Motivierte Studierende (Physik/Mawi/Medizin) gesucht für Abschlussarbeiten     JETZT !   

 

Du willst an unserem Projekt “Physical and functional interaction mechanisms at cell membranes and vessel walls“ mitwirken in Form einer/eines

• Bachelorarbeit
• Fachpraktikums
• Projektarbeit
• Laboraty Projects
• Masterarbeit
• Medizinischen Doktorarbeit?

Dann kontaktiere uns jetzt! => christoph.westerhausen@physik.uni-augsburg.de

Link zur Physiologie

 

 

 

 

Video examples:

 

SAW induced cell stimulation (speeded up)

 

Red Blood Cell Aggregates in a capillary network (slowed down)

 

 

>> Research: Our contribution „Handy Nanoquakes“ on the facile manipulation of micrometre-sized objects and living cells appeared today in Nature Materials .

 

 >> Research: Congratulations! Our paper  “Directed invasion of cancer cell spheroids inside 3D collagen matrices oriented by microfluidic flow in experiment and simulation" in collaboration with the Engelke group (Graz) has been accepted and will appear soon in PLOS ONE.

 

>> Research: Congratulations! Lukas’ paper  “Reversible single cell trapping of Paramecium caudatum to correlate swimming behavior and membrane state" in collaboration with the Schneider group (TU Dortmund) has been accepted and will appear soon in Biomicrofluidics.

 

 

>> Research: Congratulations! Lukas’ and Kathi’s paper  “Acetylcholinesterase Activity Influenced by Lipid Membrane Area and Surface Acoustic Waves" appeared in the Special Issue „Lipid Bilayers on Chip, Volume II“ in Micromachines.

 

 

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/13/2/287

 

Key points:

 

• the patterning of supported lipid membranes with SAW is semi-reversible with two diffusion time scales
• the modulation of the activity of Acetylcholinesterase bound to Lipid Membranes in standing SAW fields is low
• the activity of AChE is modulated by the available membrane area

 

>> Research: Congratulations! Andrej´ s paper  “The activity of the intrinsically water-soluble enzyme ADAMTS13 correlates with the membrane state when bound to a phospholipid bilayer" is accepted and will appear in Scientific Reports soon!

 

Key points:

 

• the temperature dependence of the activity of ADAMTS13 when bound to a lipid bilayer shows a distinct maximum close to the main phase transition temperature Tm of the membrane
• changing the carbon chain length of the used lipid, and thus Tm, shifts the activity maximum to the new Tm
• comparing the activity at a constant temperature for three different membranes in the gel phase, the fluid phase and at the transition underline the role of the membrane state for the enzyme activity
• these results are perfectly in line with the concept that increased fluctuations close to a phase transition are crucial for catalysis

 

>> Teaching: New elective starting next summer term: „Physiology in everyday life“ -     your idea/research question, your implementation, your answer!     

 

 

>> Award: We got the CeNS publication award 2021 in the category „Best Junior Scientist Publication“  for our paper  Vibration enhanced cell growth induced by surface acoustic waves as in vitro wound healing model, PNAS!

 

>> Research: Congratulations! Anna´´ s and Simon´ s paper  “Dynamic Effective Elasticity of Melanoma Cells under Shear and Elongational Flow Confirms Estimation from Force Spectroscopy” is accepted and will appeared soon in Biophysica.

 

article: https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/biophysica1040032/s1

 

Key points:

 

• The elasticity of A375 melanoma cells was determined by applying different methods: AFM + a cantilever with a pyramidal tip, AFM + tipless cantilevers and deformation analysis during passing a stenosis in a micro channel
• We found higher and more widely distributed Young´´ s moduli E using a cantilever with a tip compared with the other methods due to local variations of E.
• E scales with the logarithm of the loading rate.
• The effective, overall elasticity indicates two population of the studied cell line.

 

>> Research: Congratulations!Nico´´ s paper  “Broad lipid phase transitions in mammalian cell membranes measured by Laurdan fluorescence spectroscopy” is accepted and will appear soon in BBA Biomembranes.

 

preprint: https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-515297/v1

 

article (proofreading pending): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000527362100242X

 

 

Key points:

• Membrane embedded Laurdan displays order disorder phase transitions even in frozen water.
• Cell membranes undergo order-disorder phase transitions as lipid vesicles but over a broader temperature range.
• As known for lipid vesicles order-disorder phase transitions in cell membranes are sensitive to cholesterol content, anaesthetic and pH.
• Order-disorder phase transitions in cell membranes are influenced by cell adaption processes, morphological changes and protein content.

 

>> Research: Congratulations! Andrej´´`s and Felix´´ s paper  “Transient permeabilization of living cells combining shear flow and acoustic trapping for facilitated uptake of molecules” is accepted and will appeared soon in the Special Issue Developing Biophysical Tools in Processes.

 

https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/9/6/913/htm

 

Key points:

• Molecular uptake under shear force @RT is a non-linear function of shear stress with a pronounced maximum, that could be related with a phase transition of the plasma membrane.
• Acoustic trapping under flow increases the uptake up to a factor of 18.
• This permeabilization method works for impermeable dyes, sugars and proteins.

 

>> Research: Congratulations! Sixuan´´`s paper  “Surface acoustic wave enhanced water splitting reaction with methanol as sacrifice material” is accepted and will appeared soon in Catalysis Science and Technology of the RSC.

 

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/CY/D0CY01788D#!divAbstract

 

Key points:

• SAW (Rayleigh waves) enhance water splitting using a Pt/TiO2 catalyst by more than +100%
• The SAW accompanying electric field is crucial

 

>> Research: Our paper  “Shear-Horizontal Surface Acoustic Wave Sensor for Non-Invasive Monitoring of Dynamic Cell Spreading and Attachment in Wound Healing Assays” is accepted and will appear soon in Biosensors and Bioelectronics (Vol 173 (2021) 112807).

 

Download for free till Januar 8th 2021:  https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1c62U3PVtpkTxg

Key points:

• Love waves allow for non-optical sensing of wound-healing-assays
• Changes in cell adhesion strength influence the effective permittivity
• Monitoring of culture conditions, like changes in osmolarity, is easily possible
• Cell detachment kinetics can be measured quantitatively without microscopy

>> Research: Congratulations to our team, especially Manu, Kathi and Sophie! Our paper  “Vibration enhanced cell growth induced by surface acoustic waves as in vitro wound healing model” will appear soon appeared in PNAS.

 

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2005203117

 

 

Key points:

• SAW enhanced proliferation
• SAW enhanced migration up to +135%
• wave type is crucial (vertical substrate deflection)
• effect conserved for various cell lines

 

>> Funding: Nicolas Färber just has been awarded with a Add-on Fellowship for Interdisciplinary Life Science 2020 of the Joachim-Herz-Stiftung! We congratulate Nico and thank the funders!

 

>> Research and Funding: We recently got funding for our collaboration project „Physical and functional interaction mechanisms at cell membranes and vessel walls“

Collaborators:

• Dr. Stefanie Grützner (Transfusionsmedizin und Hämostaseologie)
• Dr. Torsten Gloe (Physiologie)
• Prof. Dr. Udo Jeschke (Interdisziplinäres onkologisches Forschungslabor)
• Prof. Dr. Achim Wixforth (Experimentalphysik I)
• Prof. Dr. Julia Welzel (Klinik für Dermatologie und Allergologie)

https://www.uni-augsburg.de/de/fakultaet/med/forschung/forschungsfoerderung/gefoerderte-projekte/

 

>> Research: Anna´’s paper  “Blood group and size dependent stability of P. falciparum infected red blood cell aggregates in capillaries” appeared in Biomicrofluidics! 

   >> paper: download here https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5125038

 

>> Research: The summary on our successful ITN SAWTrain can be found online now! 

https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/411685-a-novel-training-network-is-making-waves-with-tiny-quakes-on-chips

 

>> Research: Patta´s paper  “Fission of Lipid-Vesicles by Membrane Phase Transitions in Thermal Convection”  just appeared in Scientific Reports! 

  >> paper:  download here (open access)

 

>> Research: Sascha´s, Andrej´s and Sven´s paper  “Smart antimicrobial efficacy employing pH-sensitive ZnO-doped DLC coatings”   just got accepted and will appeared soon in Scientific Reports! 

   >> press release:  read more 

   >> paper:  download here (open access)

 

>> Research: Anna, Andrej, Manuel, Nico and Lukas presented their results in Venice at the CeNS/CRC235 Workshop 2019 "Evolving Nanosciences"

Anna Jötten, Talk: "Stability of P. falciparum infected red blood cell aggregates under flow".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>> Research: The "2019 Surface Acoustic Waves Roadmap" appeared in Journal of Physics D! 

...download here

 

>> Teaching: Sophie was interviewed about her bachelor thesis in our lab!

...to the article

 

>> Research: Our paper “Ion controlled passive nanoparticle uptake in lipid vesicles in theory and experiment”   just appeared in Journal of Physics D! 

 

>> Research: We recently presented our results on the conference POEM2 in Bad Honnef

• Manuel Brugger, Poster: "Orchestrating cells on a chip employing standing  surface acoustic waves towards neural networks"
• Andrej Kamenac, Poster: "Enzyme activity at lipid membranes – correlation of activity and membrane state of an intrinsically water soluble enzyme"
• Lukas Schnitzler, Poster: "Influence of artificial "fluctuations" on enzyme Activity in supported lipid bilayers induced by standing acoustic waves".
• Christoph Westerhausen, Talk: "Correlation of uptake and release of cells and vesicles with shear flow and membrane state". >> to the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7S9JWasUls 

>> Research: Lukas´ paper   “Size tunable nanoparticle formation employing droplet fusion by acoustic streaming applied to polyplexes”   just got accepted and will appear on April 8th 2019 in the Special Issue on Surface Acoustic Waves in Semiconductor Nanosystems in Journal of Physics D! 

to the special issue...

 

>> Research: Finding the Achilles heel of a malaria parasite

To see a short project description of our collaborators at the Karolinska Institute click below!

https://kaw.wallenberg.org/en/research/finding-achilles-heel-malaria-parasite 

 

>> Other Activities: Congratulations - EXP1 wins the soccer cup of the institute of physics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>> Teaching & Outreach: today 25 high school students discovered our research on novel implant materials and cell manipulation employing Surface Acoustic Waves. Hope to see you in some years studying material science or physics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>> Research: Anna´s & Sebastian´s paper “Correlation of in vitro cell adhesion, local shear flow and cell density,”  just appeared in RSC Advances! In this paper we introduce our "Particle Image Velocimetry Detachment Correlation" algorithm, use it to elucidate the role of cell density for detachment, and find astoninishing agreement with Mario´s 2017 simulation paper.

download the paper here (open access)

 

>> Research: Jochen´s paper “Optimizing lateral homogeneity of ion-induced surface modifications of non-planar dielectric polyethylene components employing ion fluence simulations and optical measurements of the sp2-dependent reflectivity,” just appeared in  Nucl. Inst. Methods Phys. Res. B Volume 433, 15 October 2018, Pages 98-105! 

https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1XYra,3rKY4lLY 

 

>> 2. Biophysics Workshop - great talks, wonderful discussions and many ideas!

 

>> Research: Manuel´s paper together with our collaborators at UCSB  “Orchestrating cells on a chip: employing surface acoustic waves towards the formation of neural networks” appeared today in Physical Review E! https://journals.aps.org/pre/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevE.98.012411 

 

>> Research: Our paper  “Ionic strength and the supporting material strongly influence the adhesion of silica to supported lipid bilayers” appeared in Advanced Biosystems! https://doi.org/10.1002/adbi.201800087 

 

>> Sascha Buchegger graduated on December 18th - Congratulations!

 

>> Research: We are very proud, that our collaboration project on the simulation of endovascular aneurysm sealing systems with the vascular surgery team at the Klinikum Augsburg was awarded the Dr. Wolfbauer Prize in the category "Interdisciplinary work with UNIKA-A/UniA". This great success is based on the excellent master thesis of Lukas Schnitzler!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>> Teaching & Outreach: “Nanu, Nano?” At four afternoons, 30 curious and excited high school students discovered the physics of nanometer sized model systems for cell membranes and lab-on-a-chip applications. Thank you, Manuel and Andrej, for sharing your enthusiasm with the next generation physicists!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>> Visiting the nuclear power plant in Gundremmingen - Very impressive machinery and technology!

 

>> Research: Thanks to the organizing team of the fantastic CeNS Workshop 2017 "Design and Control of NanoSystems" in Venice! (https://www.cens.de/calendar/workshops-events/venice-2017/)

 

>> 1. Biophysics Workshop SDR  - Thank you for your great contributions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>> Research: Sascha´s paper "Multilayer diamond-like amorphous carbon coatings produced by ion irradiation of polymer films" was just recently published in Surface and Coatings Technology!

 

>> Visiting a hip endoprothesis operation at the Zentralklinikum Augsburg - A very interesting day and so many ideas for collaborations!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>> Research: Anna, Andrej and Manuel presented their cool results on the European Biophysics Congress in Edinburgh:

 

Anna Jötten, Poster: "Red blood cell aggregates in malaria - the role of flow"

 

Andrej Kamenac, Poster: " Enzyme Activity at Lipid Membranes – Correlation of Activity and Membrane State"

 

Manuel Brugger, Talk: "Orchestrating cells on a chip employing standing surface acoustic waves towards neural networks".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>> Research: Thanks to the organizing team of the "sawsome" Summer School "Physics and applications of GHz vibrations" in Cargése (http://summerschool.sawtrain.eu/about.html)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

>> Outreach: Sixuan´s project as part of the ITN SAWTrain is featured by the "Forschungsbeilage" of the Augsburger Allgemeine (http://www.youblisher.com/p/1850399-/)!

 

>> Research: Mario´s paper "Influence of neighboring adherent cells on laminar flow induced shear stress in vitro - a systematic study" has just been accepted published by Biomicrofluidics and appeared in the April issue!
http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/bmf/11/2/10.1063/1.4979295

 

>> Melanie Stamp graduated on March 28th - Congratulations!

 

>> Research: Melanie´s paper "Exploring the limits of cell adhesion under shear stress within physiological conditions and beyond on a chip" studying the role of pH, temperature and substrate roughness under flow, appeared today in Diagnostics 2016, 6(4),38;                                

http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/6/4/38/html

 

>> Teaching: New lecture “Physics of cells” (Physics, Masters level) started October 2016

 

>> Research: Find our latest article on “Controllable Acoustic Mixing of Fluids in Microchannels for the Fabrication of Therapeutic Nanoparticles” based on Lukas work that appeared in Micromachines 2016, 7(9), 150; http://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/7/9/150/html

 

>> Research: Sascha´s paper “Antibacterial metal ion release from diamond-like carbon modified surfaces for novel multifunctional implant materials” is the cover and appears in JMR 31(17), September 14, 2016.  

 

>> Research: Out now: “Acoustotaxis - In vitro stimulation in a wound healing assay employing surface acoustic waves” Biomaterials Science, DOI: 10.1039/C6BM00125D
Get article here!

 

>> Research: We proudly present... ARAM - an awesome tool for Malaria Research and Microscopy!
- Download publication  here!

Accepted and recently published

 

H. J. Krenner, and C. Westerhausen, ,

Nature Materials, 21, 499–501, 2022.

 

F. Geiger, L. G. Schnitzler, M. S. Brugger, C. Westerhausen*, and H. Engelke*,

PLOS ONE, Vol. 17 (3), 2022, *corresponding authors

 

A. M. Jötten, S. Neidinger, J.K. Tietze, J. Welzel, and C. Westerhausen, „Dynamic effective elasticity of melanoma cells under shear and elongational flow confirms estimation from force spectroscopy”,

Biophysica, Vol. 1 (4), 445-457, 2021.

 

• since 2019: Research group leader "Biophysics Group", Medizinsche Fakultät, Lehrstuhl für Physiologie, University of Augsburg
• 2018:  Research stay at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm
• 2014 - 2019: Research group leader, Institute of Physics, Experimentalphysik 1, University of Augsburg
• 2012 – 2015: Project manager at Wölfel Beratende Ingenieure, Würzburg
• 2012: Dissertation „On the role of soft interfaces for the understanding of blood clotting”
• 2011: Research period at Boston University
• 2009 – 2012: University of Augsburg & University Hospital Mannheim