Scientific publications

Interaction of nanoparticles with the skin barrier is a recent area of research that draws a lot of attention from the researchers. However, monitoring nanoparticles in or through the skin is mainly based on qualitative microscopical techniques. Yet, a quantitative approach is required for a better basic understanding. In response, a combined "multiphoton-pixel analysis" method was developed in this study for semiquantitation of gold nanoparticles penetration into different skin layers. The developed approach provides a useful tool for future studies focusing on skin penetration of nanoparticles for the aim of health risk assessment or for the design of topical and transdermal drug delivery systems.

Purpose: To measure penetration and metabolic effects of ion-stabilized, polar, 15 nm gold nanoparticles in aqueous solution (AuNP-Aq) and sterically stabilized, non-polar, 6 nm gold nanoparticles in toluene (AuNP-TOL) on excised human skin. Methods: Gold nanoparticles were characterized with dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Skin penetration studies were done on frozen or fresh excised skin using static Franz diffusion cells. Viable treated skin was assessed by dermoscopy, reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM), multiphoton tomography (MPT) with fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), and TEM. Results: Dermoscopy and RCM showed large aggregates in the furrows of AuNP-Aq-treated skin. Treatment of thawed and viable skin only showed enhanced permeability to nanoparticles in the AuNP-TOL group with MPT and FLIM imaging to stratum spinosum of epidermis. TEM analysis revealed gold nanoparticles within AuNP-treated stratum corneum. FLIM analysis of NAD(P)H showed a significant decrease in total NAD(P)H in all toluene-treated groups. Conclusions: Gold nanoparticles, 15 nm, in aqueous solution aggregated on the skin surface. Toluene treatment eliminated skin metabolism; skin treated with toluene/gold nanoparticles (6 nm) for 24 h, but not at 4 h, showed increased nanoparticle permeability. These results are of value to nanotoxicology.

Interactive materials that specifically respond to environmental stimuli hold high promise as energy-autonomous sensors and actuators in biomedicine, analytics or microsystems engineering. However, the implementation of materials specifically responsive to a given small molecule has so far been hampered by a lack of generically applicable stimulus sensors. In this study, a novel and likely general strategy for the synthesis of biohybrid materials with desired stimulus specificity is established. The strategy is based on allosterically regulated DNA-binding proteins, a conserved protein family that has evolved in prokaryotes to sense and respond to most diverse molecules in order to enable bacterial survival in a changing environment. The novel hydrogel design concept is demonstrated with the example of single-chain TetR, a protein that binds the tetO DNA motif and dissociates thereof in the presence of the antibiotic tetracycline. Therefore, linear polyacrylamide is crosslinked via the TetR/tetO interaction to a biohybrid material that can subsequently be dissolved by tetracycline in a dose-dependent manner. This drug-induced dissolution is applied for the adjustable release of the cytokine interleukin 4 in a tetracycline-dependent manner. The design concept developed in this study might serve as a blueprint for the synthesis of biohybrid materials responsive to drugs, metabolites or toxins by replacing TetR/tetO with another protein/DNA pair showing the desired stimulus specificity. A biohybrid hydrogel is synthesized for the drug-inducible release of biopharmaceuticals. The hydrogel consists of linear polyacrylamide crosslinked by the interaction of the tetracycline repressor scTetR with its target DNA sequence tetO. Addition of tetracycline dissociates the protein-DNA interaction and triggers the release of a previously embedded payload protein. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Inducible expression systems represent the founding technology for the emergence of synthetic biology in mammalian cells. The core molecules in these systems are bacterial regulator proteins that bind to or dissociate from a cognate DNA operator sequence in response to an exogenous stimulus like a small-molecule inducer. In this chapter, we describe a generic protocol of how bacterial regulator proteins can be applied to the design, construction, and optimization of an inducible expression system in mammalian cells. By choosing regulator proteins with an appropriate small-molecule inducer, this protocol provides a straightforward approach for establishing biosensors, cell-to-cell communication systems, or tools to control gene expression in vivo. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The rapid development of synthetic biology is a paradigm of how the molecular diversity of naturally occurring gene control components can be used to design synthetic control devices and gene networks that provide precisely programmed transgene expression dynamics in space and time. Here we offer an overview on recent advances in the modular design of trigger-inducible mammalian expression devices that are either responsive by exogenous stimuli such as chemicals and physical cues or controlled by endogenous metabolites driving prosthetic circuits to treat metabolic disorders in a self-sufficient manner. Compatible genetic switches can also be assembled to synthetic gene networks that show highly complex expression dynamics such as temporally resolved band-detect functions or oscillating transgene expression profiles. The ongoing metagenomic discovery and characterization of the unexplored sequence space is constantly increasing the molecular diversity in fundamental control components that fuels the further development of synthetic biology. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

Synthetic quorum-sensing systems in mammalian cells has enabled the implementation of time- and distance-dependent bioprocesses, as well as the design of synthetic ecosystems emulating clinically important host–parasite interactions. In this chapter, we provide a detailed protocol of the design of a mammalian cell-to-cell signaling device and its integration into a mammalian quorum-sensing system for cell density-induced expression product genes. Cell-to-cell signaling is based on a sender cell, metabolically engineered for expression of alcohol dehydrogenase converting ethanol into acetaldehyde, and a receiver cell line for the dose-dependent translation of the acetaldehyde concentration into transgene expression by an acetaldehyde-responsive promoter. This protocol can be adapted easily to various cell types and transgenes for the design of versatile mammalian cell-based quorum-sensing systems. © 2011, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Synthetic Biology aims at the design and construction of biologic systems with desired features by applying a modular strategy. This approach was used to investigate the interaction of multiple organisms in synthetic ecosystems.

The influence of the inhibitor particle size (nano and micro cerium dioxide) embedded in several hybrid sol-gel coating systems for the corrosion protection of aluminium AA2024 alloy was studied, as well as the influence of other parameters like the inhibitor loading level and the method of reticulation. The properties of the obtained coatings were evaluated by means of transmission electron microscopy, accelerated salt spray test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. All the varied parameters proved to have an important influence on the corrosion mechanism, and an improvement induced by the use of nanometric inhibitors in comparison with the micrometric ones was demonstrated. In the case of the strong reticulated matrix, an inhomogeneous dispersion of the inhibiting species (micro inhibitor) favours the tension formation, making the coating more vulnerable to the corrosion attack. For the same doping level it was observed that the reticulation with 1-methylimidazole (MI) leads to a slightly better corrosion protection. Concomitantly, it was shown that high loadings with inhibitors have an adverse effect on the corrosion protection.

Abstract LiAlH4 and AlCl3 reacted in a ratio 1:3 to obtain Cl2AlH, which is stabilised by the addition of two equivalents of N-methylpiperidine (nmp) to form dichloroalane (1) as bis adduct of nmp. Compound 1 was allowed to react with 2,6-tBu-4-MeC6H2OH and HOcHex in a 1:1 ratio to get compounds 2 and 3, respectively. Cl2Al(2,6-tBu-4-MeC6H2O)(nmp) (2) is a monomer in which the central aluminium atom is tetracoordinate. Contrary to the parent compound 1, compound 2 is stabilised by only one nmp molecule. The larger bulk of the alkoxide in 2 prevents the second nmp molecule to reach the aluminium atom. Compound 3 crystallises as unique anionic tri-nuclear aluminium entity [Al3Cl6(OR)4]– [nmp2H]+ with a protonated nmp as countercation. The lesser bulk of the cyclohexanolate leads to a higher oligomerisation of ROAlCl2 (R = cyclohexyl). When a relatively bulkier alcohol, 1-methylcyclohexanol, was allowed to react with mixtures of LiAlH4 and AlCl3 prepared in 1:1 and 1:3 ratios in solution, compounds 4 and 5, respectively, were obtained. Both compounds ((HClAlOR)2 (4) and (Cl2AlOR)2 (5), R = cHexMe-1)) are dimers with oxygen as bridging atom in the Al2O2 rings. All compounds 2, 3, 4, and 5 were structurally characterised by X-ray diffraction on single crystals.

A new type of precursor has been developed by molecular design and synthesised to produce tin doped indium oxide (ITO). The precursor consists of a newly developed bimetallic indium tin alkoxide, Me2In(OtBu)3Sn (Me = CH3, OtBu = OC(CH3)3), which is in equilibrium with an excess of Me2In(OtBu). This quasi single-source precursor is applied in a sol-gel process to produce powders and coatings of ITO using a one-step heat treatment process under an inert atmosphere. The main advantage of this system is the simple heat treatment that leads to the disproportionation of the bivalent Sn(II) precursor into Sn(IV) and metallic tin, resulting in an overall reduced state of the metal in the final tin doped indium oxide (ITO) material, hence avoiding the usually necessary reduction step. Solid state 119Sn-NMR measurements of powder samples confirm the appearance of Sn(II) in an amorphous gel state and of metallic tin after annealing under nitrogen. The corresponding preparation of ITO coatings by spin coating on glass leads to transparent conductive layers with a high transmittance of visible light and a low electrical resistivity without the necessity of a reduction step.