TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lokstein, Heiko
A1  - Krikunova, Maria
A1  - Teuchner, Klaus
A1  - Voigt, Bernd
T1  - Elucidation of structure-function relationships in photosynthetic light-harvesting antenna complexes by non-linear polarization spectroscopy in the frequency domain (NLPF)
JF  - Journal of plant physiology : biochemistry, physiology, molecular biology and biotechnology of plants
N2  - Photosynthetically active pigments are usually organized into pigment-protein complexes. These include light-harvesting antenna complexes (LHCs) and reaction centers. Site energies of the bound pigments are determined by interactions with their environment, i.e., by pigment-protein as well as pigment-pigment interactions. Thus, resolution of spectral substructures of the pigment-protein complexes may provide valuable insight into structure-function relationships.
 By means of conventional (linear) and time-resolved spectroscopic techniques, however, it is often difficult to resolve the spectral substructures of complex pigment-protein assemblies. Nonlinear polarization spectroscopy in the frequency domain (NLPF) is shown to be a valuable technique in this regard. Based on initial experimental work with purple bacterial antenna complexes as well as model systems NLPF has been extended to analyse the substructure(s) of very complex spectra, including analyses of interactions between chlorophylls and "optically dark" states of carotenoids in LHCs. The paper reviews previous work and outlines perspectives regarding the application of NLPF spectroscopy to disentangle structure-function relationships in pigment-protein complexes.
KW  - Excitonic interactions
KW  - Laser spectroscopy
KW  - Light-harvesting complex
KW  - Nonlinear polarization spectroscopy in the frequency domain
KW  - Pigment-pigment interactions
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jplph.2010.12.012
SN  - 0176-1617
VL  - 168
IS  - 12
SP  - 1488
EP  - 1496
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Jena
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Reiche, Jürgen
A1  - Kratz, Karl
A1  - Hofmann, Dieter
A1  - Lendlein, Andreas
T1  - Current status of Langmuir monolayer degradation of polymeric biomaterials
JF  - The international journal of artificial organs
N2  - Langmuir monolayer degradation (LMD) experiments with polymers possessing outstanding biomedical application potential yield information regarding the kinetics of their hydrolytic or enzymatic chain scission under well-defined and adjustable degradation conditions. A brief review is given of LMD investigations, including the author's own work on 2-dimensional (2D) polymer systems, providing chain scission data, which are not disturbed by simultaneously occurring transport phenomena, such as water penetration into the sample or transport of scission fragments out of the sample.
 A knowledge-based approach for the description and simulation of polymer hydrolytic and enzymatic degradation based on a combination of fast LMD experiments and computer simulation of the water penetration is briefly introduced. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of this approach are discussed.
KW  - Monolayer
KW  - Hydrolytic degradation
KW  - Enzymatic degradation
KW  - Biomaterial
KW  - Degradable polymer
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.5301/IJAO.2011.6401
SN  - 0391-3988
VL  - 34
IS  - 2
SP  - 123
EP  - 128
PB  - Wichtig
CY  - Milano
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Beta, Carsten
A1  - Bodenschatz, Eberhard
T1  - Microfluidic tools for quantitative studies of eukaryotic chemotaxis
JF  - European journal of cell biology
N2  - Over the past decade, microfluidic techniques have been established as a versatile platform to perform live cell experiments under well-controlled conditions. To investigate the directional responses of cells, stable concentration profiles of chemotactic factors can be generated in microfluidic gradient mixers that provide a high degree of spatial control. However, the times for built-up and switching of gradient profiles are in general too slow to resolve the intracellular protein translocation events of directional sensing of eukaryotes. Here, we review an example of a conventional microfluidic gradient mixer as well as the novel flow photolysis technique that achieves an increased temporal resolution by combining the photo-activation of caged compounds with the advantages of microfluidic chambers.
KW  - Eukaryotic chemotaxis
KW  - Dictyostelium discoideum
KW  - Microfluidics
KW  - Caged compounds
KW  - Numerical simulations
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejcb.2011.05.006
SN  - 0171-9335
VL  - 90
IS  - 10
SP  - 811
EP  - 816
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Jena
ER  -