3D Carbon Scaffolds for Neural Stem Cell Culture and Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

3D glassy carbon structures with percolated macropores are obtained by pyrolysis of chemically synthesized cryogels featuring tunable porosity. These batch-fabricated structures are used as scaffolds for culturing neural stem cells (NSCs) and are characterized by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). With the aid of MRI, the successful cultivation of NSCs on a glassy carbon surface and the precise 3D locations of these cell clusters within the opaque scaffold are demonstrated.

Long-Term Stability of Polymer-Coated Surface Transverse Wave Sensors for the Detection of Organic Solvent Vapors.

Arrays with polymer-coated acoustic sensors, such as surface acoustic wave (SAW) and surface transverse wave (STW) sensors, have successfully been applied for a variety of gas sensing applications. However, the stability of the sensors' polymer coatings over a longer period of use has hardly been investigated. We used an array of eight STW resonator sensors coated with different polymers.

Silk scaffolds connected with different naturally occurring biomaterials for prostate cancer cell cultivation in 3D.

In the present work, different biopolymer blend scaffolds based on the silk protein fibroin from Bombyx mori (BM) were prepared via freeze-drying method. The chemical, structural, and mechanical properties of the three dimensional (3D) porous silk fibroin (SF) composite scaffolds of gelatin, collagen, and chitosan as well as SF from Antheraea pernyi (AP) and the recombinant spider silk protein spidroin (SSP1) have been systematically investigated, followed by cell culture experiments with epithelial prostate cancer cells (LNCaP) up to 14 days. Compared to the pure SF scaffold of BM, the blend scaffolds differ in porous morphology, elasticity, swelling behavior, and biochemical composition.

Superporous Poly(ethylene glycol) Diacrylate Cryogel with a Defined Elastic Modulus for Prostate Cancer Cell Research.

The physical and mechanical properties of the tumor microenvironment are crucial for the growth, differentiation and migration of cancer cells. However, such microenvironment is not found in the geometric constraints of 2D cell culture systems used in many cancer studies. Prostate cancer research, in particular, suffers from the lack of suitable in vitro models.

Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) biosensors: coupling of sensing layers and measurement.

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices based on horizontally polarized surface shear waves enable direct and label-free detection of proteins in real time. Signal response changes result mainly from mass increase and viscoelasticity changes on the device surface. With an appropriate sensor configuration all types of binding reactions can be detected by determining resonant frequency changes of an oscillator.

Biosensors for diagnostic applications.

Biosensors combine a transducer with a biorecognition element and thus are able to transform a biochemical event on the transducer surface directly into a measurable signal. By this they have the potential to provide rapid, real-time, and accurate results in a comparatively easy way, which makes them promising analytical devices. Since the first biosensor was introduced in 1962 as an "enzyme electrode" for monitoring glucose in blood, medical applications have been the main driving force for further biosensor development.

Surface modification of an acoustic biosensor allowing the detection of low concentrations of cancer markers.

Analyte detection with biosensors is strongly influenced by the preparation of the biosensor surface including choice of sensing layers and coupling methods for corresponding capture molecules. We investigated the influence of different coupling procedures, especially considering coupling chemistry and incubation times for reagents, by means of surface acoustic wave (SAW) biosensors. The effect on the signal response was tested in two subsequent protein assays.

Biosensors with label-free detection designed for diagnostic applications.

Since the first biosensor was introduced in 1962 by Clark and Lyons, there has been increasing demand for such analytical devices in diagnostic applications. Research initially focussed mainly on detector principles and recognition elements, whereas the packaging of the biosensors and the microfluidic integration has been discussed only more recently. However, to obtain a user-friendly and well-performing analytical device, those components have to be considered all together.