Technology Offers

File no.: MI-1012-5677-LI-ZE
(liked to MI-1012-4430-LI-ZE describing the generation of neuro- epithelial stem cells as precursors for microtissue generation)

A robust method for producing and analyzing highly homogenous human neural organoids.

Recently, many efforts have been made to improve growth and yield of crop plants. CO₂ fixation in plants is primarily catalyzed by the enzyme ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (Rubisco). The inherent inefficiency of Rubisco necessitates an additional metabolic process termed photorespiration, which results in the loss of carbon and energy. In fact, it has been estimated that plants lose approximately 25% of the fixed carbon due to photorespiration. Despite several attempts to improve ...

With approximately 600,000 deaths annually colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancer types worldwide. Early cancer and pre-cancer (polyps) detection by colonoscopy over the age of 50 until now is the best strategy for disease control and the chance of the cancer to be curable. Epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation has been shown to occur already at early stages of tumor development making such differentially methylated regions (DMRs) highly attractive for biomarker development ...

Cancer remains a major health burden and is the second leading cause of death globally (WHO). The microenvironment of cancer cells plays an important role in disease progression. In particular, the composition of the extracellular matrix regulates angiogenesis, cell proliferation, differentiation, cell survival and apoptosis. Dysregulation and accumulation of the extracellular matrix promotes cellular transformation and metastasis leading to cancer progression. A better understanding of the role ...

Human influenza A virus (IAV) is responsible for seasonal disease in people and can cause worldwide pandemics. The main lines of defense against IAV are vaccines and antiviral drugs.

Influenza vaccines, including killed and live vaccines, recombinant virus-like particles and viral particles, have been available commercially for many years. Typically, the composition of influenza vaccines is based on the major influenza virus strains causing infection in the previous season. Accordingly, ...

For sieving and separation purposes porous materials with adjustable sizes and shapes of the pores as well as tunable mechanical properties are required. The existing materials such as sintered materials, open-cell foams or cemented aggregates can be made porous but they are either fragile or can collapse for large deformation. Therefore, chemically inert and damage resistant porous materials with adjustable permeability as well as mechanical and geometrical properties that can sustain large deformation ...

This invention includes two alternative advanced methods to achieve a homogenous collector power distribution, which improves the collector capability of high power vacuum-tubes by a factor of two as compared to conventional methods. Furthermore the applied method has a high flexibility to vary the power distribution over a wide range of profiles and match the deposition profiles to different designs of collectors in existing or future electron tubes.

The dynamics of complex flows and turbulences are dominated by vortices of many different scales. In general, the vortex describes the group motion of fluid elements in a circular fashion, whereas the vorticity quantizes this spinning moment of a fluid element confined to a small neighborhood.

For diagnosis of flows, conventional techniques track the movements of small particles added into the flow (e.g., Lagrangian particle tracking, LPT, and particle image velocimetry, PIV). However, ...

Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. B.anthracis can cause human disease via the gastrointestinal, cutaneous or inhalational routes. There is still a considerably high rate of mortality from inhalational anthrax of up to 75 percent, even though fluorquinolone class antibiotics (e.g., ciprofloxacin) are being administered as a first-line therapy. This strategy, in addition, is being threatened by the spread of plasmid-mediated ...

Anti-IgG secondary antibodies are major tools for the detection or immobilization of primary antibodies in approaches such as western blotting, ELISA, Co-IP and immunofluorescence. Polyclonal anti-IgG secondary antibodies are produced in animals, such as mouse, rabbit, rat, and goat and are directed against the IgG classes of these animals. Thus, the generation of such secondary antibodies requires the keeping and use of a large number of animals, which is not only costly but also a major ethical ...

The invention relates to an apparatus for generating random numbers, using an optical parametric oscillator.

The generation of random numbers is important in information science as well as in modelling and simulation. In cryptography, for instance, random numbers are needed for encryption algorithms. Preferably, the generated numbers are true (i.e. non-predictable) and have an equal distribution.

The apparatus according to the invention is based on the bi-stable outcome of an optical ...

To monitor crystallization processes a special camera setup to measure the crystal size and 3D shape distribution was developed.
The setup consists of two high-speed cameras that are positioned orthogonally to one another such that a precise overlap of both fields of view can be achieved. The setup further contains a specially designed flow-through cell that allows to observe the crystal suspension from both camera directions and given the opportunity to temperate the solution within the cell. ...

Since 2000 bioinspired fibrillar dry adhesives have been studied intensively culminating in commercial products already available on the market. Currently known fibrillar adhesives are fully wetted by oils, leading to significantly decreased adhesion and friction performance. Therefore, a high demand exists for reversible dry fibrillar adhesives that can repel oil-like liquids and adhere strongly to surfaces wetted by them.

To meet the aforementioned challenges, an extraordinary fibrillar ...

Prof. Klaus Müllen an co-workers at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research developed a straightforward C-H borylation at the 2- and 2,7-positions of pyrene derivatives. The small neutral organic molecules show sharp fluorescence emission peeks between 400-550 nm and high photoluminiscense quantum yields.

Fluorescent dyes are widely used as indispensable markers in biology, optical microscopy, and analytical chemistry. The availability and the proper choice of the dye is a key factor to success of the entire labelling and imaging procedure. Due to superior brightness and photostability, synthetic dyes often represent an attractive alternative to fluorescent proteins.

Among the multitude of fluorophores reported so far, only rhodamines, carbopyronines, and silicon-rhodamines bearing a carboxyl ...

Evaporation cells for thin film deposition often operate under ultrahigh vacuum or special gas atmosphere, requiring long growth campaigns and short maintenance openings to preserve the best possible vacuum environment. The deposition leads to coating of the inner chamber walls, the removal of which is difficult and very time consuming. Growth control and interruptions during material deposition may require frequent operation of the closure device or shutter. The commonly used shutter (Fig. 1) ...

Prof. Kai Sundmacher and co-workers at the MPI for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems developed a novel core-shell catalyst design with a highly active catalyst core surrounded by an inert, low-permeability shell. The new catalyst design leads to an intrinsic heat management that avoids hotspots in strongly exothermic reactions. This allows faster reactor start-up and shut-down and makes the catalysts suitable for rapid load changes in discontinuous processes.

Prof. Klaus-Richard Pörschke and co-workers from the MPI for Coal Research developed a highly hydrophobic perfluoroaryl borate (FAB) ligand for trapping the radioative 134/137 Cs isotopes with 100% specificity. The novel approach could improve the decontamination of humans compared to the administration of so called insouble Prussian blue currently in use.

Light microscopy enables fascinating insights into the microcosm of life. It is one of the key techniques in life science and provides access to a better understanding of biology across many orders of magnitude in time and space. The use of visible light allows for minimally invasive imaging - even of living cells - and direct observation with the human eye. However, the use of visible light limits the resolution of the image obtained to about half the wavelength of the used light. The limiting ...

A novel molecular target of the semaphorin-plexin system to develop treatment options for cancer and for osteoporosis.

The invention relates to a new method to reduce acquisition time in MR imaging. It is based on the variation of the sensitivity profile of the RF coils and allows an easy access to an additional source of spatial information to further improve imaging.
MR imaging is among the most important tools for modern medical diagnostics with a unique range of applications. The imaging duration however limits the applicability for situations with movements within the volume of interest. Therefore, many ...

The invention relates to an innovative detector concept for the identification of analytes in a gas that is extremely versatile and yet easy to construct and to operate. The superior properties were reached by an optical readout system for electrical signal of multiple detector cells.

Detecting and quantifying concentrations of analytes of interest is usually achieved using materials that change their electrical properties upon exposure. As different materials combined in one sensor need ...

The invention relates to a new method for imaging setting optimization for electron microscopy
based on deep learning. The AI is a robust and simple to implement optimization possibility for
direct operation with various types of electron microscopes.

For a wide spectrum of applications automated precision electron microscopy is a powerful
method. Existing auto focusing routines are often based on physical models of the microscope
and are hence lacking general applicability ...

The invention relates to a new and durable system, which brings the possibility of accurate size measuring and simultaneous counting of airborne particles with an aerodynamic diameter of up to 2.5 microns.

Measuring the particulate matter contamination in a gas in the range of PM_2.5 is advantageous or crucial for various applications. Monitoring the concentration of the corresponding particles, for example in air, reveals information about pollution. The possibility of aerosol ...

Prof. Klaus-Richard Pörschke and co-workers at the MPI for Coal Research developed a novel cyclic process for the quantitative extraction of cesium with 100% selectivity from any given aqueous or acidic solution, irrespective of the other components.

The development of the cation channel channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii by Prof. Ernst Bamberg and his colleagues, and its application to light-induced modulation of neurons paved the way for the field of optogenetics.
Over time the light-gated cation channel channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) has become an indispensable tool in neuroscience. Based on the pioneering work on ChR2 new variants have emerged, differing in their spectrum of light absorption, their kinetic ...

Fusion Tags Comprising Ubiquitin-like Modifiers and Corresponding Proteases For Protein Purification From Selected Eukaryotic Expression Hosts

The invention relates to a new method for processing magnetic resonance (MR) data based on a neural network (NN). After training, the NN quickly delivers high quality CEST images with low computational effort. Additionally, it provides uncertainty data aiding to judge the images appropriately.

Typically, sophisticated MR contrasts are calculated based on complex mathematical models, which is computationally expensive, and it requires long processing durations. Besides that, the results ...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is nowadays a leading mo¬dality for diagnostic imaging with about 100 million examinations per year worldwide. However, when invented by Paul Christian Lauterbur in 1973, MRI was too slow to allow for routine medical applications. A breakthrough was achieved in 1985 by the FLASH (Fast Low Angle Shot) technique developed by Jens Frahm and his team at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. With FLASH the measuring time for a cross-sectional ...

An accurate dispensing device for powders and irregularly shaped particles

The RNA-programmable DNA-endonuclease Cas9 is widely used for genome engineering, where a high degree of specificity is required. Though this is a mechanism well controlled by canonical base-pairing, there is evidence that Cas9 does accept mismatches under certain circumstances.
This might be seen as a threat to precision needed in genome engineering at least in environments where such high precision is ultimately needed and acceptance of mismatches needs to be avoided, e.g.: cellular gene ...

Connectase is an enzyme that fuses target proteins or synthetic compounds via a small recognition tag, using a different reaction mechanism compared to known protein ligases. It prevents side reactions entirely and has absolute specificity, even in highly in complex solutions with minimum concentrations of target molecules.

We offer a new simple and low cost technology to fabricate graphene-encapsulated metal or metal compound nanoparticles. The resulting hybrid nanoparticles are protected by granted substance claims in US, CN, TW and EP (DE, FR, GB, BE). Currently the patent protected graphene coated nano particles are discussed as high performance electrode materials in the lithium ion battery business (for example Samsung's "Graphene Balls").

The invention relates to a new method of producing SnTiO3 for the use as a ferroelectric element. Tin titanates are known to be a class with various properties making it promising for many applications. The preparation of this material beyond thin films remained challenging.

Tin(II) oxide has a low disproportionation temperature of 350°C but the preparation of new materials is usually conducted at higher temperatures. Therefore, bulk SnTiO3 is not possible to be produced using existing ...

An innovative high throughput screening method for measurement of RNA- and DNA-polymerase activity at room temperature, based on time-resolved FRET.

The invention relates to a new and easy to use device for real-time monitoring of the thermal power of a nuclear reactor. It is based on the easy to access ¹⁶N decay rate in the cooling water. The robust and easy to implement method significantly improves the safety of nuclear facilities.

Nuclear reactors require high standards of safety and detailed information about changes are needed in order to control them in a safe manner. Besides detailed real-time simulations, direct ...

A laser device (100), configured for generating laser pulses, has a laser resonator (10) with a gain disk medium (11) and a Kerr medium (12). The laser resonator (10) includes a first mode shaping section (13) which is adapted for shaping a circulating electric field coupled into the gain disk medium (11), and a second mode shaping section (14), which is adapted for shaping the circulating electric field coupled into the Kerr medium (12) independently of the electric field shaping in the first ...

The LITESEC-T3SS (Light-induced translocation of effectors through sequestration of endogenous components of the T3SS) system represents a novel, fast, specific, and reversible method to control protein secretion into eukaryotic cells, enabling various medicinal and biotechnological applications, such as targeted drug delivery for tumor therapy.

The efficiency of solar cells is strongly affected by local inhomogeneities. Especially inhomogeneities of the dark-current voltage (I-V) characteristic are of interest: The local dark current-voltage characteristic is a measure for the local recombination properties of the solar cell. Lock-in thermography performed in the dark (DLIT) can be used to detect and evaluate locally increased dark current densities.

The present invention relates to a method of generating pulsed coherent radiation in the UV and XUV wavelength ranges. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a radiation source for generating pulsed coherent radiation based on a high harmonic generation (HHG).

The invention relates to a new method for an improved production of random numbers and verification of their randomness. In order to do so, it uses the quantum mechanical properties of microscopic particles and structures. A number sequence is generated by means of a repetitive quantum mechanical random process. The measurement of this process is performed by a homodyndetection of an optical input signal, where the signal interferes with a local oscillator, e.g. a laser, at a central beam splitter ...

Errors in super-resolution microscopy (SRM) can be identified with pairs of emitters that have fixed and precisely known relative positions. Such reference and calibration structures are exceedingly rare on the nanoscale. Here, Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond (NVs) offer a formidable solution. These fluorescent defects are photo-stable and due to the excellent properties of their brilliant host, do not diffuse and are resilient against temperature or chemical environment changes.

On ...

Biological fixation of CO₂ is an important process carried out by plants and several microorganisms, which can be harnessed for sustainable, biobased production of fuels and chemicals. Particularly, the fixation of CO₂ by autotrophic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria and microalgae can be employed for converting CO₂ into value-added products, such as commodity chemicals or fuels. However, the sustainable autotrophic production ...

A scalable and easy to handle method for the creation of larger (up to square meters) low light level detectors is disclosed. While the fast read-out times of a single detector is kept, the area covered by the detector ensemble (dramatically) increases. The large area is enabled by transversal connection of hybrid “base cells”. These “base cells” consist of vertically stacked tiers of (i) a detector array, (ii) a first level electronic read-out, and (iii) and a second level read-out which ...

A novel tool to detect and quantify NETs using a molecular feature of NET formation that has never been proposed as a marker for NETs before

Exploiting the benefits offered by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at ultra-high fields (≥ 7 Tesla) requires optimized radiofrequency (RF) coils. MRI at UHF operates in a regime where the RF wavelength is comparable to the dimensions of the sample size, resulting in an inhomogeneous distribution of the transmit field (B₁⁺) and in an impaired image quality. An array of independent transmit coils arranged in multiple rows provides the degrees of freedom to influence the ...

We offer a new family of cationic ligands, namely N-alkyl/aryl pyridiniophosphines. The ligands can be synthesized through a short, scalable, and highly modular route.

Evaluation of their electronic properties evidenced weak σ-donor and quite strong π-acceptor character when used as ancillary ligands.

The invention relates to a new concept for a high efficiency light antenna, namely the Truncated Omnidirectional Reflector (TOR). It is well suited for obtaining directional emission and efficient fiber coupling from various types of light sources like single photon emitters.
Especially in the fast-growing field of quantum technologies efficient collectors for solid-state single photon emitters are needed. Achieving collector efficiencies of more than 95% into the fundamental Gaussian mode, ...

A promising target to develop treatment options for osteoporosis and other disease conditions associated with bone loss

myNK cells are a novel myeloid NK subpopulation showing a unique expression pattern with the promise to treat obesity-associated pathologies such as cancer and diabetes. They could be detected in several different tumor tissues and a selective targeting of the upregulated myeloid markers might open the door for immunotherapy as a treatment option of certain obesity-associated cancer entities, obesity and diabetes.

A classical spin valve (SV) is a device in which the electrical resistance depends on the relative position of the magnetic moments of two ferromagnetic (FM) layers: with parallel (P) and antiparallel (AP) ordering, the SV resistance is minimum and maximum, respectively. Nowadays SVs are actively used in magnetic sensors, hard disk read heads and magnetic random-access memory. Thus, the SV, analogous to a transistor in conventional electronics, is a binary (digital) device. Here we offer a new ...

Biomarkers of ageing have long been sought after to help assess the biological age and general health status of individuals. Considerable efforts have been invested to identify such biomarkers, including physiologic readouts, metabolic parameters, glycomic profiles and others. Nevertheless, markers with strong predictive power have remained elusive.

Work in model organisms has identified several conserved signaling pathways that extend life span, such as reduced insulin/IGF signaling and ...

The Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in collaboration with the Institute of Biotechnology and Drug Research (IBWF) developed novel lignin nanocarriers that can be used for smart pesticide delivery in plants for crop protection. The nanocarriers are characterised by a narrow size distribution and an easy manufacturing, furthermore, they can be loaded with hydrophobic pesticides. Injected to plants, the nanocarriers act as a safe store of pesticide, which is released in situ by lignin degrading ...

Researchers of the Max-Planck-Institute for Colloids and Interfaces and the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute (PEI) have developed a novel codon-specific elongation model (COSEM), that is based on the question how codon bias affects protein expression in combination with a deep understanding of protein synthesis.

For the evaluation of crystallisation processes, process parameters like temperature and concentration can be easily measured. However, to measure the crystal size distribution continuously is a challenging task.
Different methods relaying on back scattering or reflection of monochromatic light can be applied that yield chord-length distributions, which often deviate from the actual crystal or particle size distribution. For analysing the true crystal dimensions and, additionally, the crystal ...

Scientists in the group of Atmospheric Chemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz have developed a novel thiosulfate based ozone scrubber to ensure accurate measurements of trace analytes. It is known from the literature that commercial potassium iodide (KI) containing ozone scrubbers can cause errors in the measurement of carbonyl compounds such as aldehydes and ketones due to byproducts formed from the oxidation of KI. Commercial ozone scrubbers based on sodium thiosulfate ...

The state of an electron is completely defined by its momentum and spin. In processes like electron diffraction or photoemission electron ensembles are generated which have a characteristic 3D distribution of momentum and spin. To examine such events the three components of the momentum vector have to be measured. Up to now, the momentum distribution of an ensemble of charged particles was typically measured using energy-dispersive spectrometers based on sequential approaches (sequentially changing ...

Playful is a scripting language for orchestration of Python modules. Playful allows developers to both organize the logic of activation in reactive behaviour tree and setup sensory-motor couplings, making it especially useful for robotics

The invention relates to a new method for light beam angle detection that is based on interferometry. High precision and sensitivity for slight changes of the beam direction can be achieved with this method.
For high precision light microscopy, the light beam must be aligned accurately, and the beam direction stability must be ensured in order to maintain a sufficient imaging resolution over longer periods of time. In standard microscopy environments even small temperature changes can result ...

Mesoporous materials present a large surface-to-volume ratio providing sites for catalysis, molecular separation, adsorption or chemical sensing. Some of the classical mesoporous materials employed include silica, alumina, zirconia, zeolites, and other diverse oxides such Ti or Co, and they are synthetized by routes as self-assembly, sol-gel, spray drying and some variations of these methods known in the state of the art. Additionally, some elements of the platinum group such as Pd, Ru, and their ...

Speckle interferometry is an established metrology technique for the characterization of rough objects. Deformations of rough objects under a load can be determined, as well as – with the help of an additional second wavelength – the surface shape of the object under test. As an illustration, Figure 1 (left) shows the so called raw phase as a result of a deformation measurement on a metal plate. The shape and the density of the fringes indicate the response of the metal plate to the load.
Owing ...

We present a sensor for the carrier-envelope phase of a few-cycle femtosecond laser. The sensor uses the electron current emitted from a nanoscale metal tip onto which we focus high-repetition-rate laser pulses.

Possible applications of this sensor are in the field of the technique of controlling and using pulse lasers, in particular used for measuring or high-power irradiation purposes.

The size of such a simple stand-alone sensor device for the carrier-envelope phase could be in ...

A simple, one-step assay for reliable measurements of NAD(H) and NADP(H) in complex samples, with various applications such as enzymatic assays, clinicals tests, and as point of care tests in the field of ageing.

The invention relates to a new and improved concept for Depleted p-channel Field Effect Transistors (DePFET) detectors that provides a significantly higher intrinsic amplification. By the extension of the transistor layout, former limitations were overcome.
DePFETs are insufficient for many applications in terms of the achievable intrinsic amplification. This is since shorter transistor channels needed for high amplification would increase the detector noise caused by impact ionization events.
Additional ...

Im Zuge der stetigen Weiterentwicklung und Nachfrage auf dem Gebiet der minimal invasiven Chirugie wurde am Max-Planck-Institut für intelligente Systeme in Stuttgart im Team von Herrn Prof Sitti für patientenfreundliche Magen-Darm-Untersuchungen ein kabelloses kapselförmiges Endoskop in Pillengröße, das sogenannte "B-MASCE" entwickelt. Die aus einem Elastomer bestehende Kapsel dient hierbei sowohl als Gehäuse als auch als Federelement für die Nadel. Über in der Kapsel eingebaute Magnete ...

The ability of hypervalent iodine compounds to act as electrophilic group-transfer reagents has been extensively exploited during the last several years in a variety of synthetically useful transformations
like cyanations and alkynylations. Now it was found, that novel imidazolium sulfuranes, which are isolobal to I(III) species and also depict the key threecenter four-electron bond motive, can be used as an alternative platform for the development of new electrophilic group-transfer reagents.

Imidazolium ...

Novel gas exchange membranes based on superamphiphobic coatings applied on metal meshes were created and tested in different applications, like gas scrubbing and blood oxygenation.
By using the novel membrans drawbacks of traditional membranes - like insufficient wetting, plugging and depositions chemical incompatibility and temperature instability - can be avoided.

An apparatus and method allowing high throughput collection of X-ray diffraction data at room temperature.

The presented technology offers an enhanced streaming rendering pipeline that enables the display of high fidelity, high framerate and high solution for noval views in real time on thin lightweight HMDs suitable especially for VR experiences.

How does it work?

The key idea of this technology is based on a novel algorithm for Potentially Visible Set (PVS) creation: the camera offset space (COS), which for a given point on the image plane provides information under which camera ...

The invention relates to a new, ultracompact non-invasive medical ventilation system. The BIPAP (Biphasic Positive Airway Pressure) ventilation unit, of size and weight of a tennis ball, is easy to handle and allows low-budget mass production. It can be powered by a rechargeable battery-pack – a great advantage in case of mobile use or damaged/unstable infrastructure leading to frequent blackouts. These benefits, ...

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) facilitates efficient production of thin films using a laser ablation technique. Targets are selected according to the coating desired. Multiple targets are either moved mechanically to the incidence area, or they are fixed so that the laser beam is alternatively focused on each of them. Multiple targets are, however, known to cause discontinuities, whereas single multicomponent target usually doesn’t ensure compositional homogeneity. The technology presented here ...

In arid and semiarid regions biological soil crusts (BSC) cover about 1/3 of the soil surface. As far as it is known, these BSC (consisting of cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, bryophytes, and other bacteria living in contact with soil particles) are crucial for the global terrestrial carbon and nitrogen cycle. The water status plays a major role, since their water content directly controls the activity of these poikilohydric organisms.