抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1（PfPMP1）与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用，在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员，通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

疟原虫var基因转换速率变化导致抗原变异[英]／Paul H, Robert P, Christodoulou Z, et al//Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Surface plasmons are waves that propagate along the surface of a conductor. By altering the structure of a metal's surface, the properties of surface plasmons--in particular their interaction with light--can be tailored, which offers the potential for developing new types of photonic device. This could lead to miniaturized photonic circuits with length scales that are much smaller than those currently achieved. Surface plasmons are being explored for their potential in subwavelength optics, data storage, light generation, microscopy and bio-photonics.

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Surface plasmon subwavelength optics

The emerging field of plasmonics has yielded methods for guiding and localizing light at the nanoscale, well below the scale of the wavelength of light in free space. Now plasmonics researchers are turning their attention to photovoltaics, where design approaches based on plasmonics can be used to improve absorption in photovoltaic devices, permitting a considerable reduction in the physical thickness of solar photovoltaic absorber layers, and yielding new options for solar-cell design. In this review, we survey recent advances at the intersection of plasmonics and photovoltaics and offer an outlook on the future of solar cells based on these principles.

Plasmonics for improved photovoltaic devices

Nanocrystals are fundamental to modern science and technology. Mastery over the shape of a nanocrystal enables control of its properties and enhancement of its usefulness for a given application. Our aim is to present a comprehensive review of current research activities that center on the shape-controlled synthesis of metal nanocrystals. We begin with a brief introduction to nucleation and growth within the context of metal nanocrystal synthesis, followed by a discussion of the possible shapes that a metal nanocrystal might take under different conditions. We then focus on a variety of experimental parameters that have been explored to manipulate the nucleation and growth of metal nanocrystals in solution-phase syntheses in an effort to generate specific shapes. We then elaborate on these approaches by selecting examples in which there is already reasonable understanding for the observed shape control or at least the protocols have proven to be reproducible and controllable. Finally, we highlight a number of applications that have been enabled and/or enhanced by the shape-controlled synthesis of metal nanocrystals. We conclude this article with personal perspectives on the directions toward which future research in this field might take.

Shape‐Controlled Synthesis of Metal Nanocrystals: Simple Chemistry Meets Complex Physics?

The unprecedented ability of nanometallic (that is, plasmonic) structures to concentrate light into deep-subwavelength volumes has propelled their use in a vast array of nanophotonics technologies and research endeavours. Plasmonic light concentrators can elegantly interface diffraction-limited dielectric optical components with nanophotonic structures. Passive and active plasmonic devices provide new pathways to generate, guide, modulate and detect light with structures that are similar in size to state-of-the-art electronic devices. With the ability to produce highly confined optical fields, the conventional rules for light-matter interactions need to be re-examined, and researchers are venturing into new regimes of optical physics. In this review we will discuss the basic concepts behind plasmonics-enabled light concentration and manipulation, make an attempt to capture the wide range of activities and excitement in this area, and speculate on possible future directions.

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Plasmonics for extreme light concentration and manipulation.

The properties of random Boolean networks have been investigated extensively as models of regulation in biological systems. However, the Boolean functions (BFs) specifying the associated logical update rules should not be expected to be random. In this contribution, we focus on biologically meaningful types of BFs, and perform a systematic study of their preponderance in a compilation of 2,687 functions extracted from published models. A surprising feature is that most of these BFs have odd "bias", that is they produce "on" outputs for a total number of input combinations that is odd. Upon further analysis, we are able to explain this observation, along with the enrichment of read-once functions (RoFs) and its nested canalyzing functions (NCFs) subset, in terms of 2 complexity measures: Boolean complexity based on string lengths in formal logic, which is yet unexplored in biological contexts, and the so-called average sensitivity. RoFs minimize Boolean complexity and all such functions have odd bias. Furthermore, NCFs minimize not only the Boolean complexity but also the average sensitivity. These results reveal the importance of minimum complexity in the regulatory logic of biological networks. 

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Minimum complexity drives regulatory logic in Boolean models of living systems

In this work a portable analytical biosensor for real-time extracellular monitoring of released hydrogen peroxide (H2O2 ) is presented. The biosensor is based on the optical detection of the cytochrome c (cyt c) oxidation state. The setup consists of an integrated microscope combined with a compact spectrometer. The light being absorbed by cyt c is enhanced via multiscattering produced by random aggregates of polystyrene beads in a cross-linked cyt c matrix. Using ink-jet printing technique, the sensing elements, namely cyt c loaded polystyrene aggregates, are fabricated with high reliability in terms of repeatability of size and sensitivity. Additionally, the sensing elements are enclosed in a microfluidic channel assuring a fast and efficient analytes delivery. As an example, the effect of trace concentrations of functionalized cadmium selenide/zinc sulfide (CdSe/ZnS) core shell quantum dots on the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is investigated, showing extracellular H2O2 release with different production rates over a period of 1 hour. In conclusion, the presented portable biosensor enables the highly sensitive and non-invasive real-time monitoring of the cell metabolism of C. reinhardtii. © (2013) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

A portable microfluidic-based biophotonic sensor for extracellular H2O2 measurements

We show that dielectric objects much smaller than the wavelength used to illuminate them, can produce a confined electric field that perfectly reproduces their shape. This field can be recorded by a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM), which explains how these devices reach a resolution far beyond the diffraction limit.

Light Confinement By Subwavelength Objects In Near-Field Optics

We present numerical experiments of light scattering by a circular dielectric cylinder embedded in a stratified background, using the Green’s tensor technique. The stratified background consists of two or three dielectric layers, the latter forming an anti–reflection system. We show movies of the scattered field as a function of different parameters: polarization, angle of incidence, and relative position of the cylinder with respect to the background interfaces.

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Scattering experiments with a diving cylinder

We propose a surface-wave dispersion retrieval method and synthesis technique that applies to bianisotropic metasurfaces that are embedded in symmetric or asymmetric environments. Specifically, we use general zero-thickness sheet transition conditions to relate the propagation constants of surface-wave modes to the bianisotropic susceptibility components of the metasurface, which can themselves be directly related to its scattering parameters. It is then possible to either obtain the metasurface dispersion diagram from its known susceptibilities or, alternatively, compute the susceptibilities required to achieve a desired surface-wave propagation. The validity of the method is demonstrated by comparing its results to those obtained with exact dispersion relations of well known structures such as the propagation of surface plasmons on thin metallic films. In particular, this work reveals that it is possible to achieve surface-wave propagation only on one side of the metasurface either by superposition of symmetric and asymmetric modes in the case of anisotropic metasurfaces or by completely forbidding the existence of the surface wave on one side of the structure using bianisotropic metasurfaces.

Olivier J. F. Martin

Papers

Minimum complexity drives regulatory logic in Boolean models of living systems

A portable microfluidic-based biophotonic sensor for extracellular H2O2 measurements

Light Confinement By Subwavelength Objects In Near-Field Optics

Scattering experiments with a diving cylinder

Surface-wave dispersion retrieval method and synthesis technique for bianisotropic metasurfaces