Publications

March 2024

Authors: Sophia-Marie Hartmann, Johanna Heider, Richard Wüst2, Andreas J. Fallgatter, Hansjürgen Volkmer

Microglia-neuron interactions in schizophrenia

 

Multiple lines of evidence implicate increased neuroinflammation mediated by glial cells to play a key role in neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia. Microglia, which are the primary innate immune cells of the brain, are crucial for the refinement of the synaptic circuitry during early brain development by synaptic pruning and the regulation of synaptic plasticity during adulthood. Schizophrenia risk factors as genetics or environmental influences may further be linked to increased activat

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March 2024

Authors: Johanna Heider, Aaron Stahl, Denise Sperlich, Sophia-Marie Hartmann, Sabrina Vogel, Ricarda Breitmeyer, Markus Templin & Hansjürgen Volkmer

Defined co-cultures of glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons with a mutation in DISC1 reveal aberrant phenotypes in GABAergic neurons

 

 

Mutations in the gene DISC1 are associated with increased risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. The study of mutated DISC1 represents a well-known and comprehensively characterized approach to understand neuropsychiatric disease mechanisms. However, previous studies have mainly used animal models or rather heterogeneous populations of iPSC-derived neurons, generated by undirected differentiation, to study the effects of DISC1 disruption. Since major hypothe

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February 2024

Authors: Peter Jones, Beatriz Molina-Martinez, Anita Niedworok, Paolo Cesare

A microphysiological system for parallelized morphological and electrophysiological read-out of 3D neuronal cell culture

Three-dimensional in vitro models in microfluidic systems are promising tools for studying cell biology, with complex models using multiple cell types combined with high resolution imaging. Neuronal models demand electrical readout of the activity of networks of single neurons, yet classical planar microelectrode arrays struggle to capture extracellular action potentials when neural soma are suspended distant from the microelectrodes.

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November 2023

Authors: Andrea Villoria-González , Bettina Zierfuss , Patricia Parzer , Elisabeth Heuböck , Violetta Zujovic , Petra Waidhofer-Söllner , Markus Ponleitner , Paulus Rommer , Jens Göpfert , Sonja Forss-Petter , Johannes Berger and Isabelle Weinhofer

Efficacy of HDAC Inhibitors in Driving Peroxisomal β-Oxidation and Immune Responses in Human Macrophages: Implications for Neuroinflammatory Disorders

Elevated levels of saturated very long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) in cell membranes and secreted lipoparticles have been associated with neurotoxicity and, therefore, require tight regulation. Excessive VLCFAs are imported into peroxisomes for degradation by β-oxidation. Impaired VLCFA catabolism due to primary or secondary peroxisomal alterations is featured in neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory disorders such as X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy and multiple sclerosis (MS).

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September 2023

Authors: David Grijalva Garces, Svenja Strauß, Sarah Gretzinger, Barbara Schmieg, Tomasz Juengst, Juergen Groll, Lorenz Meinel, Isabelle Schmidt, Hanna Hartmann, Katja Schenke-Layland

On the reproducibility of extrusion-based bioprinting: round robin study on standardization in the field

 

 

The outcome of 3D bioprinting heavily depends, amongst others, on the interaction between the developed bioink, the printing process, and the printing equipment. However, if this interplay is ensured, bioprinting promises unmatched possibilities in the health care area. To pave the way for comparing newly developed biomaterials, clinical studies, and medical applications (i.e. printed organs, patient-specific tissues), there is a great need for standardization of manufacturing methods in order to ena

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September 2023

Authors: Tom Stumpp, Michael Mierzejewski, Domenic Pascual, Angelika Stumpf, Peter D.Jones

Scalable mesh microelectrode arrays for neural spheroids and organoids

Introduction: Neural organoids promise to help understand the human brain and develop treatments for neurological diseases. Electrophysiological recordings are essential in neural models to evaluate the activity of neural circuits. Mesh microelectrode arrays (MEAs) have been demonstrated to be suitable for organoids and spheroids, and there is demand for easy-to-use devices that can be manufactured at scale. Methods: We present a new mesh MEA device with an easyto-use design.

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August 2023

Authors: Domenic Pascual, Lisa Brauns, Ruth Domes, Matthias Tisler, Marco Kögel, Angelika Stumpf, Andreas Kirschniak, Jens Rolinger, Udo Kraushaar & Peter D. Jones

A flexible implant for acute intrapancreatic electrophysiology

Microelectrode arrays (MEAs) have proven to be a powerful tool to study electrophysiological processes over the last decades with most technology developed for investigation of the heart or brain. Other targets in the field of bioelectronic medicine are the peripheral nervous system and its innervation of various organs. Beyond the heart and nervous systems, the beta cells of the pancreatic islets of Langerhans generate action potentials during the production of insulin.

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March 2023

Authors: Matthew McDonald; David Sebinger; Lisa Brauns; Laura Gonzalez-Cano; Yotam Menuchin-Lasowski; Michael Mierzejewski; Olympia-Ekaterini Psathaki; Angelika Stumpf; Jenny Wickham; Thomas Rauen; Hans Schöler; Peter D. Jones

A mesh microelectrode array for non-invasive electrophysiology within neural organoids

 

Organoids are emerging in vitro models of human physiology. Neural models require the evaluation of functional activity of single cells and networks, which is commonly measured by microelectrode arrays. The characteristics of organoids clash with existing in vitro or in vivo microelectrode arrays. With inspiration from implantable mesh electronics and growth of organoids on polymer scaffolds, we fabricated suspended hammock-like mesh microelectrode arrays for neural organoids

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February 2023

Authors: Dmitri Visser, Katharina Rogg, Ellena Fuhrmann, Julia Marzi, Katja Schenke-Layland, Hanna Hartmann

Electrospinning of collagen: enzymatic and spectroscopic analyses reveal solvent-independent disruption of the triple-helical structure

 

Electrospinning has become a well-established method for creating nanofibrous meshes for tissue-engineering applications. The incorporation of natural extracellular components, such as electrospun pure collagen nanofibers, has proven to be particularly challenging, as electrospun collagen nanofibers do not constitute native collagen fibers anymore. In this study, we show that this detrimental effect is not only limited to fluorinated solvents, as previously thought. Rat tail collagen was dissolved in a

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