Xiaoju Wang

• Ph.D
• PostDoc Position at Åbo Akademi University

The proliferation of human cervical cancer (Hela) cells was investigated on a series of nanostructured polymer latex surfaces. The physico-chemical properties of the surfaces, composed of mixtures of polystyrene and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene dispersions, were precisely controlled in the nanoscale range by adjusting the mixing ratio of the com...

Microneedles have demonstrated valuable applications in diabetic wound management. Many endeavors are devoted to developing microneedles with well-designed structures and enhanced functions. Herein, we present an elaborate microneedle patch with breathability for wound healing by a multi-step replication method. The microneedle patch consists of a...

Advanced cellulose‐based foams are urgently needed as sustainable packaging materials in an era of prioritizing environmental consciousness. However, transferring the mechanical properties of cellulose fibers into porous structures is always limited by gas entrapment during foaming and irreversible structural collapse upon liquid evaporation. Herei...

Metoclopramide (MCP) is frequently used to control nausea and vomiting in animals, but its short half-life requires it to be administered thrice daily. In addition, commercial veterinary MCP formulations are currently lacking. As a result, veterinary practitioners often resort to off-label use of human medications, which can lead to inconsistent pa...

Amine-functionalized solid adsorbents (NFSAs) from green and renewable biomass have been proven to be a significant breakthrough in utilizing renewable resources in the carbon capture and storage field. Lignin, a...

Cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) are renewable bionanomaterials with great utilization potential in future biomedicals. However, conventional CNF hydrogels are limited by low structural flexibility and insufficiently tunable mechanical properties, restricting their...

The design of lignin nanostructures where interfacial interactions enable enhanced entanglement of colloidal networks can broaden their applications in hydrogel‐based materials and light‐based 3D printing. Herein, an approach for fabricating surface‐active dendritic colloidal microparticles (DCMs) characterized by fibrous structures using nanostruc...

Aqueous two‐phase emulsion (ATPE)‐based bioinks, a creative innovation for bioprinting, enable the fabrication of complex 3D cell‐laden hydrogels with macroporous structure, which promote cellular activities within the scaffold. However, these bioinks intrinsically lack stability and specific biofunctionality, potentially limiting their application...

The present study focuses on enhancing the thermomechanical properties of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), a transparent and biocompatible polymer known for its high strength but limited toughness. The approach involves the development of PMMA/cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) composites. To improve the interfacial compatibility between PMMA and CNCs,...

Diabetic wound healing is a serious, complex, and chronic process; one current promising and focusing technology in this area is stem cell treatment. Here, novel porous microneedle (MN) arrays is fabricated, which can highly mimetic stem cell niches, through template filling, and particle etching method. The human adipose‐derived stem cells (ADSCs)...

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is naked DNA molecules shed from the tumor cells into the peripheral blood circulation. They contain tumor‐specific gene mutations and other valuable information. ctDNA is considered to be one of the most significant analytes in liquid biopsies. Over the past decades, numerous researchers have developed various detecti...

Multifunctional biomaterial inks are in high demand for adapting hydrogels in biomedical applications through three-dimensional (3D) printing. Our previously developed xeno-free system consisting of anionic cellulose nanofibers (T-CNF) and methacrylated galactoglucomannan (GGMMA) as a photo(bio)polymer provides high-performance ink fidelity in extr...

In the context of three-dimensional (3D) cell culture and tissue engineering, 3D printing is a powerful tool for customizing in vitro 3D cell culture models that are critical for understanding the cell-matrix and cell-cell interactions. Cellulose nanofibril (CNF) hydrogels are emerging in constructing scaffolds able to imitate tissue in a microenvi...

One-dimensional (1D) nanomaterials of conductive polypyrrole (PPy) are competitive biomaterials for constructing bioelectronics to interface with biological systems. Synergistic synthesis using lignocellulose nanofibrils (LCNF) as a structural template in chemical oxidation of pyrrole with Fe(III) ions facilitates surface-confined polymerization of...

Semi-solid extrusion (SSE) 3D printing enables flexible designs and dose sizes to be printed on demand and is a suitable tool for fabricating personalized dosage forms. Controlled Expansion of Supercritical Solution (CESS®) is a particle size reduction technology, and it produces particles of a pure active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in a dry s...

Microgel assembly as void‐forming bioinks in 3D bioprinting has evidenced recent success with a highlighted scaffolding performance of these bottom‐up biomaterial systems in supporting the viability and function of the laden cells. Here, a ternary‐component aqueous emulsion is established as a one‐step strategy to integrate the methacrylated gelati...

Fabricating bio‐latex colloids with core–shell nanostructure is an effective method for obtaining films with enhanced mechanical characteristics. Nano‐sized lignin is rising as a class of sustainable nanomaterials that can be incorporated into latex colloids. Fundamental knowledge of the correlation between surface chemistry of lignin nanoparticles...

Electroconductive composites of graphene and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) were prepared by direct exfoliation of natural flake graphite in CNC suspensions. Using the scalable high-shear exfoliation method, we show that the environmentally friendly CNC is an excellent graphene stabilizer as we prepared aqueous graphene-CNC dispersions with a high co...

Certain patient populations receive insufficient medicinal treatment due to a lack of commercially available products. The number of approved veterinary products is limited, making animals a patient population with suboptimal medicinal treatments available. To answer to this unmet need, compounding and off-label use of human-marketed products are p...

This work presents a new approach for more effective valorization of sawmill wastes (Beech and Cedar sawdusts), which were used as new sources for the extraction of lignin-containing and lignin-free cellulose II nanocrystals (L-CNCs and CNCs). It was shown that the properties of the extracted nanocrystals depend on the nature of the used sawdust (s...

Currently, there are a few or none marketed gabapentin veterinary products, leading to treatment with compounded dosage forms or off-label use of human-marketed products. With the said approaches, there are significant risks of preparation errors, rendering these practices suboptimal. A new manufacturing technique to accurately and rapidly prepare...

Lithography-based digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing has gained increasing interest in the fabrication of custom-designed hydrogel scaffolds. Current research development calls for the versatility of the bio-based resin formulations...

Hydrogel have been a great material for biomedical applications. In this study, fluorescent hydrogels formulated from carrageenan biopolymer and firefly luciferin, exhibited high fluorescence quantum yield and stability, thermo‐reversibility, and high transparency. Importantly, the hydrogels are pH‐responsive allowing them to be used as sensing mat...

We propose an injectable nanocomposite hydrogel that is photo-curable via light-induced thiol-ene addition between methacrylate modified O-acetyl-galactoglucomannan (GGMMA) and thiolate cellulose nanocrystal (CNC-SH). Compared to free-radical chain polymerization, the orthogonal step-growth of thiol-ene addition allows a less heterogeneous hydrogel...

Biomaterial inks based on cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) and photo-crosslinkable biopolymers have great potential as a high-performance ink system in light-aided, hydrogel extrusion-based 3D bioprinting. However, the colloidal stability of surface charged nanofibrils is susceptible to mono-cations in physiological buffers, which complexes the applicat...

Two series of well-defined lignin fractions derived from birch and spruce alkaline lignin (AL) by sequential solvent fractionation (i-PrOH-EtOH-MeOH) were engaged in a structure–property-application relationship study. The bacterial-derived alkaliphilic laccase (MetZyme) extensively catalyzed the oxidation and polymerization of AL fractions in an a...

Currently, the number of approved veterinary medicines are limited, and human medications are used off-label. These approved human medications are of too high potencies for a cat or a small dog breed. Therefore, there is a dire demand for smaller doses of veterinary medicines. This study aims to investigate the use of three semi-solid extrusion 3D...

Electrically conductive composite nanofibers were fabricated using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT–PSS) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) via the electrospinning technique. Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) was used to assist the electrospinning process, and poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether was used to induce...

Currently, the number of approved veterinary medicines are limited, and human medications are used off-label. These approved human medications are of too high potencies for a cat or a small dog breed. Therefore, there is a dire demand for smaller doses of veterinary medicines. This study aims to investigate the use of three semi-solid extrusion 3D...

An efficient separation technology for hydrolysates towards a full valorization of bamboo is still a tough challenge, especially regarding the lignin and lignin-carbohydrate complexes (LCCs). The present study aimed to develop a facile approach using organic solvent extraction for efficiently fractionating the main components of bamboo hydrolysates...

Aiming at tailoring the bonding strength of a thermosetting lignin-containing phenol-formaldehyde (LPF) wood adhesive, different fractions of an industrial hardwood alkaline lignin have been prepared through sequential solvent fractionation (i-PrOH, EtOH, and MeOH). Those fractions were comprehensively characterized by GPC, GC, Py/GC-MS, and NMR te...

In this work we present a green method to prepare aerogel membranes based on cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) crossed-linked with poly (ethylene imine) (PEI) and further decorated with silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs). The nanosized Ag NPs were reduced and immobilized on the surface of the pore walls inside the aerogel. The as-prepared composite aerogel me...

Fibrillated cellulose can be used as a gelation agent to thicken and improve phase stability of sodium sulfate decahydrate (SSD, Na2SO4·10H2O), a promising salt hydrate for storing thermal energy. It is expected that dissolved SSD influences the thickening action by changing the colloid interactions between the cellulose fibrils. The fibrillation d...

A type of zwitterionic chitosan derivative, N-2-hydroxylpropyl-3-trimethylammonium-O-carboxymethyl chitosan (HTCMCh), was synthesized and introduced into carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)-based films as a film strength enhancer and antibacterial agent. The influencing factors include degree of substitution (DS) and mHTCMCh/mCMC. Their influences on mec...

Nanocelluloses have emerged as a catalogue of renewable nanomaterials for bioink formulation in service of 3D bioprinting, thanks to their structural similarity to extracellular matrices and excellent biocompatibility of supporting crucial cellular activities. From a material scientist’s viewpoint, this mini-review presents the key research aspects...

In this work nanocellulose substrates e. g. cellulose nanofibrils and nanocrystals were isolated from an abundant renewable resource Ampelodesmos mauritanicus fibers. Cellulose nanocrystals CNCs were isolated from the fibers by means of acid hydrolysis while cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) were isolated by combination of TEMPO-mediated oxidation and m...

The local delivery of Cu²⁺ from copper-doped bioactive glass (Cu-BaG) was combined with 3D printing of polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds for its potent angiogenic effect in bone tissue engineering. PCL and Cu-BaG were respectively dissolved and dispersed in acetone to formulate a moderately homogeneous ink. The PCL/Cu-BaG scaffolds were fabricated v...

Owing to their superior mechanical strength and structure similarity to extracellular matrix (ECM), nanocelluloses as a class of emerging biomaterials have attracted great attention in 3D bioprinting to fabricate various tissue mimics. Yet, when printing complex geometries, the desired ink performance in terms of shape fidelity and object resolutio...

To achieve full utilization of lignocellulosic biomass and easy integration of nanomaterials production, it is essential to develop an efficient fractionation to overcome the highly recalcitrant nature of lignocellulose and facilitate the subsequent valuable conversion. Herein, in a combined process based on the formic acid rapid-fractionation of b...

Cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) in the form of hydrogels stand out as a platform biomaterial in bioink formulation for 3D printing because of their low cytotoxicity and structural similarity to extracellular matrices. In the present study, 3D scaffolds were successfully printed with low-concentration inks formulated by 1 w/v % 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiper...

The release of therapeutic ions during dissolution is necessary for the success of bioactive glasses in medical applications. Therefore, different borate and borosilicate glasses undoped and doped with copper or/and zinc based on the 13–93 composition were tested and compared to the well-known 13–93 bioactive glass in several dissolution media. Pri...

We present for the first time approaches to 3D-printing of nanocellulose hydrogel scaffolds based on double crosslinking, first by in situ Ca2+ crosslinking and post print by chemical crosslinking with 1,4-butanediol diglycidyl ether (BDDE). Scaffolds were successfully printed from 1% nanocellulose hydrogels, with their mechanical strength being tu...

Aim of the study was to evaluate apatite forming ability and ion dissolution of bioactive glass-ceramic (BGC) particles from novel polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based endodontic sealer Guttaflow Bioseal. Firstly, water sorption and solubility were determined for Guttaflow 2 and Guttaflow Bioseal (GB), the latter containing BGC filler particles. Miner...

Hemicelluloses, the second most abundant polysaccharide right after cellulose, are in practice still treated as a side-stream in biomass processing industries. In the present study, we report an approach to use a wood-derived and side-stream biopolymer, spruce wood hemicellulose (galactoglucomannan, GGM) to partially replace the synthetic PLA as fe...

Wood-derived biopolymers have attracted great attention over the past few decades due to their abundant and versatile properties. The well-separated three main components, i.e., cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin, are considered significant candidates for replacing and improving on oil-based chemicals and materials. The production of nanocellulo...

Bioactive glasses (BaGs) are widely utilised in bone tissue engineering (TE) but the molecular response of cells to BaGs is poorly understood. To elucidate the mechanisms of cell attachment to BaGs and BaG-induced early osteogenic differentiation, we cultured human adipose stem cells (hASCs) on discs of two silica-based BaGs S53P4 (23.0 Na 2 O-20.0...

The effect of substituting K2O for Na2O on the physical and chemical properties of 15 glasses in the system Na2O–K2O–CaO–P2O5–SiO2 was studied for three series: low (52 mol% SiO2), medium (60 mol% SiO2) and high (66 mol% SiO2) silica. The SiO2 content expressed as weight-% varied from 46 to 64 wt%, thus suggesting that the compositions were either...

Statement of significance: To address an urgent need in clinics on developing a new generation of therapeutic dressings with advanced functionalities, this study has exploited the utilization of Cu-containing mesoporous bioactive glass in the nanocellulose matrix to release Cu(2+) as therapeutic ions for its angiogenic effect on promoting wound he...

This work reports the dissolution of bioactive glasses in acidic solutions. The focus was on lactic acid, thus mimicking the conditions that may develop locally during in vivo degradation of polylactic acid/bioactive glass composites. First, the dissolution of glasses 45S5, S53P4, and S68 was studied in 1.2 m lactic acid. The leaching of ions from...

A green chemoenzymatic pathway for the synthesis of conducting polyaniline (PANI) composites is presented. Laccase-catalyzed polymerization in combination with anionic polysaccharides is used to produce polysaccharide/PANI composites, which can be processed into flexible films or coated onto cellulose surfaces. Different polysaccharide templates ar...

A new extracellular flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-dependent glucose dehydrogenase from Glomerella cingulata (GcGDH) was electrochemically studied as a recognition element in glucose biosensors. The redox enzyme was recombinantly produced in Pichia pastoris and homogeneously purified, and its glucose-oxidizing properties on spectrographic graphi...

We report on the fabrication and characterisation of a gold-nanoparticle (AuNP)-based mediatorless sugar/oxygen biofuel cell (BFC) operating in neutral sugar-containing buffers and human physiological fluids, such as blood and plasma. First, Corynascus thermophilus cellobiose dehydrogenase (CtCDH) and Myrothecium verrucaria bilirubin oxidase (MvBOx...

Journal of Power Sources Vol.196 Nr.11, 4957-4964

Direct electron transfer (DET) type biocatalysis was accomplished for Trametes hirsuta laccase (ThL) on a glassy carbon (GC) electrode by immobilizing laccase into a well-designed dual-layer architecture of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT). PEDOT films were subsequently deposited on a GC electrode via electropolymerization, with NO3− as the...

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) films, with Cl−, NO3−, poly(styrene sulfonate) (PSS−) or carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as counter ions, were electrochemically deposited onto indium tin oxide (ITO) glass from aqueous electrolyte. PEDOT film, with tetrafluoroborate anions (BF4−) as counter ions, was also electrochemically deposited on ITO glass fr...

The adsorption isotherm of block copolymer EPE1100 (polyethylene oxide-polypropylene oxide-polyethylene oxide) on the surfaces of Mg-Al LDH particles was determined through a solution depletion method combined with TOC measurement. X-ray diffraction patterns showed that the adsorption of EPE1100 molecules only occurred on the outer surfaces of LDH...

Glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) from Glomerella cingulata (GcGDH, EC 1.1.99.10) is an extracellular redox enzyme. The native enzyme is a monomeric glycosylated polypeptide and has one non-covalently bound flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) molecule acting as the redox cofactor. Pyranose dehydrogenase from Agaricus meleagris (AmPDH, EC 1.1.99.29) is an e...