Government of the United States of America, As Represented by the Secretary of Commerce

Brigham Young University

Marcus T Cicerone

Young Lee

Andrew Tellington

Alexei Sokolov

Landon Trost

Methods and systems are described for suppressing nonresonant background in broadband coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy and spectroscopy. The methods and systems improve sensitivity and signal to noise ratio in CARS.

Method for NRB-free nonlinear vibrational spectroscopy and miscroscopy

The stabilization of biomaterials such as proteins in a nominally dry, hydrophilic glassy matrix is vastly improved by the addition of an appropriate amount of a small-molecule pasticizer such as a glycol or DMSO to the formulation, while maintaining a glass transition temperature (T) that is above the storage temperature. By plasticizing the glasses, their ability to preserve proteins is improved by as much as 100 times over the unplasticized glass at room temperature. The plasticizer confers the greatest beneficial effect when it is dynamically coupled into the bulk glass, and this coupling occurs over a fairly narrow range of plasticizer concentration. Methods are described in which a small-molecule plasticizer can be incorporated into a glass made of much larger molecules (e.g. a polymeric glass), with desired dynamic coupling, via a molecule that is believed to act as a dynamic linker. Protein preservation data was obtained from two enzymes, horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH).

Growing community of inventors

Urbana, MD, United States of America

Marcus T Cicerone