A force controlled patch clamp of beating cardiac cells

From its invention in the 1970s, the patch clamp technique is the gold standard in electrophysiology research and drug screening because it is the only tool enabling accurate investigation of voltage-gated ion channels, which are responsible for action potentials. Because of its key role in drug screening, innovation efforts are being made to reduce its complexity toward more automated systems. While some of these new approaches are being adopted in pharmaceutical companies, conventional patch-clamp remains unmatched in fundamental research due to its versatility. In new work, reported in ("Force-Controlled Patch Clamp of Beating Cardiac Cells"), researchers merged the patch clamp and atomic force microscope (AFM) techniques, thus equipping the patch-clamp with the sensitive AFM force control. Force-Controlled Patch Clamp of Beating Cardiac Cells This was possible using the FluidFM, a force-controlled nanopipette based on microchanneled AFM cantilevers. First, the compatibility of the system with patch-clamp electronics and its ability to record the activity of voltage-gated ion channels in whole-cell configuration was demonstrated with sodium (NaV1.5) channels. Second, we showed the feasibility of simultaneous recording of membrane current and force development during contraction of isolated cardiomyocytes. Force feedback allowed for a gentle and stable contact between AFM tip and cell membrane enabling serial patch clamping and injection without apparent cell damage. The tool's ability to obtain simultaneous electrophysiological and mechanical information will render it a valuable tool in the field of mechanotransduction. Yet, the enhanced stability and repeatability of the patch clamp protocol sustained by the force feedback are of interest for the entire field of electrophysiology. In addition, the whole process has the potential to be automated, as both the AFM and the pressure controller are fully programmable.
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Nanotechnology applications for tissue engineering

Tissue engineering involves seeding of cells on bio-mimicked scaffolds providing adhesive surfaces. Researchers though face a range of problems in generating tissue which can be circumvented by employing nanotechnology. It provides substrates for cell adhesion and proliferation and agents for cell growth and can be used to create nanostructures and nanoparticles to aid the engineering of different types of tissue. Written by renowned scientists from academia and industry, Nanotechnology Applications for Tissue Engineering (Micro and Nano Technologies) covers the recent developments, trends and innovations in the application of nanotechnologies in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. It provides information on methodologies for designing and using biomaterials to regenerate tissue, on novel nano-textured surface features of materials (nano-structured polymers and metals e.g.) as well as on theranostics, immunology and nano-toxicology aspects. In the book also explained are fabrication techniques for production of scaffolds to a series of tissue-specific applications of scaffolds in tissue engineering for specific biomaterials and several types of tissue (such as skin bone, cartilage, vascular, cardiac, bladder and brain tissue). Furthermore, developments in nano drug delivery, gene therapy and cancer nanotechonology are described. The book helps readers to gain a working knowledge about the nanotechnology aspects of tissue engineering and will be of great use to those involved in building specific tissue substitutes in reaching their objective in a more efficient way. It is aimed for R&D and academic scientists, lab engineers, lecturers and PhD students engaged in the fields of tissue engineering or more generally regenerative medicine, nanomedicine, medical devices, nanofabrication, biofabrication, nano- and biomaterials and biomedical engineering. This book

  • Provides state-of-the-art knowledge on how nanotechnology can help tackling known problems in tissue engineering

  • Covers materials design, fabrication techniques for tissue-specific applications as well as immunology and toxicology aspects

  • Helps scientists and lab engineers building tissue substitutes in a more efficient way


About the Author Professor Sabu Thomas is Professor of Polymer Science & Engineering, School of Chemical Sciences and the Director of Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Mahatma Gandhi University, India. He was the founder Director of the Polymer Engineering program at the School of Technology and Applied Sciences at the Mahatma Gandhi University. Prof. Thomas has published 420 international papers with 6122 total citations. He has 2 patents and 18 books to his credit. He has been a visiting professor at many polymer research laboratories in Europe and Asia. Professor Yves Grohens is the Director of the LIMATB (Material Engineering) Laboratory of Université de Bretagne Sud, France. His master's and PhD degrees were from Besançon University, France. After finishing his studies, he worked as assistant professor and later professor in various reputed universities in France. He is an invited professor to many universities in different parts of the world as well. His areas of interest include physicochemical studies of polymer surfaces and interfaces, phase transitions in thin films confinement, nano and bio composites design and characterization, and biodegradation of polymers and biomaterials. He has written several book chapters, monographs, and scientific reviews and has published 130 international publications. He is the chairman and member of advisory committees of many international conferences. Dr.Neethu Ninan was awarded PhD in Materials Engineering from Universite de Bretagne Sud, Lorient, France. She received Masters in Engineering in 'Nanotechnology in Medical Science' from Amrita Centre for Nanosciences, Kochi, India. She did her Bachelors of Engineering in 'Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering'. She worked in collaboration with Universiti Technologi Mara (Malaysia), Mahatma Gandhi University (India) and Chonnam National University (South Korea). She is the editor of four books. She has written several articles, book chapters, and reviews in international journals. Her keen research areas are nanotechnology, composites, tissue engineering, drug delivery and zeolites.
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Live bacterium depicted using X-ray laser

An international team led by Uppsala University scientists has succeeded, for the first time, in depicting intact live bacteria with an X-ray laser. This technique, now described in the journal ("Imaging single cells in a beam of live cyanobacteria with an X-ray laser"), can give researchers a clearer understanding of the complex world of cells. 'If you really want to understand a cell’s functions, it has to be alive,’ says Professor Janos Hajdu of Uppsala University, one of the leading researchers responsible for the experiment. The method the researchers used in this experiment allows better resolution, in both time and space, than that obtained from the best optical microscope techniques. The new technique involves shooting a fine aerosol of cells with light pulses from an X-ray laser. This aerosol is literally a jet of living cells, thinner than a strand of hair. The ultrashort X-ray pulses spread outdiffract from individual cells, resulting in a distinct dispersion diffraction pattern that is registered by a high-speed detector. The data are then analysed with a computer programusing software developed in Uppsala, and images of the cells can be reconstructed. image of a cell made with x-ray laser The ultrashort pulses and high intensity of the X-ray laser permit such rapid data collection that an image of the cell is obtained before it disintegrates. X-rays destroy cells, but the ultrashort pulses and high intensity of the X-ray laser permit such rapid data collection that a correct image of the sample is obtained before it disintegrates. This technique, known as ‘diffraction before destruction’, has been shown previously to work with both organic and inorganic samples. The experiment was performed with the X-ray laser of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) in the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, California. Two species of cyanobacteria, Cyanobium gracile and Synechococcus elongatus, were used in the study. The almost cylindrical shape of these cells emerges clearly in reconstruction from diffraction data. According to Tomas Ekeberg, a molecular biophysicist at Uppsala University and leader of the experiment, the images could have been better still if it had been possible for the detectors to handle them the data better. ‘To date, we’ve only managed to reconstruct cells with a resolution of 76 nanometres [= millionths of a millimetre], but the data we’ve collected show that we can get down to 4 nanometres. That means we might be able to distinguish individual proteins, which are of that size,’ Ekeberg says. The reason for the lower resolution, Ekeberg points out, is overexposure — exactly what happens when you take photographs in excessively bright light. In future experiments, it will be possible to correct this. ‘We’ll be able to get much higher resolution when we’re able to use a filter to reduce the overexposure,’ adds Gijs van der Schot, a PhD student and principal author of the publication. Up to now, high-resolution depiction has involved freezing cells and giving them a high radiation dose that kills them during the data collection. The cells have also often been coated with a thin layer of metal to improve the contrast. Static images of cells also normally require long exposure times. The research team’s new method can show the structure of living cells, virtually instantaneously. Every image takes only a few femtoseconds (one femtosecond being a millionth billionth of a second). This kind of tool could help scientists gain a better grasp of hitherto unknown details of cell function and behaviour. ‘Processes like cell division and protein folding could be observed in real time. The technique also makes possible future 3D modelling of processes in the cell, which could give us important insights into complicated disease progression,’ Ekeberg explains. The team is now planning to fine-tune the depiction method with further experiments, and hope to achieve images with a considerably higher resolution. ‘There’s a huge difference between images produced by means of this technique and those from traditional optical microscopy of living cells,’ says Janos Hajdu. ‘Few people thought this was feasible.’
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