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End date: 2019 × Start date: 2010 × Type: Text × Version: publishedVersion × Publisher: Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science × WGL Institute: IPF ×

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    A customizable microfluidic platform for medium-throughput modeling of neuromuscular circuits
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2019) Bellmann, Jessica; Goswami, Ruchi Y.; Girardo, Salvatore; Rein, Nelly; Hosseinzadeh, Zohreh; Hicks, Michael R.; Busskamp, Volker; Pyle, April D.; Werner, Carsten; Sterneckert, Jared
    Neuromuscular circuits (NMCs) are vital for voluntary movement, and effective models of NMCs are needed to understand the pathogenesis of, as well as to identify effective treatments for, multiple diseases, including Duchenne's muscular dystrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Microfluidics are ideal for recapitulating the central and peripheral compartments of NMCs, but myotubes often detach before functional NMCs are formed. In addition, microfluidic systems are often limited to a single experimental unit, which significantly limits their application in disease modeling and drug discovery. Here, we developed a microfluidic platform (MFP) containing over 100 experimental units, making it suitable for medium-throughput applications. To overcome detachment, we incorporated a reactive polymer surface allowing customization of the environment to culture different cell types. Using this approach, we identified conditions that enable long-term co-culture of human motor neurons and myotubes differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem cells inside our MFP. Optogenetics demonstrated the formation of functional NMCs. Furthermore, we developed a novel application of the rabies tracing assay to efficiently identify NMCs in our MFP. Therefore, our MFP enables large-scale generation and quantification of functional NMCs for disease modeling and pharmacological drug targeting. © 2019 The Authors
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    Organic vapor sensing behavior of polycarbonate/polystyrene/multi-walled carbon nanotube blend composites with different microstructures
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2019) Li, Yilong; Pionteck, Jürgen; Pötschke, Petra; Voit, Brigitte
    With the focus on the use as leakage detectors, the vapor sensing behavior of conductive polymer composites (CPCs) based on polycarbonate/polystyrene/multi-walled carbon nanotube (PC/PS/MWCNT) blends with different blend ratios was studied as well as their morphological and electrical properties. In the melt mixed blend composites, the MWCNTs are preferentially localized in PC. At the PC/PS ratio of 70/30 wt%, the composites showed a sea-island structure, while for blends containing 40 wt% or 50 wt% PS co-continuous structures were developed resulting in a reduction in the MWCNT percolation threshold. The saturated vapors of the selected solvents have good interactions to PS but different interactions to PC. At 0.75 wt% MWCNT, sea-island CPCs showed high relative resistance change (Rrel) but poor reversibility towards moderate vapors like ethyl acetate and toluene, while CPCs with co-continuous structure exhibited lower Rrel and better reversibility. All CPCs showed poor reversibility towards vapor of the good solvent dichloromethane due to strong interactions between polymers and vapor. In the vapor of the poor solvent cyclohexane, CPCs with higher PS content showed increased Rrel. After extraction of the PS component by cyclohexane, the sensing response was decreased and the Rrel of the co-continuous blend even reached negative values.
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    Benzoyl side-chains push the open-circuit voltage of PCDTBT/PCBM solar cells beyond 1 V
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2017) Lombeck, Florian; Müllers, Stefan; Komber, Hartmut; Menke, S. Matthew; Pearson, Andrew J.; Conaghan, Patrick J.; McNeill, Christopher R.; Friend, Richard H.; Sommer, Michael
    The synthesis, characterization and solar cell performance of PCDTBT and its highly soluble analogue hexyl-PCDTBT with cross-conjugated benzoyl moieties at the carbazole comonomer are presented. Through the use of both model reactions and time-controlled microwave-assisted Suzuki polycondensation, the base-induced cleavage of the benzoyl group from the polymer backbone has been successfully suppressed. Compared to the commonly used symmetrically branched alkyl motif, the benzoyl substituent lowers the energy levels of PCDTBT as well as the band gap, and consequently increases energy of the charge transfer state in blends with PC71BM. As a result, photovoltaic diodes with high-open circuit voltage of above 1 V are realized.