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LABORATORY PRODUCTS
Customised Tube Furnaces Offer Researchers a Versatile Processing Solution
Carbolite has supplied the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques (Fraunhofer IPM) in Freiburg, Germany with a test rig that comprises two specially customised wire wound horizontal three-zone tube furnaces. The customised furnaces based on a system that was developed by the Fraunhofer IPM in 1981 will provide the Institute’s state-of-the-art research teams with a versatile processing system for studying and improving the thermo-electrical properties of advanced thermoelectric materials and systems. The Institute will use the two separately controlled, rail-mounted three-zone tube furnaces to play a key role in optimising compound semiconductors. The systems are designed to maximise operational flexibility by combining the two, three-zone furnaces to form a single large multi-zone furnace or separating them to give two differently heated regions with a gradient of 200°C between the two. Custom built by Carbolite engineers, the three-zone tube furnaces feature a specially developed desk and rail system that provides vibration-free movement of the furnaces and is constructed to support a very long fixed quartz tube through both furnaces.
A double horizontal tube furnace was supplied by Carbolite to maximise the temperature gradient capabilities of the system. The two three-zone furnaces have different sizes. The larger has a heated length of 600mm, the smaller 400mm each with an integral recrystalised alumina work tube. The three-zone design of the furnaces uses three controllers to apply separate control to the central zone and each of the end zones in each furnace. These end zone controllers with their own thermocouples compensate for the tendency for tube ends to be cooler and ensure that the tubes furnaces have a larger uniform zone than can be achieved with only one control loop. Each of the two furnaces is equipped to accept an accessory tube with a maximum outer diameter of 65mm. The customised system also includes smaller end insulation disks between both furnaces to enable a more linear temperature gradient from the one end of the furnace to the other. Power to the furnace’s end zones is automatically adjusted to compensate for heat loss. To provide a more user-friendly, ergonomic working environment the furnace systems feature separate controller boxes that have been specially positioned under the worktable. The furnaces are specified to operate at a maximum temperature of 1200°C but by using modified control algorithms they are able to operate between 150°C and 600°C.
Circle no. 366
Certified Disposable Aspirating Heads
Cherwell Laboratories has introduced the Daily-Head disposable aspirating head for microbiological air monitoring. Triple-wrapped irradiated, this provides an always ready alternative to autoclaving stainless steel heads. Each batch of the Daily-Head is supplied with a certificate of sterilisation and conformity to satisfy cGLP requirements.
More than
Suitable for use with the SAS Super, Duo-SAS-360 and SAS-Isolator air samplers, the Daily-Head is available as Contact Plate (RODAC) and 90mm Petri dish versions. Manufactured from an antistatic resin plastic, the disposable head comes in an irradiated, triple-wrapped bag, making it sterile for use in a variety of applications, including those sensitive to contamination. With a five year shelf life, each Daily-Head accessory can be relied upon to provide a sterile solution, either every day or as an emergency back-up.
Circle no. 367
University Of St Andrews Selects Nta System for Exosomes Characterisation
NanoSight reports that the School of Medicine at the University of St Andrews is using nanoparticle tracking analysis, NTA, to characterise exosome behaviour.
Dr Simon Powis and his colleagues at the University of St Andrews are working to understand how a set of molecules involved in the immune system's defence against intracellular pathogens function. These molecules are called major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules, and they are expressed on almost every cell in the body. Their relevance to medicine is most commonly known because they are one of the key sets of genes that have to be closely matched when an organ transplant is made, otherwise the transplant can be rejected. It is now known that their precise role in the normal immune system is to bind small fragments of degraded viral proteins, which they display to T lymphocytes of the immune system. This allows the specific detection of 'foreign' proteins, i.e. from potential pathogens, and allows the immune system to specifically detect and kill infected cells, whilst leaving a neighbouring uninfected cell alone. In addition, there is one fascinating autoimmune disease closely associated with a particular type of MHC class I molecule. Over 90% of patients with a type of inflammatory arthritis called ankylosing spondylitis which affects the spine, expresses one specific type of MHC class I molecule called HLA-B27. The link between this arthritic condition and HLA-B27 has been known for almost 40 years, but the disease mechanism and how HLA-B27 is involved is yet to be understood.
Whilst the Powis group were studying MHC class I molecules expressed on exosomes, it was discovered that they can express a novel type of structure. The tail region of the MHC class I molecule, which sits inside the exosome, can frequently form a disulfide-bond linkage to another MHC class I molecule, thus bringing two molecules closely together in a dimeric structure. This normally does not happen on cells because the cytoplasm has a reducing environment, preventing disulfide bonds from forming. However, in exosomes the capacity to maintain a reducing environment seems to have been lost. The group is now studying whether cells of the immune system see these MHC class I dimers structures on exosomes and respond to them. Another key question is what peptides are found bound to MHC class I molecules on exosomes. The exosome production pathway is not the normal route for MHC class I molecules to get to the cell surface, so the possibility that different peptides are found in thi s subset of exosomal MHC class I molecules is a real possibility. To be able to study these exosomes from a variety of immune cells, it is necessary to detect their presence and size in cultures. This is the reason for the team choosing the NanoSight NTA approach with the LM10 system.
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Circle no. 368
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LAB ASIA - MAY/JUNE 2011 - LABORATORY PRODUCTS
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