BioHyTec: Biohybride Technologien in der Hauptstadtregion – Kompetenzbildung und Aufbau einer regionalen Wertschöpfungskette

Das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) startete 1999 mit dem InnoRegio-Wettbewerb eine neuartige Förderinitiative unter der Leitidee „Innovative Impulse in den Neuen Ländern“. In zahlreichen Regionen wurden Aktivitäten in Gang gesetzt, um neue Formen der Zusammenarbeit von Menschen aus den unterschiedlichsten Bereichen zu entwickeln und damit die Wertschöpfung und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit in den ostdeutschen Regionen zu erhöhen. An dieser Ausschreibung nahmen in der Anfangsphase 444 Bewerberregionen teil. Nach der ersten Jury-Sitzung im Oktober 1999 wurden 50 InnoRegios ausgewählt, in einer Entwicklungsphase ihre Kernkompetenzen herauszufiltern und tragfähige Innovationskonzepte zu erarbeiten. Mit der zweiten Jury-Sitzung im Herbst 2000 fiel der Startschuss zur Umsetzungsphase. Zur Zeit werden vom BMBF 23 InnoRegios in den Neuen Ländern gefördert

Study of the Born-Oppenheimer Approximation for Mass-Scaling of Cold Collision Properties

Asymptotic levels of the A $^1\Sigma_u^+$ state of the two isotopomers $^{39}{\rm K}_2$ and $^{39}{\rm K}^{41}{\rm K}$ up to the dissociation limit are investigated with a Doppler-free high resolution laser-spectroscopic experiment in a molecular beam. The observed level structure can be reproduced correctly only if a mass dependent correction term is introduced for the interaction potential. The applied relative correction in the depth of the potential is $10^{-6}$, which is in the order of magnitude expected for corrections of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. A similar change in ground state potentials might lead to significant changes of mass-scaled properties describing cold collisions like the s-wave scattering length.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Labelfreie Detektion von Protein-DNA-Interaktionen durch elektrochemische Impedanzspektroskopie

Es wird ein impedimetrisches Sensorsystem für den Nachweis von Protein-DNA-Wechselwirkungen vorgestellt. Der Sensor nutzt kurze Thiol-markierte DNA (ssDNA), die über Chemisorption auf Goldchipelektroden immobilisiert wird. Aus den Impedanzspektren wurde der Durchtrittswiderstand (Rct) als Kenngröße für die zu untersuchenden Wechselwirkungen gewählt. In Anwesenheit des Redoxsystems Ferro-/Ferrycyanid konnte eine Zunahme des Durchtrittswiderstandes nach der Immobilisierung und anschließender Hybridisierung auf der Sensoroberfl äche registriert werden. Der Einsatz längerer Fänger-DNA (25- mer im Vergleich zu 18-mer) führte zu einer Abnahme der Konzentration an immobilisierten Fänger-Strängen, aber auch zu einer Vergrößerung der Durchtrittswiderstände sowohl für ssDNA als auch dsDNA. Bei ähnlichen Oberflächenkonzentrationen ließ sich eine annähernd gleiche Sensitivität des Hybridisierungsnachweises im Vergleich zu 18-mer Fänger-Strängen erzielen. Mit Hilfe des Elektrodensystems wurde die Nachweisbarkeit von Protein-DNA-Wechselwirkungen untersucht. Die Restriktion doppelsträngiger DNA durch die Restriktionsendonuklease BamHI konnte mit der Zyklovoltammetrie und markierungsfrei mit der Impedanzspektroskopie verfolgt werden. Des Weiteren wurde die sequenzspezifische Bindung des Transkriptionsfaktors NF-κB p50 anIn this work, the applicability of an impedimetric DNA sensor has been investigated for the detection of protein- DNA interactions. The sensor is based on short thiol-modified single-stranded DNA, which is chemisorbed to gold chip electrodes. In the presence of the redox system ferri-/ferrocyanide impedance measurements show an increase in charge transfer resistance after immobilization and hybridization of ssDNA to the sensor surface. The use of a longer capture oligonucleotide (a 25-mer instead of an 18-mer) results in a decreasing probe concentration on the surface. Furthermore it causes an increase of the charge transfer resistance for both ssDNA and dsDNA. The hybridization event, however, can be detected with a similar sensitivity compared to an 18-mer (with the same surface concentration) and allows a good discrimination between ssDNA and dsDNA. This electrode system is used to follow an enzyme reaction on the surface electrochemically. The cleavage of a double-stranded DNA by restriction endonuclease BamHI could be verified by cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy. The sequence specific DNAbinding of the transcription factor NF-κB p50 is found to cause a decrease in charge transfer resistance

Collisional losses, decoherence, and frequency shifts in optical lattice clocks with bosons

We have quantified collisional losses, decoherence and the collision shift in a one-dimensional optical lattice clock with bosonic 88Sr. The lattice clock is referenced to the highly forbidden transition 1S0 - 3P0 at 698 nm, which becomes weakly allowed due to state mixing in a homogeneous magnetic field. We were able to quantify three decoherence coefficients, which are due to dephasing collisions, inelastic collisions between atoms in the upper and lower clock state, and atoms in the upper clock state only. Based on the measured coefficients, we determine the operation parameters at which a 1D-lattice clock with 88Sr shows no degradation due to collisions on the relative accuracy level of 10-16.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Silica nanoparticles for the layer-by-layer assembly of fully electro-active cytochrome c multilayers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>For bioanalytical systems sensitivity and biomolecule activity are critical issues. The immobilization of proteins into multilayer systems by the layer-by-layer deposition has become one of the favorite methods with this respect. Moreover, the combination of nanoparticles with biomolecules on electrodes is a matter of particular interest since several examples with high activities and direct electron transfer have been found. Our study describes the investigation on silica nanoparticles and the redox protein cytochrome <it>c </it>for the construction of electro-active multilayer architectures, and the electron transfer within such systems. The novelty of this work is the construction of such artificial architectures with a non-conducting building block. Furthermore a detailed study of the size influence of silica nanoparticles is performed with regard to formation and electrochemical behavior of these systems.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We report on interprotein electron transfer (IET) reaction cascades of cytochrome <it>c </it>(cyt <it>c</it>) immobilized by the use of modified silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) to act as an artificial matrix. The layer-by-layer deposition technique has been used for the formation of silica particles/cytochrome <it>c </it>multilayer assemblies on electrodes. The silica particles are characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Zeta-potential and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The modified particles have been studied with respect to act as an artificial network for cytochrome <it>c </it>and to allow efficient interprotein electron transfer reactions. We demonstrate that it is possible to form electro-active assemblies with these non-conducting particles. The electrochemical response is increasing linearly with the number of layers deposited, reaching a cyt <it>c </it>surface concentration of about 80 pmol/cm²with a 5 layer architecture. The interprotein electron transfer through the layer system and the influence of particle size are discussed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study demonstrates the ability to construct fully electro-active cyt <it>c </it>multilayer assemblies by using carboxy-modified silica nanoparticles. Thus it can be shown that functional, artificial systems can be build up following natural examples of protein arrangements. The absence of any conductive properties in the second building block clearly demonstrates that mechanisms for electron transfer through such protein multilayer assemblies is based on interprotein electron exchange, rather than on wiring of the protein to the electrode.</p> <p>The construction strategy of this multilayer system provides a new controllable route to immobilize proteins in multiple layers featuring direct electrochemistry without mediating shuttle molecules and controlling the electro-active amount by the number of deposition steps.</p

8E-17 fractional laser frequency instability with a long room-temperature cavity

We present a laser system based on a 48 cm long optical glass resonator. The large size requires a sophisticated thermal control and optimized mounting design. A self balancing mounting was essential to reliably reach sensitivities to acceleration of below $\Delta \nu / \nu$ < 2E-10 /g in all directions. Furthermore, fiber noise cancellations from a common reference point near the laser diode to the cavity mirror and to additional user points (Sr clock and frequency comb) are implemented. Through comparison to other cavity-stabilized lasers and to a strontium lattice clock an instability of below 1E-16 at averaging times from 1 s to 1000 s is revealed