This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
Microscopy & Microtechniques 77 Liquid Crystal Research using a Peltier Stage aids in the Development of Smart Energy Windows


Linkam Scientific Instruments report on the use of their PE120 stage and Imaging Station in the development of smart energy windows at RavenBrick LLC in the USA.


RavenBrick has been working on various processes to take them to the forefront of the booming solar technology market through helping builders and architects respond to the energy challenges of the future with green building materials. The company manufactures smart windows which use thermochromatic filter technology to help regulate the temperature of a building by saving energy costs and reducing glare from sunlight.


RavenBrick’s R&D Manager, Dr Wilder Iglesias, has been using a Linkam PE120 system including an Imaging Station and Linksys 32 software to help with the manufacture and advancement of products. With this simple-to-use thermoelectrically cooled stage, he is able to study the quality and refine the composition of the liquid crystals that are used in their windows. Speaking of his work, Dr Iglesias said: “My company, RavenBrick LLC, manufactures smart windows based on liquid crystal (LC) technology. The window tints if the temperature is too hot, blocking solar energy from penetrating the building/house and clears when the temperature is low, allowing the sun energy to heat up the building. The tinting of our windows depends on the LC phase sequence, thus we use the Linkam stage for two purposes: one is to qualify incoming liquid crystal material and two, for finding the right mix of LC to have the appropriate phase transitions depending on the weather profile of the place of installation and/or comfort factor from the customer.”


Aside from the stage, Dr Iglesias and his team have also found the Linksys32 software to be invaluable to their research. “I love the Linksys32 software and the way it presents the information for past runs. Being a software developer for this type of instruments, I really appreciate the simplicity and how powerful the Linksys32 software is.”


He added: “In some sense we use the Linkam system as a visual differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), by monitoring the intensity changes on the Real Time Chart of the Linksys32 software, where a large intensity variation implies a phase transition on the material.”


29242pr@reply-direct.com


Report on the use of the CellHesion 200 System to Study Cellular Adhesion at the Molecular Level in the field of Diabetes


Dr Paul Squires and Dr Claire Hills from the School of Life Sciences (SLS) at the University of Warwick have international expertise in cell biology, signalling and endocrinology. They are using the JPK CellHesion®


200 system to nurture multi-disciplinary


research between SLS and the School of Engineering (Dr K-K Liu) in addition to external collaborations, e.g. Professor Peter Jones (King’s College London). The innovative nanotechnology is being used to explore a range of problems in biomedicine, biology and pharmacokinetics related to the field of energy homeostasis and diabetes, and the state-of-the-art resource facilitates their experimental work on models of the disease, bridging the gap between basic science, nanotechnology and medicine for developing the next-generation of therapies.


The CellHesion® 200 is an integrated system designed to measure cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions. Epithelial tubular cells


of the kidney are large and have an elastic membrane. To resolve complete separation of two adherent cells we require a system with a pulling length of up to 100 µm. Other AFM instruments cannot offer this level of manoeuvrability and are unable to record full separation of large cells. The CellHesion®


external mechanical stress. This facilitates investigations into glucose-evoked changes in TRPV4-mediated mechano-sensation in the renal collecting duct.


The group have published several papers relating to diabetes research where the CellHesion system has been integral to their investigations. These include papers in the journals of Experimental Diabetes Research, Diabetologia, Febs Lettersand Cell Physiology & Biochemistry. Most recently, the group has reported results on the study of the effects of the ‘party drug’ ketamine and its effect on renal and bladder behaviour were CellHesion is being used to assess if early changes in candidate protein


expression at the adherens junction functionally uncouple cells ahead of overt loss in epithelial function. Commenting about the use of the CellHesion®


system is the only AFM-based instrument on the market capable of allowing this degree of separation. XXXXXpr@reply-direct.com 200, Dr Squires said: “To resolve complete separation of two adherent cells we require a system with a pulling length of up to 100 µm. The CellHesion 200 system can also be used to quantify membrane rigidity and cellular responses to


ForceRobot System used to Study the Dynamics of Biomacromolecules at Nanjing University


Professor Yi Cao is a member of the Institute of Biophysics located in the Physics Department of Nanjing University. The main focus of his group is to study how force regulates the structures and conformational dynamics of biomacromolecules using AFM based single molecule force spectroscopy. As force has been revealed as an important signal that regulates many biologic processes, their study will be helpful for the understanding of the mechanism underlying these processes. In order to study the conformational change of proteins under force, there is the need for a tool that allows the accurate application of force in the pN range and then to measure the change in distance at the nm resolution. AFM is an ideal tool to fulfil this criterion and Professor Cao thinks that JPK’s AFM is one of the best AFMs for biological applications.


Professor Cao first got to know ForceRobot when he was a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in Canada. He noted: “I saw the very first version of ForceRobot in a SPM conference in 2007. It was so amazing to get the experiments done automatically without attendance using the ForceRobot®


. I thought that this could save a lot of tedious


routine manipulation time. I was impressed that the machine can be controlled remotely through internet or smartphone, which means that the operator can leave experiments running when at home or away from the laboratory. I can change many experimental parameters using the Experimentplanner™. Then, when I come back to work, thousands of curves have been collected. All you need to do is to analyse them and think about the science related to these data. Subsequently, I bought a ForceRobot when I started my own research group in Nanjing University in 2010. The software is getting better and better, especially the data analysis function.”


Continuing, Professor Cao said that “before using ForceRobot, I used a custom-built AFM. We need to spend quite a lot of time for instrumentation and sometimes the custom-built AFM gave us more flexibility for different kinds of experiments. With the advent of the ForceRobot, we have a system which greatly improves the quantity and quality of data.”


29134pr@reply-direct.com


WWW.LABMATE-ONLINE.COM


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84