Happy to contribute to this 2021 paper in Cell Reports Physical Science - congrats to Mihai and Aitor and all co-authors.
User Meeting
We are holding the UCD AFM Users’ Meeting on April 26 from 10-12 on Zoom. With new AFM systems having arrived or due to arrive across the university, the meeting serves to give a forum for the community of users to showcase and discuss their research. The schedule for the meeting is shown below; we look forward to seeing you there (email brian.rodriguez@ucd.ie for Zoom invitation).
10:00 Welcome
10:03 Lecturer/Assistant Professor Dr Sourav Bhattacharjee, “AFM on mucin strands and its therapeutic implications”
10:14 Visakh Pillai (Benedetto group), “Amyloid-ionic liquid: an AFM based approach”
10:25 Dr Jacek Wychowaniec (Brougham group), “Quantitative nanomechanical properties evaluation of a family of β-sheet peptide fibres using rapid bimodal AFM”
10:36 Pallavi Kumari (Benedetto group), “Room temperature Ionic liquids reduce the mechano-elasticity of lipid bilayer: AFM force spectroscopy studies”
10:47 Hossam Ibrahim (Rodriguez group), “Spherical probe preparation for nano mechanical characterisation”
10:53 Deirdre Clissmann (Brennan group), “AFM analysis of a chemically crosslinked 3D cell culture model of the optic nerve”
10:59 Michelle Fox (Thorpe group), “Biomechanical assessment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma using AFM”
11:05 Agata Fularz (Rice group), “Nanoscale structuring of polymers”
11:16 Paven Thomas Mathew (Fang group), “Fundamental studies to achieve atomic scale material removal using atomic force microscopy”
11:27 Ciaran Barron (Zerulla group), “Sculpting plasmonic emitters using AFM lithography”
11:33 Louise Tackaberry (Rodriguez/Brougham), “Characterisation of PNIPAM microgels using AFM”
11:39 Tianyu Guan (Zhang group), “Modified AFM tip to determine the adhesion and friction between coating and polymer materials”
11:45 Dr Srikanth Kolagatla (Rodriguez group), “Localized contact potential measurements on battery anode materials”
11:51 Discussion
12:00 End
Magnetic Hydrogels: Spatiotemporally Resolved Heat Dissipation in 3D Patterned Magnetically Responsive Hydrogels
Great to see this work led by Prof. Dermot Brougham published in Small. Congrats to Trish and Jacek and all co-authors! From Small: “Dermot F. Brougham and co‐workers demonstrate 3D printable responsive magnetic hydrogels composed of magnetic iron oxide nanoflowers and Pluronic polymers that encode spatiotemporally controlled temperature increase and dye release on alternating magnetic field irradiation.“
"Replica molds of cicada wings give flight to possibilities of antibacterial surfaces"
Pleased to be involved with Prof. Susan Kelleher’s work on cicada wings with Dr Shauna Flynn as first author. The work was recently published in Biointerphases' Special Topic Collection: Biomimetics of Biointerfaces.
“Replica molding of cicada wings: The role of water at point of synthesis on nanostructure feature size,” by Shauna P. Flynn, Stephen Daniels, Brian J. Rodriguez, and Susan M. Kelleher, Biointerphases (2020). The article can be accessed here.
The work was selected as a featured article and an AIP Scilight.
Nowi Open Innovation Program
Matrixassay
Towards the end of last year, the European Commission / CORDIS released a Results in Brief on our Matrixassay project. You can read about it here in 6 languages! Thanks to the European Commission for the Horizon 2020 MSCA funding, our Project Officer, and to all of the beneficiaries and partners for their thoughtful work during the project.
Silicon Republic
Fengyuan had a really nice write up in Silicon Republic in May 2020 and her work was also featured on the AET International website.
2019 International PhD Academic Forum on Intelligent Manufacturing
Fengyuan was invited to present her ferroelectric nanomachining work at the 2019 International PhD Academic Forum on Intelligent Manufacturing held at Harbin Institute of Technology. She received another award - congratulations Fengyuan!
South China Normal University
Brian visited the lab of Prof. Xingsen Gao at South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics, South China Normal University. The university is located in Guangzhou University Town on Xiaoguwei Island. Prof. Gao and Brian were postdocs together over a decade ago in Germany and Fengyuan Zhang was formerly in Prof. Gao’s group before joining UCD to work towards her PhD. It was great to see their facilities, including their AFMs and wall of posters. Following the tour, we had a wonderful lunch and did some sightseeing. The whole team at SCNU was very kind and went out of their way to be welcoming! Looking forward to continued collaboration!
2019 International Workshop on Atomic Force Microscopy for Advanced Functional Materials
Fengyuan and Brian presented at the 2019 International Symposium on Advanced Functional Materials and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM2 2019) and Academic Annual Conference of the Chinese Ceramic Society Micro-nano Technology Branch in Guangzhou. This outstanding conference was co-organised by Fengyuan’s MSc advisor, Prof. Xingsen Gao and colleagues at South China Normal University along with co-chairs Prof. Jiangyu Li (Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology) and Prof. Jingfeng Li (Tsinghua University).
Fengyuan (below, right) received a best poster award at the conference banquet!