Prof. Hans Griesser is training XPS on the problem of microbrial infections.  Bacteria often attach to the surfaces of implanted medical devices and form a film against which anitbiotics and the immune response are ineffective.  He correlates XPS data about the top 10 nanometres of the material with the observed biological response.  "XPS gives us confidence about how many bioactive molecules are on a surface and how they are reacting" he says.  Antibacterial coatings in the US alone will be worth an estimated US$250 million in 2012, and Griesser is now gearing up for pre-clinical trials.

For Prof. David Castner the ultimate question is how biomolecules, such as those used to make vascular grafts and hip implants, and biomolecules interact.  "We want to make a surface that the body looks at and says, 'oh, I can interact normally with that.'"  The task is even more more callenging because ideally the device's surface chemistry should change during the healing process.  The most exciting application during his 4 years use of the instrument has been the effort to improve DNA microarrays.  These small chips with thousands of DNA microspots can reveal, for example, how genes are expressed.  Until now, microarrays have been qualitative - if somthing lights up more, there's probably more gene expression, he explains.  Castner is using XPS for "label free" DNA detection, which would avoid tagging and offer precise quantitative data about reaction levels. 

The full article can be down loaded from the Shimadzu web site.   As the the article concludes ' the number of new materials with promising application is rising dramatically.  So is the demand for detailed biochemical information about them.  "XPS citations in the scientific literature are increasing at a rapid rate", says Castner.  Both XPS and the Kratos AXIS Ultra DLD look to have bright futures'.