2014, Paa, Wolfgang, Burkert, Alfons

[no abstract available]

2019, Diederich, Benedict, Then, Patrick, Jügler, Alexander, Förster, Ronny, Heintzmann, Rainer

High optical resolution in microscopy usually goes along with costly hardware components, such as lenses, mechanical setups and cameras. Several studies proved that Single Molecular Localization Microscopy can be made affordable, relying on off-the-shelf optical components and industry grade CMOS cameras. Recent technological advantages have yielded consumer-grade camera devices with surprisingly good performance. The camera sensors of smartphones have benefited of this development. Combined with computing power smartphones provide a fantastic opportunity for “imaging on a budget”. Here we show that a consumer cellphone is capable of optical super-resolution imaging by (direct) Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (dSTORM), achieving optical resolution better than 80 nm. In addition to the use of standard reconstruction algorithms, we used a trained image-to-image generative adversarial network (GAN) to reconstruct video sequences under conditions where traditional algorithms provide sub-optimal localization performance directly on the smartphone. We believe that “cellSTORM” paves the way to make super-resolution microscopy not only affordable but available due to the ubiquity of cellphone cameras.High optical resolution in microscopy usually goes along with costly hardware components, such as lenses, mechanical setups and cameras. Several studies proved that Single Molecular Localization Microscopy can be made affordable, relying on off-the-shelf optical components and industry grade CMOS cameras. Recent technological advantages have yielded consumer-grade camera devices with surprisingly good performance. The camera sensors of smartphones have benefited of this development. Combined with computing power smartphones provide a fantastic opportunity for “imaging on a budget”. Here we show that a consumer cellphone is capable of optical super-resolution imaging by (direct) Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (dSTORM), achieving optical resolution better than 80 nm. In addition to the use of standard reconstruction algorithms, we used a trained image-to-image generative adversarial network (GAN) to reconstruct video sequences under conditions where traditional algorithms provide sub-optimal localization performance directly on the smartphone. We believe that “cellSTORM” paves the way to make super-resolution microscopy not only affordable but available due to the ubiquity of cellphone cameras.

2019, Kochanowicz, Marcin, Zmojda, Jacek, Miluski, Piotr, Baranowska, Agata, Leich, Martin, Schwuchow, Anka, Jäger, Matthias, Kuwik, M., Pisarska, Johanna, Pisarski, Wojciech A., Dorosz, Dominik

In this paper, a 2 µm broadband emission under 796 nm laser diode excitation in low phonon energy GeO2-Ga2O3-BaO glass system is co-doped with 0.7Tm2O3/(0.07-0.7)Ho2O3 (mol%). The widest emission band (where the Tm3+ → Ho3+ energy transfer efficiency is 63%) was obtained for 0.7Tm2O3/0.15Ho2O3 co-doped glass from which a double-clad optical fiber was realized and investigated. Optimization of Tm3+/Ho3+ concentration enabled the acquisition of broadband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in double-clad optical fiber with a full width at half maximum (FWHM): 377 nm and 662 nm for 3 dB and 10 dB bandwidth, respectively. ASE spectrum is a result of the superposition of (Tm3+: 3H4 →Η3F4) 1.45 µm, (Tm3+: 3F4 → 3H6) 1.8 µm and (Ho3+:5I7 → 5I8) 2 µm emission bands. Hence, highly rare-earth co-doped germanate glass is characterized by a remarkably broader ASE spectrum than silica and tellurite fibers showed promising lasing properties for their further application in tunable and dual wavelength lasers.In this paper, a 2 µm broadband emission under 796 nm laser diode excitation in low phonon energy GeO2-Ga2O3-BaO glass system is co-doped with 0.7Tm2O3/(0.07-0.7)Ho2O3 (mol%). The widest emission band (where the Tm3+ → Ho3+ energy transfer efficiency is 63%) was obtained for 0.7Tm2O3/0.15Ho2O3 co-doped glass from which a double-clad optical fiber was realized and investigated. Optimization of Tm3+/Ho3+ concentration enabled the acquisition of broadband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in double-clad optical fiber with a full width at half maximum (FWHM): 377 nm and 662 nm for 3 dB and 10 dB bandwidth, respectively. ASE spectrum is a result of the superposition of (Tm3+: 3H4 →Η3F4) 1.45 µm, (Tm3+: 3F4 → 3H6) 1.8 µm and (Ho3+:5I7 → 5I8) 2 µm emission bands. Hence, highly rare-earth co-doped germanate glass is characterized by a remarkably broader ASE spectrum than silica and tellurite fibers showed promising lasing properties for their further application in tunable and dual wavelength lasers.

2013, Schleeger, M., Vandenakker, C.C., Deckert-Gaudig, T., Deckert, V., Velikov, K.P., Koenderink, G., Bonn, M.

Many proteins of diverse sequence, structure and function self-assemble into morphologically similar fibrillar aggregates known as amyloids. Amyloids are remarkable polymers in several respects. First of all, amyloids can be formed from proteins with very different amino acid sequences; the common denominator is that the individual proteins constituting the amyloid fold predominantly into a β-sheet structure. Secondly, the formation of the fibril occurs through non-covalent interactions between primarily the β-sheets, causing the monomers to stack into fibrils. The fibrils are remarkably robust, considering that the monomers are bound non-covalently. Finally, a common characteristic of fibrils is their unbranched, straight, fiber-like structure arising from the intertwining of the multiple β-sheet filaments. These remarkably ordered and stable nanofibrils can be useful as building blocks for protein-based functional materials, but they are also implicated in severe neurodegenerative diseases. The overall aim of this article is to highlight recent efforts aimed at obtaining insights into amyloid proteins on different length scales. Starting from molecular information on amyloids, single fibril properties and mechanical properties of networks of fibrils are described. Specifically, we focus on the self-assembly of amyloid protein fibrils composed of peptides and denatured model proteins, as well as the influence of inhibitors of fibril formation. Additionally, we will demonstrate how the application of recently developed vibrational spectroscopic techniques has emerged as a powerful approach to gain spatially resolved information on the structure-function relation of amyloids. While spectroscopy provides information on local molecular conformations and protein secondary structure, information on the single fibril level has been developed by diverse microscopic techniques. The approaches to reveal basic mechanical properties of single fibrils like bending rigidity, shear modulus, ultimate tensile strength and fracture behavior are illustrated. Lastly, mechanics of networks of amyloid fibrils, typically forming viscoelastic gels are outlined, with a focus on (micro-) rheological properties. The resulting fundamental insights are essential for the rational design of novel edible and biodegradable protein-based polymers, but also to devise therapeutic strategies to combat amyloid assembly and accumulation during pathogenic disorders.

2014, Hübner, Uwe, Popp, Jürgen

[no abstract available]

2016, Chernavskaia, Olga, Heuke, Sandro, Vieth, Michael, Friedrich, Oliver, Schürmann, Sebastian, Atreya, Raja, Stallmach, Andreas, Neurath, Markus F., Waldner, Maximilian, Petersen, Iver, Schmitt, Michael, Bocklitz, Thomas, Popp, Jürgen

Assessing disease activity is a prerequisite for an adequate treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. In addition to endoscopic mucosal healing, histologic remission poses a promising end-point of IBD therapy. However, evaluating histological remission harbors the risk for complications due to the acquisition of biopsies and results in a delay of diagnosis because of tissue processing procedures. In this regard, non-linear multimodal imaging techniques might serve as an unparalleled technique that allows the real-time evaluation of microscopic IBD activity in the endoscopy unit. In this study, tissue sections were investigated using the non-linear multimodal microscopy combination of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS), two-photon excited auto fluorescence (TPEF) and second-harmonic generation (SHG). After the measurement a gold-standard assessment of histological indexes was carried out based on a conventional H&E stain. Subsequently, various geometry and intensity related features were extracted from the multimodal images. An optimized feature set was utilized to predict histological index levels based on a linear classifier. Based on the automated prediction, the diagnosis time interval is decreased. Therefore, non-linear multimodal imaging may provide a real-time diagnosis of IBD activity suited to assist clinical decision making within the endoscopy unit.

2019, Frosch, Timea, Wyrwich, Elisabeth, Yan, Di, Domes, Christian, Domes, Robert, Popp, Jürgen, Frosch, Torsten

The fight against counterfeit pharmaceuticals is a global issue of utmost importance, as failed medication results in millions of deaths every year. Particularly affected are antimalarial tablets. A very important issue is the identification of substandard tablets that do not contain the nominal amounts of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), and the differentiation between genuine products and products without any active ingredient or with a false active ingredient. This work presents a novel approach based on fiber-array based Raman hyperspectral imaging to qualify and quantify the antimalarial APIs lumefantrine and artemether directly and non-invasively in a tablet in a time-efficient way. The investigations were carried out with the antimalarial tablet Riamet® and self-made model tablets, which were used as examples of counterfeits and substandard. Partial least-squares regression modeling and density functional theory calculations were carried out for quantification of lumefantrine and artemether and for spectral band assignment. The most prominent differentiating vibrational signatures of the APIs were presented.

2020, Barbotin, Aurélien, Urbančič, Iztok, Galiani, Silvia, Eggeling, Christian, Booth, Martin

Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) is a valuable tool to study the molecular dynamics in living cells. When used together with a super-resolution stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscope, STED-FCS can measure diffusion processes on the nanoscale in living cells. In two-dimensional (2D) systems like the cellular plasma membrane, a ring-shaped depletion focus is most commonly used to increase the lateral resolution, leading to more than 25-fold decrease in the observation volume, reaching the relevant scale of supramolecular arrangements. However, STED-FCS faces severe limitations when measuring diffusion in three dimensions (3D), largely due to the spurious background contributions from undepleted areas of the excitation focus that reduce the signal quality and ultimately limit the resolution. In this paper, we investigate how different STED confinement modes can mitigate this issue. By simulations as well as experiments with fluorescent probes in solution and in cells, we demonstrate that the coherent-hybrid (CH) depletion pattern created by a bivortex phase mask reduces background most efficiently and thus provides superior signal quality under comparable reduction of the observation volume. Featuring also the highest robustness to common optical aberrations, CH-STED can be considered the method of choice for reliable STED-FCS-based investigations of 3D diffusion on the subdiffraction scale. Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.

2017, Cordero, Eliana, Korinth, Florian, Stiebing, Clara, Krafft, Christoph, Schie, Iwan W., Popp, Jürgen

Raman spectroscopy provides label-free biochemical information from tissue samples without complicated sample preparation. The clinical capability of Raman spectroscopy has been demonstrated in a wide range of in vitro and in vivo applications. However, a challenge for in vivo applications is the simultaneous excitation of auto-fluorescence in the majority of tissues of interest, such as liver, bladder, brain, and others. Raman bands are then superimposed on a fluorescence background, which can be several orders of magnitude larger than the Raman signal. To eliminate the disturbing fluorescence background, several approaches are available. Among instrumentational methods shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy (SERDS) has been widely applied and studied. Similarly, computational techniques, for instance extended multiplicative scatter correction (EMSC), have also been employed to remove undesired background contributions. Here, we present a theoretical and experimental evaluation and comparison of fluorescence background removal approaches for Raman spectra based on SERDS and EMSC.

2018, Pilát, Zdeněk, Bernatová, Silvie, Ježek, Jan, Kirchhoff, Johanna, Tannert, Astrid, Neugebauer, Ute, Samek, Ota, Zemánek, Pavel

Analyzing the cells in various body fluids can greatly deepen the understanding of the mechanisms governing the cellular physiology. Due to the variability of physiological and metabolic states, it is important to be able to perform such studies on individual cells. Therefore, we developed an optofluidic system in which we precisely manipulated and monitored individual cells of Escherichia coli. We tested optical micromanipulation in a microfluidic chamber chip by transferring individual bacteria into the chambers. We then subjected the cells in the chambers to antibiotic cefotaxime and we observed the changes by using time-lapse microscopy. Separately, we used laser tweezers Raman spectroscopy (LTRS) in a different micro-chamber chip to manipulate and analyze individual cefotaxime-treated E. coli cells. Additionally, we performed conventional Raman micro-spectroscopic measurements of E. coli cells in a micro-chamber. We found observable changes in the cellular morphology (cell elongation) and in Raman spectra, which were consistent with other recently published observations. The principal component analysis (PCA) of Raman data distinguished between the cefotaxime treated cells and control. We tested the capabilities of the optofluidic system and found it to be a reliable and versatile solution for this class of microbiological experiments.