A Comparative Study of the Phase Separation of a Nematic Liquid Crystal in the Self-assembling Drying Protein Drops

Obayemi

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Multi-colloidal systems exhibit a variety of structural and functional complexity owing to their ability to interact amongst different components into self-assembled structures. This paper presents experimental confirmations that reveal an interesting sharp phase transition during the drying state and in the dried film as a function of diluting concentrations ranging from 100% (undiluted whole blood) to 12.5% (diluted concentrations). An additional complementary contact angle measurement exhibits a monotonic decrease with a peak as a function of drying. This peak is related to a change in visco-elasticity that decreases with dilution, and disappears at the dilution concentration for the observed phase transition equivalent to 62% (v/v). This unique behavior is clearly commensurate with the optical image statistics and morphological analysis; and it is driven by the decrease in the interactions between various components within this bio-colloid. The implications of these phenomenal systems may address many open-ended questions of complex hierarchical structures.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concentration-driven phase transition and self-assembly in drying droplets of diluting whole blood

Obayemi

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

Self Cite

“…Hence, it indicates that the mass is not only the contributing factor but involves many other interactions such as self-assembly among protein 6 particles (protein-protein interaction), phase separation and self-assembly of LC droplets (protein-LC, LC-substrate), etc. [4].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lysozyme (Lys), myoglobin (Myo) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) are globular proteins differing in mass, charge, and properties [4]. The presence of a heme group helps Myo to serve as an oxygen-binding protein.…”

Section: Materials Sample Preparation and Image Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1e), and processed into an 8-bit binary image (255 for pixels depicting the crack lines and 0 for pixels elsewhere else) ( Fig. 1f) [4,5]. However, the filtering was not enough to process the images into exact binary images.…”

Section: Materials Sample Preparation and Image Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following that, an optically active and polar LC, 5CB (328510) was heated above the transition temperature (35 • C), and 10 µL was added as a third component to the solution. A ∼ 1.3 µL of the solution was pipetted on the coverslip in the form of a circular drop, which was allowed to dry under ambient conditions[4].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Image-Based Analysis of Patterns Formed in Drying Drops

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Iannacchione

2019

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Image processing and pattern recognition offer a useful and versatile method for optically characterizing drops of a colloidal solution during the drying process and in its final state. This paper exploits image processing techniques applied to cross-polarizing microscopy to probe birefringence and the bright-field microscopy to examine the morphological patterns. The bio-colloidal solution of interest is a mixture of water, liquid crystal (LC) and three different proteins [lysozyme (Lys), myoglobin (Myo), and bovine serum albumin (BSA)], all at a fixed relative concentration. During the drying process, the LC phase separates and becomes optically active detectable through its birefringence. Further, as the protein concentrates, it forms cracks under strain due to the evaporation of water. The mean intensity profile of the drying process is examined using an automated image processing technique that reveals three unique regimes-a steady upsurge, a speedy rise, and an eventual saturation. The high values of standard deviation show the complexity, the roughness, and inhomogeneity of the image surface. A semi-automated image processing technique is proposed to quantify the distance between the consecutive cracks by converting those into high contrast images. The outcome of the image analysis correlates with the initial state of the mixture, the nature of the proteins, and the mechanical response of the final patterns. The paper reveals new insights on the self-assembly of the macromolecules during the drying mechanism of any aqueous solution. * gsiannac@wpi.edu 1

Statistical Image Analysis of Drying Bovine Serum Albumin Droplets in Phosphate Buffered Saline

Biomedical Data Mining for Information Retrieval

Iannacchione

2021

Self Cite

A bio-colloidal drying droplet can be used as a pre-diagnostic technique. However, a successful clinical setting requires a fundamental understanding of the final morphology and the way it is related to the initial state of the constituents present in the droplet. This chapter focuses on the physics associated with different pattern formations in the globular protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA) at different phosphate buffered saline concentrations. The study reports that the first-order statistics (FOS) and the gray level cooccurrence matrix (GLCM) analysis are capable of capturing structural changes of the droplets.While the FOS of the image depend on the individual pixels, the GLCM summarizes both tonal and structural relationships between the neighboring pixels. The horizontal and the vertical orientations of the GLCM parameters show a non-significant effect when the pixel displacement is ≤ 1. Interestingly, two local equilibrium-like regions (the rim and the central regions) appear when these droplets approach the steady state. The bimodal distribution confirms that the BSA-BSA interactions are dominant (recessive) over the BSA-saline interactions in the rim (central) 2 regions that result in the phase separated aggregation of the BSA particles in the presence of the salts.