Medical Biotechnology

Department Cryo & Stem Cell Technology

Pluripotency & Regeneration, Automation Processes and Cryobiotechnology

• Cell biology laboratory, equipped with:
  - flow and laminar hoods
  - CO₂ incubators
  - 10 BioLevitators (semi-automated suspension cell culture bioreactor)
  - bioreactor systems for the expansion of cells (spinner flasks, hexabatch)
  - 10 BioStations IM and 1 Biostation CT for low-content time-lapse imaging
  - FACSAria II flow cytometer and cell sorter
  - separate quarantine cell culture laboratory for primary cells
• Molecular biology laboratory, equipped with:
  - QuantStudio 7 qPCR instrument for quantitative gene expression studies
  - Thermalcycler (AB 2720)
  - Bioanalyzer and Nanodrop for precise measurement of nucleic acids and protein concentration
  - electrophoresis systems for agarose gels and SDS-PAGE
  - equipment for recombinant DNA techniques
• Biochemistry laboratory, equipped with:
  - hybridization oven for in situ detection of RNA
  - BioRad Chemidoc for quantification of nucleic acid/protein expression
  - Thermalcycler (AB SimpliAmp)
  - spectrophotometer
  - microcapsule/microcarrier producing system (co-axial air flow and Crystal Gun principle)
  - contact printer (GeSiM GmbH) a moulding system for the production of thin, biocompatible alginate films or for printing of protein patterns
  - 3D scaffolder (GeSiM GmbH) for the production of three dimensional scaffolds for tissue engineering
  - freeze dryer
• Microscopy room, equipped with:
  - combined reflection/scanning force microscope for measurement of biological objects in aqueous environments
  - confocal inverted microscope
  - fluorescence microscopes, CLSM, LSM, incubation microscopes
• Automation laboratory, equipped with:
  - cell culture robots for the automated cultivation of cells:
      - Nanoplotter 2.1 (GeSiM GmbH)
      - TECAN Freedom 200 (TECAN)
      - TAP arm (TAP BIOSYSTEMS)
  - micropipette system / automation platform
• Cryopreservation laboratory, equipped with:
  • cryogenic storage systems (down to -196 °C) with liquid nitrogen storage tank
  • automated cryobanking system, currently with the capacity of 60,000 samples (hermetic storage, ASKION)
  • Cryo-Workbench (ASKION) for the handling of frozen samples below -100°C
  • vitrification facility with novel substrates for sterile vitrification processes
  • computer-controlled freezers (Sylab, Asymptote)
  • cryomicroscope including high-speed camera
  • "Freezing Spin Coater" for the freezing of ultrathin layers (own development)
  • modified programmable automatic freezer for applications in biology, materials science and electronics
  • high-speed camera system for analysis of fast biological and biophysical processes (e.g. microdrop-based freezing)
  • thermography system (temperature measurement range –20 °C to +250 °C)
  • thawing device for plasma bags
  • cryogenic osmometer (Gonotec)

Biomedical Optics

• ultra-short pulsed Ti:sapphire laser, various additional pulsed and cw laser sources
• multiphoton laser scanning microscope with spectral imaging module (Zeiss LSM510-Meta-NLO)
• epifluorescence microscope with CCD unit
• versatile platform for development and evaluation of laser scanning imaging technology (established as standard: confocal fluorescence and Raman microscopy at 375, 532 and 785 nm excitation, multiphoton microscopy at 710-990 nm excitation, detection by 1024-channel spectrograph, option for subsequent correlation of measured values)
• ultra-short pulse technology: pulse picker, frequency doubler, beam analysis systems
• low-temperature microscopy equipment
• equipment for time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) for fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) and spectral FLIM
• measurement electronics (pulse generators, oscilloscope, lock-in amplifier, etc.)
• fluorescence spectrometer (200-900 nm), UV/Vis/NIR absorption spectrometer (200-3300 nm)
• Peltier-cooled CCD spectrometer (Andor Idus)
• hardware correlator ALV-5000
• piezotables for various control ranges
• spin coater
• differential scanning calorimeter Perkin Elmer DSC 8500 (-180 °C to +750 °C)
• Lab View development environment
• Zemax: optical design software
• clean room for the extraction of high-purity alginates
• measurement station for the deformation curves of highly viscous alginate

Department Bioprocessing & Bioanalytics

Laboratories with safety level S-2 and S-3 with double-door system for microbiological, molecular biological and cell biological research as well as radionuclide laboratory of safety level S2 for use with open radioactive substances

• aerosol exposition system VITROCELL® Cloud (air-liquid-interface model, e. g. lung barrier
• TER impedance measuring system (cellZscope®, Ussing chamber®) for transport studies and barrier function analysis of liquid-liquid-interfaces
• Franz cell system® (air-liquid-interface model, e. g. skin barrier)
• flow cytometer including sorting unit (FACS)
• spectral photometer for absorption, fluorescence and luminescence measurements of microtitre plates
• transmitted light microscopes and reflected light microscopes with phase and differential interference contrast, fluorescence unit, manipulation unit and incubation hood, sample stage variable in the z-axes for the 3D display of biological samples
• Leica-TCS-SP8-X confocal microscope equipped with white-light laser and continuous wave laser with a wavelength of 405 nm (white-light-CLSM)
• field-flow-fractionation system (AF2000 MultiFlow FFF) with UV and MALS detector
• high-performance liquids chromatograph (HPLC)
• Zetasizer Nano
• NanoSight – Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis
• gel electrophoresis units for DNA, RNA and proteins (with documentation units)
• Western Blot unit
  
• real-time PCR cycler
• cryo microtome
• micro-, cooling and ultracentrifuges
• fluid scintillation counter model 2919 TR