Refael Minnes
@ariel.ac.il
Department of Physics
Ariel University
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Multidisciplinary, Drug Discovery, Energy, Materials Science
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
Svetlana Lyssenko, Michal Amar, Alina Sermiagin, Ayan Barbora, and Refael Minnes
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Girish P. Patil, Chandradip D. Jadhav, Svetlana Lyssenko, and Refael Minnes
Elsevier BV
Manu Kumar, Avinash Jukanti, Rivka Cahan, Ariel Nause, and Refael Minnes
Elsevier BV
Svetlana Lyssenko, Michal Amar, Alina Sermiagin, and Refael Minnes
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
This study investigates the fabrication of large-area, highly-ordered monolayers of PbTe quantum dots (QDs) on TiO2/ITO substrate, using a fast, simple, and repeatable spin-coating technique. For the first time, a real monolayer (a layer with the height of a single QD) covering approximately 3 cm2 was successfully prepared, achieving a root-mean-square roughness (Rq) of 1.37 nm. The research systematically explores key parameters such as QD morphology, concentration, spin-coating conditions, substrate characteristics, wetting properties, and solvent effects to optimize thin film deposition. The findings reveal that the spin-coating method favors the formation of layers with spherical QDs (6–9 nm) over cubical QDs (10–13 nm). The findings highlight the significant influence of solvent evaporation rate, viscosity, and wettability on monolayer quality. Chloroform was identified as the optimal solvent for cubical QDs (~90% coverage), while hexane was more effective for spherical QDs (90%-100% coverage). Beyond monolayers, high-quality bilayers were also fabricated, demonstrating the method’s potential for multilayer fabrication. This rapid and efficient method for monolayer and bilayer fabrication marks a significant breakthrough in producing uniform, large-area films, facilitating seamless integration with existing technologies. It offers a scalable and cost-effective solution, opening the door to broader applications in fields that demand high-quality thin film deposition.
Chandradip D. Jadhav, Girish P. Patil, Michal Amar, Svetlana Lyssenko, and Refael Minnes
Elsevier BV
Hani Porat, Aneena Lal, Asmita Dutta, Manish Kumar Yadav, Divya Catherin Sesu, Refael Minnes, and Arie Borenstein
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
This study explores the fabrication of nickel-oxide-embedded laser-induced graphene and its application in high-performance supercapacitors.
Chandradip D. Jadhav, Girish P. Patil, Svetlana Lyssenko, and Refael Minnes
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
In this study, we report a novel approach for synthesizing tin telluride (SnTe) nanostructures using a hot injection method with water as the solvent, a significant departure from traditional organic solvents.
Girish P. Patil, Chandradip D. Jadhav, Svetlana Lyssenko, and Refael Minnes
Elsevier BV
Girish P. Patil, Chandradip D. Jadhav, Svetlana Lyssenko, Arie Borenstein, and Refael Minnes
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
In this study, we successfully synthesized klockmannite CuSe nanosheets, showing their promising potential for application in supercapacitors.
Chandradip D. Jadhav, Girish P. Patil, Svetlana Lyssenko, Arie Borenstein, and Refael Minnes
Elsevier BV
Efrat Hochma, Paul Ben Ishai, Michael A. Firer, and Refael Minnes
MDPI AG
Cancer therapy, from malignant tumor inhibition to cellular eradication treatment, remains a challenge, especially regarding reduced side effects and low energy consumption during treatment. Hence, phytochemicals as cytotoxic sensitizers or photosensitizers deserve special attention. The dark and photo-response of Yemenite ‘Etrog’ leaf extracts applied to prostate PC3 cancer cells is reported here. An XTT cell viability assay along with light microscope observations revealed pronounced cytotoxic activity of the extract for long exposure times of 72 h upon concentrations of 175 μg/mL and 87.5 μg/mL, while phototoxic effect was obtained even at low concentration of 10.93 μg/mL and a short introduction period of 1.5 h. For the longest time incubation of 72 h and for the highest extract concentration of 175 μg/mL, relative cell survival decreased by up to 60% (below the IC50). In combined phyto-photodynamic therapy, a reduction of 63% compared to unirradiated controls was obtained. The concentration of extract in cells versus the accumulation time was inversely related to fluorescence emission intensity readings. Extracellular ROS production was also shown. Based on an ATR-FTIR analysis of the powdered leaves and their liquid ethanolic extract, biochemical fingerprints of both polar and non-polar phyto-constituents were identified, thereby suggesting their implementation as phyto-medicine and phyto-photomedicine.
Samuel Onuh Abuh, Ayan Barbora, and Refael Minnes
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
The suitability of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy as a metastasis prognostic tool has not been reported for some cancer types. Our main aim was to show spectroscopic differences between live un-preprocessed cancer cells of different metastatic levels. Spectra of four cancer cell pairs, including colon cancer (SW480, SW620); human melanoma (WM115, WM266.4); murine melanoma (B16F01, B16F10); and breast cancer (MCF7, MDA-MB-231); each pair having the same genetic background, but different metastatic level were analyzed in the regions 1400–1700 cm-1 and 3100–3500 cm-1 using Principal Component Analysis, curve fitting, multifractal dimension and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The results show spectral markers I1540/I1473, I1652/I1473, A3400A3200, and multifractal dimension of the spectral images are significantly different for the cells based on their metastatic levels. ROC curve analysis showed good diagnostic performance of the spectral markers in separating cells based on metastatic degree, with areas under the ROC curves having 95% confidence interval lower limits greater than 0.5 for most instances. These spectral features can be important in predicting the probability of metastasis in primary tumors, providing useful guidance for treatment planning. Our markers are effective in differentiating metastatic levels without sample fixation or drying and therefore could be compactible for future use in in-vivo procedures involving spectroscopic cancer diagnosis.
Ayan Barbora, Svetlana Lyssenko, Michal Amar, Vadim Nave, Vered Zivan, Lital Argaev Frenkel, Ariel Nause, Raichel Cohen-Harazi, and Refael Minnes
Elsevier BV
Ayan Barbora, Sirish Karri, Michael A. Firer, and Refael Minnes
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
AbstractCancer is a leading cause of mortality today. Sooner a cancer is detected, the more effective is the treatment. Histopathological diagnosis continues to be the gold standard worldwide for cancer diagnosis, but the methods used are invasive, time-consuming, insensitive, and still rely to some degree on the subjective judgment of pathologists. Recent research demonstrated that Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy can be used to determine the metastatic potential of cancer cells by evaluating their membrane hydration. In the current study, we demonstrate that the conversion of ATR-FTIR spectra using multifractal transformation generates a unique number for each cell line’s metastatic potential. Applying this technique to murine and human cancer cells revealed a correlation between the metastatic capacity of cancer cells within the same lineage and higher multifractal value. The multifractal spectrum value was found to be independent of the cell concentration used in the assay and unique to the tested lineage. Healthy cells exhibited a smaller multifractal spectrum value than cancer cells. Further, the technique demonstrated the ability to detect cancer progression by being sensitive to the proportional change between healthy and cancerous cells in the sample. This enables precise determination of cancer metastasis and disease progression independent of cell concentration by comparing the measured spectroscopy derived multifractal spectrum value. This quick and simple technique devoid of observer bias can transform cancer diagnosis to a great extent improving public health prognosis worldwide.
Roni Mina Hendler, Orly Eva Weiss, Tzachy Morad, Guy Sion, Michael Kirby, Zvy Dubinsky, Ayan Barbora, Refael Minnes, and Danny Baranes
MDPI AG
A major goal of regenerative medicine of the central nervous system is to accelerate the regeneration of nerve tissue, where astrocytes, despite their positive and negative roles, play a critical role. Thus, scaffolds capable of producing astrocytes from neural precursor cells (NPCs) are most desirable. Our study shows that NPCs are converted into reactive astrocytes upon cultivation on coralline-derived calcium carbonate coated with poly-D-lysine (PDL-CS). As shown via nuclei staining, the adhesion of neurospheres containing hundreds of hippocampal neural cells to PDL-CS resulted in disaggregation of the cell cluster as well as the radial migration of dozens of cells away from the neurosphere core. Migrating cells per neurosphere averaged 100 on PDL-CS, significantly higher than on uncoated CS (28), PDL-coated glass (65), or uncoated glass (20). After 3 days of culture on PDL-CS, cell migration plateaued and remained stable for four more days. In addition, NPCs expressing nestin underwent continuous morphological changes from round to spiky, extending and elongating their processes, resembling activated astrocytes. The extension of the process increased continuously during the maturation of the culture and doubled after 7 days compared to day 1, whereas bifurcation increased by twofold during the first 3 days before plateauing. In addition, nestin positive cells’ shape, measured through the opposite circularity level correlation, decreased approximately twofold after three days, indicating spiky transformation. Moreover, nestin-positive cells co-expressing GFAP increased by 2.2 from day 1 to 7, reaching 40% of the NPC population on day 7. In this way, PDL-CS promotes NPC differentiation into reactive astrocytes, which could accelerate the repair of neural tissue.
Asmita Dutta, Ortal Breuer, Manjunath Krishnappa, Refael Minnes, Alla Zak, and Arie Borenstein
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have recently been proposed as an excellent catalytic substitute for noble metals in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER).
Lakshmana Kumar Bommineedi, Nakul Upadhyay, and Rafael Minnes
Springer Nature Singapore
Ayan Barbora, Fares Yazbak, Svetlana Lyssenko, Vadim Nave, Faina Nakonechny, Paul Ben Ishai, and Refael Minnes
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Combination of photosensitizers (PS) with nanotechnology can improve the therapeutic efficiency of clinical Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) by converting visible light reactive PSs into Near-Infrared (NIR) light responsive molecules using Harmonic Nanoparticles (HNP). To test the PDT efficiency of HNP-PS conjugates, pathogenic S. aureus cell cultures were treated with perovskite (Barium Titanate) Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) nanoparticles conjugated to photosensitizers (PS) (we compared both FDA approved Protoporphyrin IX and Curcumin) and subjected to a femtosecond pulsed Near-Infrared (NIR) laser (800 nm, 232–228 mW, 12–15 fs pulse width at repetition rate of 76.9 MHz) for 10 minutes each. NIR PDT using Barium Titanate (BT) conjugated with Protoporphyrin IX as HNP-PS conjugate reduced the viability of S. aureus cells by 77.3 ± 9.7% while BT conjugated with Curcumin did not elicit any significant effect. Conventional PSs reactive only to visible spectrum light coupled with SHG nanoparticles enables the use of higher tissue penetrating NIR light to generate an efficient photodynamic effect, thereby overcoming low light penetration and tissue specificity of conventional visible light PDT treatments.
Zhanxiong Feng, Chandradip D. Jadhav, Girish P. Patil, Yun Wang, Chuang Zhang, Vijay S. Baviskar, Zhiyong Jia, and Refael Minnes
Elsevier BV
Inbar Dahari, Danny Baranes, and Refael Minnes
MyJove Corporation
The structure of neuronal dendritic trees plays a key role in the integration of synaptic inputs in neurons. Therefore, characterization of the morphology of dendrites is essential for a better understanding of neuronal function. However, the complexity of dendritic trees, both when isolated and especially when located within neuronal networks, has not been completely understood. We developed a new computational tool, SOA (Segmentation and Orientation Analysis), which allows automatic measurement of the orientation of dendritic branches from fluorescence images of 2D neuronal cultures. SOA, written in Python, uses segmentation to distinguish dendritic branches from the image background and accumulates a database on the spatial direction of each branch. The database is then used to calculate morphological parameters such as the directional distribution of dendritic branches in a network and the prevalence of parallel dendritic branch growth. The data obtained can be used to detect structural changes in dendrites in response to neuronal activity and to biological and pharmacological stimuli.
Ayan Barbora and Refael Minnes
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Objective Pandemic outbreaks necessitate effective responses to rapidly mitigate and control the spread of disease and eliminate the causative organism(s). While conventional chemical and biological solutions to these challenges are characteristically slow to develop and reach public availability; recent advances in device components operating at Super High Frequency (SHF) bands (3–30 GHz) of the electromagnetic spectrum enable novel approaches to such problems. Methods Based on experimentally documented evidence, a clinically relevant in situ radiation procedure to reduce viral loads in patients is devised and presented. Adapted to the currently available medical device technology to cause viral membrane fracture, this procedure selectively inactivates virus particles by forced oscillations arising from Structure Resonant Energy Transfer (SRET) thereby reducing infectivity and disease progression. Results Effective resonant frequencies for pleiomorphic Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is calculated to be in the 10–17 GHz range. Using the relation y = -3.308x + 42.9 with x and y representing log10 number of virus particles and the clinical throat swab Ct value respectively; in situ patient–specific exposure duration of ~15x minutes can be utilized to inactivate up to 100% of virus particles in the throat-lung lining, using an irradiation dose of 14.5 ± 1 W/m2; which is within the 200 W/m2 safety standard stipulated by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Conclusions The treatment is designed to make patients less contagious enhancing faster recoveries and enabling timely control of a spreading pandemic. Advances in knowledge The article provides practically applicable parameters for effective clinical adaptation of this technique to the current pandemic at different levels of healthcare infrastructure and disease prevention besides enabling rapid future viral pandemics response.
Ayan Barbora, Oryan Bohar, Ariel Alexander Sivan, Eyal Magory, Ariel Nause, and Refael Minnes
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Background The clinical efficiency of laser treatments is limited by the low penetration of visible light used in certain procedures like photodynamic therapy (PDT). Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) PDT is an innovative technique to overcome this limitation that enables the use of Near Infrared (NIR) light instead of visible light. NIR frequency bands present an optical window for deeper penetration into biological tissue. In this research, we compare the penetration depths of 405 and 808 nm continuous wave (CW) lasers and 808 nm pulsed wave (PW) laser in two different modes (high and low frequency). Methods Increasing thicknesses of beef and chicken tissue samples were irradiated under CW and PW lasers to determine penetration depths. Results The 808 nm CW laser penetrates 2.3 and 2.4 times deeper than the 405 nm CW laser in beef and chicken samples, respectively. 808 nm PW (pulse frequency—500 Hz) penetrates deeper than CW laser at the same wavelength. Further, increasing the pulse frequency achieves higher penetration depths. High frequency 808 nm PW (pulse frequency—71.4 MHz) penetrates 7.4- and 6.0-times deeper than 405 nm CW laser in chicken and beef, respectively. Conclusions The results demonstrate the higher penetration depths of high frequency PW laser compared to low frequency PW laser, CW laser of the same wavelength and CW laser with half the wavelength. The results indicate that integrating SHG in the PDT process along with pulsed NIR light may allow the treatment of 6–7 times bigger tumours than conventional PDT using blue light.
Tzachy Morad, Roni Mina Hendler, Eyal Canji, Orly Eva Weiss, Guy Sion, Refael Minnes, Ania Hava Grushchenko Polaq, Ido Merfeld, Zvy Dubinsky, Elimelech Nesher,et al.
MDPI AG
Biomaterials, especially when coated with adhesive polymers, are a key tool for restorative medicine, being biocompatible and supportive for cell adherence, growth, and function. Aragonite skeletons of corals are biomaterials that support survival and growth of a range of cell types, including neurons and glia. However, it is not known if this scaffold affects neural cell migration or elongation of neuronal and astrocytic processes, prerequisites for initiating repair of damage in the nervous system. To address this, hippocampal cells were aggregated into neurospheres and cultivated on aragonite skeleton of the coral Trachyphyllia geoffroyi (Coral Skeleton (CS)), on naturally occurring aragonite (Geological Aragonite (GA)), and on glass, all pre-coated with the oligomer poly-D-lysine (PDL). The two aragonite matrices promoted equally strong cell migration (4.8 and 4.3-fold above glass-PDL, respectively) and axonal sprouting (1.96 and 1.95-fold above glass-PDL, respectively). However, CS-PDL had a stronger effect than GA-PDL on the promotion of astrocytic processes elongation (1.7 vs. 1.2-fold above glass-PDL, respectively) and expression of the glial fibrillary acidic protein (3.8 vs. and 1.8-fold above glass-PDL, respectively). These differences are likely to emerge from a reaction of astrocytes to the degree of roughness of the surface of the scaffold, which is higher on CS than on GA. Hence, CS-PDL and GA-PDL are scaffolds of strong capacity to derive neural cell movements and growth required for regeneration, while controlling the extent of astrocytic involvement. As such, implants of PDL-aragonites have significant potential as tools for damage repair and the reduction of scar formation in the brain following trauma or disease.
Ayala Gancz, Yekaterina Zueva, Orly E. Weiss, Roni M. Hendler, Rafael Minnes, and Danny Baranes
Wiley
AbstractInflammatory and immunogenic response to foreign bodies presents a challenge in the use of biomaterials as implants for tissue restoration. Therefore, there is a need to understand the interactions between such implants and the blood. One such material, currently in clinical use for bone replacement in humans, is the skeleton of corals, in the form of crystalline aragonite. This biomaterial has been shown to impart a protective and supportive influence on several types of cells ex vivo. The carbonate skeleton activates secretion in phagocytes in vitro, however its effects on these cells in the blood, and on the process of phagocytosis itself, remain unknown. Using 1–500 μm particles of coral skeleton, we show that these particles bind blood proteins and alter the leukocyte population, reducing the proportion of granulocytes by more than 3‐fold with no effect on the proportion of monocytes. In addition, the presence of coral skeleton in the blood causes a reduction in phagocytosis. Specifically, we observed a decrease in the percentage of phagocytic cells by 27 % in the granulocytes and by 73 % in monocyte family, as well as a 41.6 % reduction in the MFI of granulocytes, but with no such effect on monocytes. Taken together, the results suggest that the coral skeleton biomaterial may act as a strong, promotive scaffold for tissue regeneration due to its ability to reduce its rejection by inflammatory reactions such as phagocytosis.
Refael Minnes, Tamara Brider, Andrey Goryachev, Anna Grushchenko, Ruth Tor, Amichai Nevo, David Lifshitz, Abraham Katzir, and Yosef Raichlin
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
One in every 20 people develops kidney stones at some point in their life.