Credit: TU Wien
T-cells are an important component of our immune system: with the receptors they carry on their surface, they can recognise highly specific antigens. Upon detection of an intruder, an immune response is triggered. It is still unclear exactly what happens when antigens are recognised: How many antigens are necessary to elicit an immune response, and does the response depend on their spatial arrangement?
These effects take place in the nanometer range - on the size scale of molecules, far below what can be seen with ordinary microscopes. To study all this, tiny tools are needed. Therefore, an unusual method was used at TU Wien: DNA molecules were folded in an ingenious way, similar to the paper folding art origami. In this way, not just a double helix is created, but a rectangular molecular raft that floats across a cell membrane and serves as a tool for novel measurements. The results have now been published in the scientific journal
ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT Celebrates One-Year Anniversary
The ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT was officially opened in a virtual event, one year after it became operational
On 12,000 square meters the new building offers space for current and future startups and spin-offs by both partners. (Photo: ZEISS)
The ZEISS Innovation Hub @ KIT is a milestone in the longstanding partnership between ZEISS and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). In the new building on KIT’s North Campus ZEISS enables high-tech and digital startups to move into the Hub, and is driving its own innovation and new business activities. The Hub has seen a number of successful collaborations and projects since it opened in early 2020.
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Metals such as gold or platinum are often used as catalysts. In the catalytic converters of vehicles, for example, platinum nanoparticles convert poisonous carbon monoxide into non-toxic CO2. Because platinum and other catalytically active metals are expensive and rare, the nanoparticles involved have been made smaller and smaller over time. Single-atom catalysts are the logical end point of this downsizing: The metal is no longer present as particles, but as individual atoms that are anchored on the surface of a cheaper support material. Individual atoms can no longer be described using the rules developed from larger pieces of metal, so the rules used to predict which metals will be good catalysts must be revamped - this has now been achieved at TU Wien. As it turns out, single atom catalysts based on much cheaper materials might be even more effective. These results have now been published in the journal
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Highly complicated processes constantly take place in our body to keep pathogens in check: The T-cells of our immune system are busy searching for antigens - suspicious molecules that fit exactly into certain receptors of the T-cells like a key into a lock. This activates the T-cell and the defense mechanisms of the immune system are set in motion.
How this process takes place at the molecular level is not yet well understood. What is now clear, however, is that not only chemistry plays a role in the docking of antigens to the T-cell; micromechanical effects are important too. Submicrometer structures on the cell surface act like microscopic tension springs. Tiny forces that occur as a result are likely to be of great importance for the recognition of antigens. At TU Wien, it has now been possible to observe these forces directly using highly developed microscopy methods.