Explore the vast range of titles available.

The development of fully defined culture conditions for human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) should enhance experimental reproducibility, reduce unwanted contaminants and facilitate scale-up production. Melkoumian et al . show that a substrate made of peptides derived from extracellular matrix proteins supports long-term culture of hESCs and differentiation to cardiomyocytes. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have two properties of interest for the development of cell therapies: self-renewal and the potential to differentiate into all major lineages of somatic cells in the human body. Widespread clinical application of hESC-derived cells will require culture methods that are low-cost, robust, scalable and use chemically defined raw materials. Here we describe synthetic peptide-acrylate surfaces (PAS) that support self-renewal of hESCs in chemically defined, xeno-free medium. H1 and H7 hESCs were successfully maintained on PAS for over ten passages. Cell morphology and phenotypic marker expression were similar for cells cultured on PAS or Matrigel. Cells on PAS retained normal karyotype and pluripotency and were able to differentiate to functional cardiomyocytes on PAS. Finally, PAS were scaled up to large culture-vessel formats. Synthetic, xeno-free, scalable surfaces that support the self-renewal and differentiation of hESCs will be useful for both research purposes and development of cell therapies.

π-Conjugated polymers that are electrochemically cycled in ionic liquids have enhanced lifetimes without failure (up to 1 million cycles) and fast cycle switching speeds (100 ms). We report results for electrochemical mechanical actuators, electrochromic windows, and numeric displays made from three types of π-conjugated polymers: polyaniline, polypyrrole, and polythiophene. Experiments were performed under ambient conditions, yet the polymers showed negligible loss in electroactivity. These performance advantages were obtained by using environmentally stable, room-temperature ionic liquids composed of 1-butyl-3-methyl imidazolium cations together with anions such as tetrafluoroborate or hexafluorophosphate.

Currently, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are cultured on feeder cells or complex mixtures of proteins extracted from mouse tumors 1 , 2 . To allow commercialization of hESC-derived therapeutic cells, culture methods are required that are robust and scalable and that use chemically defined, xeno-free materials. Corning Synthemax Surface is a novel synthetic surface that permits consistent long-term self-renewal of multiple hESC lines in defined, xeno-free media and differentiation of cells to functional cardiomyocytes 3 .

Lu et al report results for electrochemical mechanical actuators, electrochromic windows, and numeric displays made from three types of pi-conjugated polymers. Experiments were performed under ambient conditions, yet the polymers showed negligible loss in electroactivity.