Our laboratory uses MECC's ESM-101 and NANON-04 to develop meshes for cancer therapy and blood-purification. In particular, we introduced ESM-101 for the first time as an academia. Our solutions contains costly chemicals and physiologically active substances as they are used for medical use. However, MECC's device minimizes use of chemical solutions and enables a wide range of voltage control, which is quite compatible with our requirements. It is also very good when proceeding with long-term projects because the equipment is designed thinking about operators’ safety and MECC staff are willing to consult us about our minor questions at any time.
The NANON is an essential facility that in our laboratory for nanofiber research. Programming of the spinning conditions is intuitive and we can proceed with our work efficiently. The device incorporates a light, making it very easy to check fine fibers visually. In addition, when solutions with good spinnability are used, the equipment can be operated for a long time, enabling us to make other experiments during that time. Since component units are well integrated in one system and, wiring will not be confused and various collectors can be replaced quickly, enabling a large number of experiments to be performed with a single set of the NANON. Even large parts are easy to remove and cleaning after experiments can be done easily.
We are researching nanofiber applications of biomaterials and are aiming at developing bio-safe materials. Recently, we have been working especially on nanofibers of various natural polymer materials such as proteins like collagen, polysaccharides like alginate and cellulose nanofibers, as well as their applications. Conditions for electrospinning using water as solvents are severe, but MECC products are well insulated and enables spinning in a closed space in the chamber, so spinning experiments can be advanced stably.
