לוח שנה משולב

Lysosomal storage disorders (LSD), such as Gaucher disease (GD) and Niemann–Pick type C (NPC) disease, display neuronal degeneration accompanied by neuroinflammation. In the brain, innate immunity is maintained by microglia, the major myeloid cell population in the CNS. FACS analysis of end stage LSD models showed minor monocyte infiltration indicating that CNS-resident microglia are the major myeloid player in these pathologies. I will further discuss the functional contribution of microglia to LSD pathophysiology based on RNAseq analysis of microglia from various LSD animal models.

Enzymes determine the rate of most biological processes. Decades of biochemistry have demonstrated how enzymes vary by orders of magnitude in their kinetic properties. Why are some enzymes faster than others and how are enzyme capacities related to physiological demands? I will talk about the interplay between enzyme kinetics and different evolutionary driving forces in an attempt to unravel which factors constrain and sculpt enzymatic rates. I will then move to examine the relevance of in-vitro kinetics to living systems, asking whether the rates of enzymes are similar between test-tubes and cells, and if not, why this is the case.
Lastly, I will focus on one particular enzyme with lousy kinetics. This enzyme is called Rubisco - the key carboxylating enzyme on the planet, and therefore the gateway into the organic world.
Instead of trying to improve Rubisco by directed evolution approaches, which have largely failed so far, I will describe our ongoing journey to find the best Rubisco Nature has to offer...

Nanotechnology has reached every-day life. A high number of all-day products either contain nanomaterials (NMs) or have been processed by nanotechnological work flows. New interactions with other all-day products, i.e. an every-growing number of modern lifestyle products (MLPs), become more and more likely. Moreover, the new generation has a high degree of creativity in using MLPs in different ways potentially resulting in not foreseen interactions of NMs with MLPs during the marketing process. Therefore, an interdisciplinary research project termed Nan-O-Style has been established investigating interactions between NMs in consumer products with substances from daily life with a special focus on MLPs used by adolescents. Furthermore, Nan-O-Style aims at the compilation of an education initiative about nanotechnology including teaching resources and international peer-teaching.
In order to achieve a high variety of perspectives, students from different types of Austrian higher schools (technical/scientific vs. economic vs. artistic) work in close contact with scientists from academia. Due to the within Nan-O-Style acquired competences and the established network between academic scientists, students and educational institutions, the students develop new models for interdisciplinary teaching in mathematical/scientific/technical (MINT) subjects and apply them as best practice examples. We particularly focus on schools with an economic or fashion background which typically have a higher share of girls. A number of pre-scientific projects in nano-technological, nano-biological or nano-educational topics are carried out.
This approach towards interdisciplinary MINT education thus strengthens the profile formation of the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg and further extends to the education of teachers. Previously, the educational EU framework projects www.NanoTOES.eu and www.NanoEIS.eu had been coordinated by Prof. Duschl and his group. Nan-O-Style is based on this background and therefore internationally connected to educational partners in Israel (ORT Moshinsky R&D Center, Tel Aviv, http://en.ort.org.il/), Spain (Nanoeduca, Barcelona, http://nanoeduca.cat/es/inicio/), and Germany (cc-NanoBioNet e.V, Saarbrücken, http://www.nanobionet.de/).
The Duschl group furthermore conducts nanosafety research involving advanced in vitro models of the human lung barrier, including air-liquid interface cultures (1), addressing potential modulations of the immune response towards NMs (2, 3). As allergens may be inhaled simultaneously to nanoparticles they can become part of the protein corona. The group investigates whether this poses a risk for people with an existing allergic condition (4).

For the aim of using glucose as a biodegradable MRI contrast agent, employing chemical exchange saturation transfer of its hydroxyl protons to water, it is necessary to quantify the individual hydroxyl exchange rates. In the intermediate to fast exchange regime this can be done using multiple-power CEST spectra acquisition of glucose solutions at physiological conditions, and extracting the exchange rates by a Bloch-McConnell fit. With this information presaturation and sequence parameter optimization can be performed in silico, and translated to glucoCEST sequence application in vivo at 3 T, 7 T, and 9.4 T. First data of glucoCEST at 7 T and 9.4 T in braintumors will be presented.

In the middle of nineteenth century, Wiedemann and Franz discovered a correlation between thermal and electrical conductivities of various metals. Since then, a law bearing their name has become one of the oldest laws of the solid-state physics. It survived the quantum revolution, which linked it to a ratio of fundamental constants. The equality between this Sommerfeld ratio and the Lorenz number (the ratio of thermal conductivity divided by temperature to electric conductivity) in the zero-temperature limit was enshrined as a canonical signature of a Fermi liquid.

The subject of this talk is the experimental research on the validity of (and the deviations from) the Wiedemann-Franz law in uncommon metals. After reviewing different unsuccessful assaults in the past three decades, we will focus on ongoing research and the information brought by verifying this correlation. Two distinct contexts will be discussed. The first is strong electron-electron scattering and possible hydrodynamic signatures in the transport of charge and entropy. The second subject is anomalous transverse transport arising from the Berry curvature of Bloch waves. In both cases, the zero-temperature validity is accompanied by a finite-temperature deviation, a controversial source of information on mobile electrons in solids.

The DNA in a human cell which is ~3 meters long is packed in a tiny nucleus of ~10 μm radius. The DNA is surrounded by thousands of proteins, and it is highly dynamic while taking part in the process of protein expression and cell division. Nevertheless, it must stay organized to prevent chromosome entanglement. Studying this nanometer – micrometer scale structure is difficult, as it falls short of the optical resolution, while electron microscopy is limited due to the need to fixate the sample.
We therefore adopted various methods for studying the organization of the genome in the nucleus, including live-cell imaging, time-resolved spectroscopy and single molecule methods such as AFM. It allowed us to identify that a protein, lamin A, forms chromatin loops thereby restricting the chromatin dynamics in the whole nucleus volume. Based on the results, we conclude that the organization of the DNA in the nucleus is based on a “DNA matrix”, a structure that we describe here for the first time. The experimental methods we use necessitate the use of biophysical modeling based on Smoluchowski equation, modified diffusion equations and polymer physics.
I will describe the problem, the methods we use, the results and the conclusions as described above.