TY - JOUR A1 - Emmert, M. A1 - Witzel, P. A1 - Heinrich, D. T1 - Challenges in tissue engineering - towards cell control inside artificial scaffolds JF - Soft Matter N2 - Control of living cells is vital for the survival of organisms. Each cell inside an organism is exposed to diverse external mechano-chemical cues, all coordinated in a spatio-temporal pattern triggering individual cell functions. This complex interplay between external chemical cues and mechanical 3D environments is translated into intracellular signaling loops. Here, we describe how external mechano-chemical cues control cell functions, especially cell migration, and influence intracellular information transport. In particular, this work focuses on the quantitative analysis of (1) intracellular vesicle transport to understand intracellular state changes in response to external cues, (2) cellular sensing of external chemotactic cues, and (3) the cells' ability to migrate in 3D structured environments, artificially fabricated to mimic the 3D environment of tissue in the human body. KW - chemotaxis KW - intracellular transport KW - cytoskeleton dynamics KW - adhesion KW - diffusion Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-191341 VL - 12 IS - 19 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kurz, Felix T. A1 - Kampf, Thomas A1 - Buschle, Lukas R. A1 - Schlemmer, Heinz-Peter A1 - Bendszus, Martin A1 - Heiland, Sabine A1 - Ziener, Christian H. T1 - Generalized moment analysis of magnetic field correlations for accumulations of spherical and cylindrical magnetic perturbers JF - Frontiers in Physics N2 - In biological tissue, an accumulation of similarly shaped objects with a susceptibility difference to the surrounding tissue generates a local distortion of the external magnetic field in magnetic resonance imaging. It induces stochastic field fluctuations that characteristically influence proton spin dephasing in the vicinity of these magnetic perturbers. The magnetic field correlation that is associated with such local magnetic field inhomogeneities can be expressed in the form of a dynamic frequency autocorrelation function that is related to the time evolution of the measured magnetization. Here, an eigenfunction expansion for two simple magnetic perturber shapes, that of spheres and cylinders, is considered for restricted spin diffusion in a simple model geometry. Then, the concept of generalized moment analysis, an approximation technique that is applied in the study of (non-)reactive processes that involve Brownian motion, allows deriving analytical expressions of the correlation function for different exponential decay forms. Results for the biexponential decay for both spherical and cylindrical magnetized objects are derived and compared with the frequently used (less accurate) monoexponential decay forms. They are in asymptotic agreement with the numerically exact value of the correlation function for long and short times. KW - magnetized sphere/cylinder KW - magnetic susceptibility KW - correlation function KW - diffusion KW - magnetic resonance imaging Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190604 SN - 2296-424X VL - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sung, Jooyoung A1 - Kim, Pyosang A1 - Fimmel, Benjamin A1 - Würthner, Frank A1 - Kim, Dongho T1 - Direct observation of ultrafast coherent exciton dynamics in helical π-stacks of self-assembled perylene bisimides JF - Nature Communications N2 - Ever since the discovery of dye self-assemblies in nature, there have been tremendous efforts to exploit biomimetic supramolecular assemblies for tailored artificial photon processing materials. This feature necessarily has resulted in an increasing demand for understanding exciton dynamics in the dye self-assemblies. In a sharp contrast with pi-type aggregates, however, the detailed observation of exciton dynamics in H-type aggregates has remained challenging. In this study, as we succeed in measuring transient fluorescence from Frenkel state of π-stacked perylene tetracarboxylic acid bisimide dimer and oligomer aggregates, we present an experimental demonstration on Frenkel exciton dynamics of archetypal columnar π-π stacks of dyes. The analysis of the vibronic peak ratio of the transient fluorescence spectra reveals that unlike the simple π-stacked dimer, the photoexcitation energy in the columnar π-stacked oligomer aggregates is initially delocalized over at least three molecular units and moves coherently along the chain in tens of femtoseconds, preceding excimer formation process. KW - systems KW - molecules KW - J-aggregate behavior KW - absorption KW - spectroscopy KW - photoluminescence KW - diffusion KW - fluorescence KW - excimer formation KW - organic semiconductors Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-148157 VL - 6 IS - 8646 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Shityakov, Sergey A1 - Förster, Carola T1 - In silico predictive model to determine vector-mediated transport properties for the blood-brain barrier choline transporter JF - Advances and Applications in Bioinformatics and Chemistry N2 - The blood–brain barrier choline transporter (BBB-ChT) may have utility as a drug delivery vector to the central nervous system (CNS). We therefore initiated molecular docking studies with the AutoDock and AutoDock Vina (ADVina) algorithms to develop predictive models for compound screening and to identify structural features important for binding to this transporter. The binding energy predictions were highly correlated with r2=0.88, F=692.4, standard error of estimate =0.775, and P-value<0.0001 for selected BBB-ChT-active/inactive compounds (n=93). Both programs were able to cluster active (Gibbs free energy of binding <−6.0 kcal*mol-1) and inactive (Gibbs free energy of binding >−6.0 kcal*mol-1) molecules and dock them significantly better than at random with an area under the curve value of 0.86 and 0.84, respectively. In ranking smaller molecules with few torsional bonds, a size-related bias in scoring producing false-negative outcomes was detected. Finally, important blood–brain barrier parameters, such as the logBBpassive and logBBactive values, were assessed to predict compound transport to the CNS accurately. Knowledge gained from this study is useful to better understand the binding requirements in BBB-ChT, and until such time as its crystal structure becomes available, it may have significant utility in developing a highly predictive model for the rational design of drug-like compounds targeted to the brain. KW - virtual screening KW - Gibbs free energy of binding KW - diffusion KW - molecular docking KW - drug delivery vector KW - central nervous system KW - blood–brain barrier choline transporter Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-120200 VL - 7 ER -