Organs to Cells and Cells to Organoids: The Evolution of in vitro Central Nervous System Modelling

With 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses, the human brain is not just the most complex organ in the human body, but has also been described as “the most complex thing in the universe.” The limited availability of human living brain tissue for the study of neurogenesis, neural processes and neurological disorders has resulted in more than a century-long strive from researchers worldwide to model the central nervous system (CNS) and dissect both its striking physiology and enigmatic pathophysiology. The invaluable knowledge gained with the use of animal models and post mortem human tissue remains limited to cross-species similarities and structural features, respectively. The advent of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) and 3-D organoid technologies has revolutionised the approach to the study of human brain and CNS in vitro, presenting great potential for disease modelling and translational adoption in drug screening and regenerative medicine, also contributing beneficially to clinical research. We have surveyed more than 100 years of research in CNS modelling and provide in this review an historical excursus of its evolution, from early neural tissue explants and organotypic cultures, to 2-D patient-derived cell monolayers, to the latest development of 3-D cerebral organoids. We have generated a comprehensive summary of CNS modelling techniques and approaches, protocol refinements throughout the course of decades and developments in the study of specific neuropathologies. Current limitations and caveats such as clonal variation, developmental stage, validation of pluripotency and chromosomal stability, functional assessment, reproducibility, accuracy and scalability of these models are also discussed

Verfahren zum Ausbilden einer Schicht mit hoher Lichttransmission und/oder niedriger Lichtreflexion

Die Erfindung betrifft ein Verfahren zum Ausbilden einer Schicht mit hoher Lichttransmission und/oder niedriger Lichtreflexion, wobei die Schicht auf einem Substrat (2) abgeschieden wird. Dabei wird die Schicht als Mischschicht eines Materials A und eines Materials B abgeschieden, wobei die Schicht im Schichtdickenverlauf mit einem Gradienten derart ausgebildet wird, dass das Material B an der Substratoberfläche den geringsten Anteil und an der Schichtoberfläche den höchsten Anteil am Schichtmaterial aufweist und dass nach dem Abscheiden der Schicht das Material B zumindest teilweise aus der Schicht entfernt wird

Freeform and Laser Optical Coatings by Inline Magnetron Sputtering

The upscaling of highly productive inline magnetron sputtering for precision optics and application examples like 1D and 2D lateral thickness gradients as well as laser mirrors will be presented

Preparation of a gradient SiO2 antireflective coating by a co-sputtering method using a dual rotatable magnetron system

Current standard antireflective coatings are layer stacks of alternating high and low refractive transparent dielectric layers. An alternative possibility for getting antireflective surfaces is to apply a gradient layer for a smooth change of the refractive index from the substrate to the surrounding medium (air). To achieve this, a gradient layer of SiO2 and aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) was prepared onto glass substrates by a co-sputtering method using a dual magnetron arrangement with two rotatable targets. After the film deposition the AZO was removed by an etching step with hydrochloric acid. The result of this preparation method was a gradient layer of SiO2 with good antireflective properties. The antireflective behavior was observed in the range of 300 nm to 1100 nm. The visible reflectance is decreased by 3 % and the solar reflectance is decreased by 2 % as well, resulting in an appropriate increase of the transmittance. The films had a maximum roughness Rt in the range of 60 nm. A scrubbing brush test showed a mechanical stability as good as an (HL)2 antireflective multilayer system consisting of SiO2 and TiO2. The described deposition technique was exemplary and used for the deposition of rough silica films and has the potential to be used for any kind of material to obtain rough surfaces

Coating technology for locally varying optical function on 2d and 3d elements

In this paper, a coating technology will be presented that allows achieving a locally varying optical function on 2d and 3d elements. This can be used, for example, to compensate layer thickness errors occurring during the deposition on tilted surfaces of larger 3d optical components. Other applications can be coatings for lateral varying light extraction of large-area waveguides in displays, wave front correction or variable optical filters for hyper spectral cameras. In the coating plant PreSensLine at FEP (by Von Ardenne GmbH) deposition rates in the range of 20 to 50 nm∙m/min allow efficient fabrication of optical layer systems for use in IR,VIS and UV

IMALION - creation and low energy transportation of a milliampere metal ion beam

IMALION - which stands for IMplantation of ALuminumIONs - is a facility designed for high-current metalion beam implantation and surface modification such as in semiconductor, medical or optical industry. IMALION is a newly developed 30 kV metal ion wide area implantation platform, which is suitable for the irradiation of a target width of 200 mm to produce homogeneous implantation profiles over the entire surface. Electrostatic and magnetic beamline elements such as a deflector as well as analyzing and parallelization magnets were designed for precision guiding of a milliampere metal ion beam. The implanter is fed by a novel ECR metal ion source, which is equipped with an integrated cylindrical sputter magnetron as metal vapor supply. Stable operation of the sputter magnetron under ECR magnetic mirror conditions was proven by optical emission spectroscopy and Langmuir probe measurements