50 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.”
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Report on the Studies of Adhesion Forces between Cancer Cells at the Institute of Physiology II at the University of Münster
JPK Instruments reports on the current cancer research project of Dr Florian T Ludwig at the Institute of Physiology II, University Hospital Münster, who uses a CellHesion 200 to measure the adhesive forces between tumour cells.
Dr Florian T Ludwig is a member of the team of Professor Albrecht Schwab and Dr Christian Stock. These researchers are interested in how ion transport across the plasma membrane affects tumour cell motility and, thus, metastasis. Occurring prior to migration and invasion, one early step of the so-called metastatic cascade is the detachment of single tumour cells or cell clusters from the primary neoplasm. This process is accompanied by a controlled loss of cell-cell adhesions caused by the release of bonds between adhesion molecules such as cadherins. Hence, the adhesion force between tumour cells might predict the tumour’s malignancy. Tumour cells that exhibit low cell-cell adhesion forces would represent a highly metastatic phenotype since they detach more easily.
With the help of Mike Wälte from the group of the Head of the Institute, Professor Hans Oberleithner and Dr Hermann Schillers, Dr Ludwig measures cell-cell adhesion forces in tumour cells. This is based on the group’s distinguished expertise of nearly two decades’ experience in atomic force microscopy, AFM.
For the experiments, a single tumour cell is attached to the cantilever of a JPK CellHesion 200 system using a bionic cell adhesive. A second, adherent tumour cell is then approached with the cantilever until the two cells come into contact. After a defined contact time, the cantilever is retracted until the two cells are separated. The strength of the cell-cell bonds that formed while the cells were in contact is estimated by recording the force necessary to separate the cells. Here, the key feature of the CellHesion 200 system is its ability of the cantilever sensor lifting system to travel more than 110 µm giving a clear benefit for the researchers whose aim is to separate two tumour cells both gently, reproducibly and efficiently without damage. With the technique described here, cell-cell adhesion forces can be quantified.
28784pr@reply-direct.com 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 RISE Microscopy for Correlative Raman-SEM Imaging Launched at Analytica 2014
Tescan Orsay Holdings and WITec GmbH jointly launched RISE Microscopy at Analytica 2014. RISE Microscopy is a novel correlative microscopy technique which combines confocal Raman Imaging and Scanning Electron (RISE) Microscopy within one integrated microscope system. This unique combination provides clear advantages for the microscope user with regard to comprehensive sample characterisation. The RISE Microscope enables for the first time the acquisition of SEM and Raman images from the same sample area and the correlation of ultra-structural and chemical information with one microscope system.
Both analytical methods are fully integrated into the RISE Microscope. Between the different measurements an extremely precise scan stage automatically transfers the sample inside the microscope’s vacuum chamber and re-positions it. The integrated RISE software carries out the required parameter adjustments and instrument alignments. The acquired results can then be correlated and the Raman and SEM images overlaid. “RISE Microscopy enables unprecedented opportunities for the most comprehensive ultra- structural and molecular sample analyses,” explained Dr Olaf Hollricher, CEO and Director R&D at WITec “The novel RISE Microscope is another striking example of WITec’s enormous innovative strength. It fulfils all requirements of an outstanding, correlative microscopy technique and will convince the Raman as well as the SEM community.”
TESCAN and WITec arranged worldwide sales and after-sales cooperation for the RISE Microscope to take advantage of the synergy effects of both companies.
The RISE Microscope provides all functions and features of a stand-alone SEM and a confocal Raman microscope. Both SEM and Raman are high-resolution imaging techniques with sub-nanometer and diffraction limited 200 - 300 nanometer resolution, respectively. In Raman imaging mode the sample can be scanned through a range of 250 µm x 250 µm x 250 µm. RISE Microscopy pairs ease-of-use with exceptional analysing benefits and is therefore suited to a large variety of applications such as nanotechnology, materials science, and life science.
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LAB ASIA - MARCH/APRIL 2014
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