This is proven both analytically and numerically. Furthermore, an experimental scheme is proposed for achieving the required shape for the atomic wave packet. All these may assist existing applications of cold atoms in metrology and sensing and may also enable prospective ones. Finally, these …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Nano-Structures & Nano-Objects
Jérémy Belhassen, David Glukhov, Matityahu Karelits, Zeev Zalevsky, Avi Karsenty
As part of the performance characterization of a combined and enhanced new AFM-NSOM tip-photo-detector, diffraction limitations were studied on two complementary samples: a nano-barrier embedded between two nano-apertures and one nano-aperture embedded between two nano-barriers. These consecutive multiple-obstacle scanning paths are part of this challenging specifications study of a new conical-shaped and drilled tip-photodetector, sharing a subwavelength aperture. A super-resolution algorithm feature was added in order to overcome possible obstacles, while scanning the same object with several small angles. The new multi-mode system includes scanning topography, optical imaging and an obstacle-overcoming algorithm. The present article study emphasizes the complexity of nano-scanning multiple-apertures/barriers. Both complementary analytical (Python) and numerical (Comsol …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Physical Review Research
Gal Amit, Yonathan Japha, Tomer Shushi, Ron Folman, Eliahu Cohen
Cold atoms hold much promise for the realization of quantum technologies, but still encounter many challenges. In this work we show how the fundamental Casimir-Polder force, by which atoms are attracted to a surface, may be temporarily suppressed by utilizing a specially designed quantum potential, which is familiar from the hydrodynamic or Bohmian reformulations of quantum mechanics. We show that when harnessing the quantum potential via suitable atomic wave-packet engineering, the absorption by the surface can be dramatically reduced. As a result, the probing time of the atoms as sensors can increase. This is proven both analytically and numerically. Furthermore, an experimental scheme is proposed for achieving the required shape for the atomic wave packet. All these may assist existing applications of cold atoms in metrology and sensing and may also enable prospective ones. Finally, these …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Batteries 9 (2), 110, 2023
Ravindra Kumar Bhardwaj, David Zitoun
Metal–sulfur batteries, especially lithium/sodium–sulfur (Li/Na-S) batteries, have attracted widespread attention for large-scale energy application due to their superior theoretical energy density, low cost of sulfur compared to conventional lithium-ion battery (LIBs) cathodes and environmental sustainability. Despite these advantages, metal–sulfur batteries face many fundamental challenges which have put them on the back foot. The use of ether-based liquid electrolyte has brought metal–sulfur batteries to a critical stage by causing intermediate polysulfide dissolution which results in poor cycling life and safety concerns. Replacement of the ether-based liquid electrolyte by a solid electrolyte (SEs) has overcome these challenges to a large extent. This review describes the recent development and progress of solid electrolytes for all-solid-state Li/Na-S batteries. This article begins with a basic introduction to metal–sulfur batteries and explains their challenges. We will discuss the drawbacks of the using liquid organic electrolytes and the advantages of replacing liquid electrolytes with solid electrolytes. This article will also explain the fundamental requirements of solid electrolytes in meeting the practical applications of all solid-state metal–sulfur batteries, as well as the electrode–electrolyte interfaces of all solid-state Li/Na-S batteries.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Physical Review Letters
Ruoyu Yin, Eli Barkai
Classical first-passage times under restart are used in a wide variety of models, yet the quantum version of the problem still misses key concepts. We study the quantum hitting time with restart using a monitored quantum walk. The restart strategy eliminates the problem of dark states, ie, cases where the particle evades detection, while maintaining the ballistic propagation which is important for a fast search. We find profound effects of quantum oscillations on the restart problem, namely, a type of instability of the mean detection time, and optimal restart times that form staircases, with sudden drops as the rate of sampling is modified. In the absence of restart and in the Zeno limit, the detection of the walker is not possible, and we examine how restart overcomes this well-known problem, showing that the optimal restart time becomes insensitive to the sampling period.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Frontiers in Microbiology
Maya Moshe, Chhedi Lal Gupta, Rakeshkumar Manojkumar Jain, Noa Sela, Dror Minz, Ehud Banin, Omer Frenkel, Eddie Cytryn
Bacillus cereus sensu lato (Bcsl) strains are widely explored due to their capacity to antagonize a broad range of plant pathogens. These include B. cereus sp. UW85, whose antagonistic capacity is attributed to the secondary metabolite Zwittermicin A (ZwA). We recently isolated four soil and root-associated Bcsl strains (MO2, S−10, S-25, LSTW-24) that displayed different growth profiles and in-vitro antagonistic effects against three soilborne plant pathogens models: Pythium aphanidermatum (oomycete) Rhizoctonia solani (basidiomycete), and Fusarium oxysporum (ascomycete). To identify genetic mechanisms potentially responsible for the differences in growth and antagonistic phenotypes of these Bcsl strains, we sequenced and compared their genomes, and that of strain UW85 using a hybrid sequencing pipeline. Despite similarities, specific Bcsl strains had unique secondary metabolite and chitinase-encoding genes that could potentially explain observed differences in in-vitro chitinolytic potential and anti-fungal activity. Strains UW85, S-10 and S-25 contained a (~500 Kbp) mega-plasmid that harbored the ZwA biosynthetic gene cluster. The UW85 mega-plasmid contained more ABC transporters than the other two strains, whereas the S-25 mega-plasmid carried a unique cluster containing cellulose and chitin degrading genes. Collectively, comparative genomics revealed several mechanisms that can potentially explain differences in in-vitro antagonism of Bcsl strains toward fungal plant pathogens.
Show moreFeb 2023 • Biophysical Journal
Debjit Roy, Xavier Michalet, Kiran Bharadwaj, Evan W Miller, Yijie Wang, Arjun Deb, Michael A Wayne, Claudio Bruschini, Edoardo Charbon, Mahbanoo Vakili, Robert Gunsalus, Robert T Clubb, Shimon Weiss
While great progress has been achieved in developing optical methods for measuring fast changes in membrane potential (like action potentials) in excitable cells, less progress has been made in precise (and calibrated) measurements of steady state resting membrane potentials (RMPs) and small changes in RMPs (in excitable or non-excitable cells). In excitable cells, small changes in RMPs are associated with multiple physiological processes such as sub-threshold events in neuronal signaling and in synaptic plasticity. They also play an important role in cell differentiation and proliferation of cardiomyocytes. In non-excitable cells, such as bacterial colonies, RMP changes play important roles in intercellular communication, coordination, metabolism, and stress response. Accurate and precise recordings of minute RMP changes require noise-immune optical tools. We have been developing an RMP (calibrated …
Show moreFeb 2023 • Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)
Ori Licht, Dario Barreiro-Lage, Patrick Rousseau, Alexandre Giuliani, Aleksandar Milosavljevic, Avinoam Isaak, Yitzhak Mastai, Amnon Albeck, Raj Singh, Vy Nguyen, Laurent Nahon, Lara Martinez, Sergio Díaz-Tendero, Yoni Toker
Possible routes for intra-cluster bond formation (ICBF) in protonated serine dimers have been studied. We found no evidence of ICBF following low energy collision induced dissociation (in correspondence with previous works), however, we do observe clear evidence for ICBF following photon absorption in the eV range. Moreover, the comparison of photon induced dissociation measurements of the protonated serine dimer to those of a protonated serine dipeptide provides evidence that ICBF, in this case, involves peptide bond formation (PBF). The experimental results are supported by {\it ab initio} molecular dynamics and exploration of several excited state potential energy surfaces, unravelling a pathway for PBF following photon absorption. The combination of experiments and theory provides insight into the PBF mechanisms in clusters of amino acids, and reveals the importance of electronic excited states reached upon UV/VUV light excitation.
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