Systematic Study on the Fluid Dynamical Behaviour of Streamwise and Laterally Inclined Jets in Crossflow

ABSTRACT The design of discrete film cooling holes for gas turbine airfoil applications is governed by a number of parameters influencing both their aerodynamic and thermal behaviour. This numerical and experimental study focuses on the marked differences between film cooling holes with combined streamwise and lateral inclination and film cooling holes with streamwise inclination only. The variation in the blowing angle was chosen on a newly dermed and physically motivated basis. High resolution low speed experiments on a large scale turbine airfoil gave insights particularly into the intensified mixing process with lateral ejection. The extensive computational study is performed with the aid of a 3D blockstructured Navier-Stokes solver incorporating a low-Reynolds-number k-e turbulence model. Special attention is paid to mesh generation as a precondition for accurate highresolution results. The downstream temperature fields of the jets show reduced spanwise variations with increasing lateral blowing angle; these variations are quantified for a comprehensive variety of configurations in terms of adiabatic film cooling effectiveness

Fibroblasts – the cellular choreographers of wound healing

Injuries to our skin trigger a cascade of spatially- and temporally-synchronized healing processes. During such endogenous wound repair, the role of fibroblasts is multifaceted, ranging from the activation and recruitment of innate immune cells through the synthesis and deposition of scar tissue to the conveyor belt-like transport of fascial connective tissue into wounds. A comprehensive understanding of fibroblast diversity and versatility in the healing machinery may help to decipher wound pathologies whilst laying the foundation for novel treatment modalities. In this review, we portray the diversity of fibroblasts and delineate their unique wound healing functions. In addition, we discuss future directions through a clinical-translational lens

Human Regulatory Macrophages: from bench to bedside

Administering immunoregulatory cells to patients as medicinal agents is a potentially revolutionary approach to the treatment of immunologically mediated diseases. By isolating and modifying cells in vitro before applying them to patients, specific cellular functions can be induced, opening astonishing new possibilities for antigen-specific treatments in autoimmunity, chronic inflammatory disorders and especially in transplantation medicine. During the last years our research group has developed a novel cell-based medicinal product containing human regulatory macrophages, called Mreg_UKR, for treatment of transplanted patients. Developing these cells is a long and complicated process. It begins with a detailed understanding of macrophage biology and pathophysiology, including different states of polarisation and their function in allograft damage and repair. Based on this understanding, we have been able to identify an immunoregulatory macrophage phenotype that in vitro proved to be T-cell-suppressive. These so called Mregs reflect a unique state of macrophage differentiation, distinguished from macrophages in other activation states by their mode of derivation and robust phenotype. Owing to IFN-γ-induced indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) activity and contact-dependant deletion of activated T-cells, Mregs are capable of suppressing mitogen-stimulated T-cell proliferation in vitro and drive the development of an activation induced regulatory T-cell (iTreg). No evidence of clinically significant adverse reactions was revealed when subjecting Mregs to conventional safety pharmacology and toxicology testing in mice. Two kidney transplanted patients have been treated with an Mreg containing suspension and show satisfactorily stable renal function with only low-dose Tacrolimus monotherapy more than five years after transplantation. These promising results and the need for a detailed clinical safety assessment warrant further clinical studies, which will be conducted within The ONE Study. My thesis depicts this process of developing an Mreg containing medicinal product from “bench to bedside”