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Now showing 1 - 10 of 93
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    High spatial and temporal resolution cell manipulation techniques in microchannels
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2016) Novo, Pedro; Dell’Aica, Margherita; Janasek, Dirk; Zahedi, René P.
    The advent of microfluidics has enabled thorough control of cell manipulation experiments in so called lab on chips. Lab on chips foster the integration of actuation and detection systems, and require minute sample and reagent amounts. Typically employed microfluidic structures have similar dimensions as cells, enabling precise spatial and temporal control of individual cells and their local environments. Several strategies for high spatio-temporal control of cells in microfluidics have been reported in recent years, namely methods relying on careful design of the microfluidic structures (e.g. pinched flow), by integration of actuators (e.g. electrodes or magnets for dielectro-, acousto- and magneto-phoresis), or integrations thereof. This review presents the recent developments of cell experiments in microfluidics divided into two parts: an introduction to spatial control of cells in microchannels followed by special emphasis in the high temporal control of cell-stimulus reaction and quenching. In the end, the present state of the art is discussed in line with future perspectives and challenges for translating these devices into routine applications.
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    Quantification of Dolichyl Phosphates Using Phosphate Methylation and Reverse-Phase Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry
    (Columbus, Ohio : American Chemical Society, 2023) Kale, Dipali; Kikul, Frauke; Phapale, Prasad; Beedgen, Lars; Thiel, Christian; Brügger, Britta
    Dolichyl monophosphates (DolPs) are essential lipids in glycosylation pathways that are highly conserved across almost all domains of life. The availability of DolP is critical for all glycosylation processes, as these lipids serve as membrane-anchored building blocks used by various types of glycosyltransferases to generate complex post-translational modifications of proteins and lipids. The analysis of DolP species by reverse-phase liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (RPLC-MS) remains a challenge due to their very low abundance and wide range of lipophilicities. Until now, a method for the simultaneous qualitative and quantitative assessment of DolP species from biological membranes has been lacking. Here, we describe a novel approach based on simple sample preparation, rapid and efficient trimethylsilyl diazomethane-dependent phosphate methylation, and RPLC-MS analysis for quantification of DolP species with different isoprene chain lengths. We used this workflow to selectively quantify DolP species from lipid extracts derived of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, HeLa, and human skin fibroblasts from steroid 5-α-reductase 3- congenital disorders of glycosylation (SRD5A3-CDG) patients and healthy controls. Integration of this workflow with global lipidomics analyses will be a powerful tool to expand our understanding of the role of DolPs in pathophysiological alterations of metabolic pathways downstream of HMG-CoA reductase, associated with CDGs, hypercholesterolemia, neurodegeneration, and cancer.
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    Crosspolarization with imperfect infrared polarizers
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] Elsevier, 2022) Furchner, Andreas; Hinrichs, Karsten
    The analysis of vibrational bands is a core application of infrared (IR) spectroscopy. Polarization-dependent measurements enable the study of anisotropic materials. However, imperfect IR polarizers exhibit polarizer leakage, which causes pronounced bandshape and baseline distortions for samples with weak optical anisotropy. Based on the 4 × 4 Mueller-matrix formalism, we propose a polarimetric measurement scheme for handling imperfect polarizers and source prepolarization that delivers correct co- and crosspolarized transmission and reflection IR spectra. The scheme is applied to a weakly anisotropic polypropylene sheet, resolving crosspolarized signatures as small as 5⋅10−5. We determine the polymer's direction-dependent complex refractive index in the vibrational fingerprint range.
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    Synthetic glycopeptides and glycoproteins with applications in biological research
    (Frankfurt am Main : Beilstein-Institut, 2012) Westerlind, Ulrika
    Over the past few years, synthetic methods for the preparation of complex glycopeptides have been drastically improved. The need for homogenous glycopeptides and glycoproteins with defined chemical structures to study diverse biological phenomena further enhances the development of methodologies. Selected recent advances in synthesis and applications, in which glycopeptides or glycoproteins serve as tools for biological studies, are reviewed. The importance of specific antibodies directed to the glycan part, as well as the peptide backbone has been realized during the development of synthetic glycopeptide-based anti-tumor vaccines. The fine-tuning of native chemical ligation (NCL), expressed protein ligation (EPL), and chemoenzymatic glycosylation techniques have all together enabled the synthesis of functional glycoproteins. The synthesis of structurally defined, complex glycopeptides or glyco-clusters presented on natural peptide backbones, or mimics thereof, offer further possibilities to study protein-binding events.
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    Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensitivity Enhancement Based on Protonated Polyaniline Films Doped by Aluminum Nitrate
    (Basel : MDPI, 2022) Al-Bataineh, Qais M.; Shpacovitch, Victoria; Sadiq, Diyar; Telfah, Ahmad; Hergenröder, Roland
    Complex composite films based on polyaniline (PANI) doped hydrochloric acid (HCl) incorporated with aluminum nitrate (Al(NO3)3) on Au-layer were designed and synthesized as a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing device. The physicochemical properties of (PANI-HCl)/Al(NO3)3 complex composite films were studied for various Al(NO3)3 concentrations (0, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 wt.%). The refractive index of the (PANI-HCl)/Al(NO3)3 complex composite films increased continuously as Al(NO3)3 concentrations increased. The electrical conductivity values increased from 5.10 µS/cm to 10.00 µS/cm as Al(NO3)3 concentration increased to 32 wt.%. The sensitivity of the SPR sensing device was investigated using a theoretical approach and experimental measurements. The theoretical system of SPR measurement confirmed that increasing Al(NO3)3 in (PANI-HCl)/Al(NO3)3 complex composite films enhanced the sensitivity from about 114.5 [Deg/RIU] for Au-layer to 159.0 [Deg/RIU] for Au-((PANI-HCl)/Al(NO3)3 (32 wt.%)). In addition, the signal-to-noise ratio for Au-layer was 3.95, which increased after coating by (PANI-HCl)/Al(NO3)3 (32 wt.%) complex composite layer to 8.82. Finally, we conclude that coating Au-layer by (PANI-HCl)/Al(NO3)3 complex composite films enhances the sensitivity of the SPR sensing device.
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    Inhibition of cardiac CaMKII to cure heart failure: step by step towards translation?
    (Heidelberg : Springer, 2016) Cuello, Friederike; Lorenz, Kristina
    [no abstract available]
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    Alignment of retention time obtained from multicapillary column gas chromatography used for VOC analysis with ion mobility spectrometry
    (Heidelberg : Springer, 2010) Perl, Thorsten; Bödeker, Bertram; Jünger, Melanie; Nolte, Jürgen; Vautz, Wolfgang
    Multicapillary column (MCC) ion mobility spectrometers (IMS) are increasingly in demand for medical diagnosis, biological applications and process control. In a MCC-IMS, volatile compounds are differentiated by specific retention time and ion mobility when rapid preseparation techniques are applied, e.g. for the analysis of complex and humid samples. Therefore, high accuracy in the determination of both parameters is required for reliable identification of the signals. The retention time in the MCC is the subject of the present investigation because, for such columns, small deviations in temperature and flow velocity may cause significant changes in retention time. Therefore, a universal correction procedure would be a helpful tool to increase the accuracy of the data obtained from a gas-chromatographic preseparation. Although the effect of the carrier gas flow velocity and temperature on retention time is not linear, it could be demonstrated that a linear alignment can compensate for the changes in retention time due to common minor deviations of both the carrier gas flow velocity and the column temperature around the MCC-IMS standard operation conditions. Therefore, an effective linear alignment procedure for the correction of those deviations has been developed from the analyses of defined gas mixtures under various experimental conditions. This procedure was then applied to data sets generated from real breath analyses obtained in clinical studies using different instruments at different measuring sites for validation. The variation in the retention time of known signals, especially for compounds with higher retention times, was significantly improved. The alignment of the retention time—an indispensable procedure to achieve a more precise identification of analytes—using the proposed method reduces the random error caused by small accidental deviations in column temperature and flow velocity significantly.
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    Fast IR laser mapping ellipsometry for the study of functional organic thin films
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015) Furchner, Andreas; Sun, Guoguang; Ketelsen, Helge; Rappich, Jörg; Hinrichs, Karsten
    Fast infrared mapping with sub-millimeter lateral resolution as well as time-resolved infrared studies of kinetic processes of functional organic thin films require a new generation of infrared ellipsometers. We present a novel laboratory-based infrared (IR) laser mapping ellipsometer, in which a laser is coupled to a variable-angle rotating analyzer ellipsometer. Compared to conventional Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) ellipsometers, the IR laser ellipsometer provides ten- to hundredfold shorter measurement times down to 80 ms per measured spot, as well as about tenfold increased lateral resolution of 120 μm, thus enabling mapping of small sample areas with thin-film sensitivity. The ellipsometer, equipped with a HeNe laser emitting at about 2949 cm−1, was applied for the optical characterization of inhomogeneous poly(3-hexylthiophene) [P3HT] and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) [PNIPAAm] organic thin films used for opto-electronics and bioapplications. With the constant development of tunable IR laser sources, laser-based infrared ellipsometry is a promising technique for fast in-depth mapping characterization of thin films and blends.