Jin-Lin Huang

Scanning tunneling microscopy, spectroscopy, and tight-binding calculations have been used to elucidate the unique structural and electronic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). First, the unique relationship between SWNT atomic structure and electronic properties, and the richness of structures observed in both purified and chemically etched nanotube samples are discussed. Second, a more detailed picture of SWNT electronic band structure is developed and compared with experimental tunneling spectroscopy measurements. Third, experimental and theoretical investigations of localized structures, such as bends and ends in nanotubes, are presented. Last, quantum size effects in nanotubes with lengths approaching large molecules are discussed. The implications of these studies and important future directions are considered.

Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) tips have been used to image nanostructures with high resolution. Studies of gold nanocrystal standards showed that SWNT tips provide a significant improvement in lateral resolution with respect to multi-walled nanotube tips and microfabricated Si tips. The nanotube tips were also used to resolve substructure within SWNTs deposited on surfaces. These results suggest that observed 1.5 nm high structures can correspond to several SWNTs aligned in parallel. In addition, SWNT tips exhibited superior resolution compared to conventional tips when imaging biological nanostructures, such as double-stranded DNA. The potential and future challenges of SWNT tips are discussed.

Chicken are considered as the most important source of human infection by Campylobacter jejuni, which primarily arises from contaminated poultry meats. However, the genes expressed in vivo of the interaction between chicken and C. jejuni have not been screened. In this regard, in vivo-induced antigen technology (IVIAT) was applied to identify expressed genes in vivo during interaction between chicken and C. jejuni, a prevalent foodborne pathogen worldwide. Chicken sera were obtained by inoculating C. jejuni NCTC 11168 into Leghorn chickens through oral and intramuscular administration. Pooled chicken sera, adsorbed against in vitrogrown cultures of C. jejuni, were used to screen the inducible expression library of genomic proteins from sequenced C. jejuni NCTC 11168. Finally, 28 unique genes expressed in vivo were successfully identified after secondary and tertiary screenings with IVIAT. The genes were implicated in metabolism, molecular biosynthesis, genetic information processing, transport, regulation and other processes, in addition to Cj0092, with unknown function. Several potential virulence-associated genes were found to be expressed in vivo, including chuA, flgS, cheA, rplA, and Cj0190c. We selected four genes with different functions to compare their expression levels in vivo and in vitro using real-time RT-PCR. The results indicated that these selected genes were significantly upregulated in vivo but not in vitro. In short, the expressed genes in vivo may act as potential virulence-associated genes, the protein encoded by which may be meaningful vaccine candidate antigens for campylobacteriosis. IVIAT provides an important and efficient strategy for understanding the interaction mechanisms between Campylobacter and hosts.