Facilities

Our Methods and Technologies

Engineering of Tissue Organoids

We are developing technologies for tissue engineering with a focus on engineered heart and skeletal muscle for drug testing, disease simulation, and organ repair. We focus on rat, mouse, and human models.

Multi Electrode Array ‚Maestro Pro‘ (Axion Biosystems)
Multi Electrode Array ‚Maestro Pro‘ (Axion Biosystems)

Stem Cell Culture & Differentiation

We perform culture and cardiac differentiation of mouse, rhesus monkey, and human embryonic stem cell (ESC), induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC), and parthenogenetic stem cell lines (PSC). Human iPSC are generated via the Stem Cell Unit (SCU).

Stem Cell Unit

The Stem Cell Unit is a non-commercial service platform at the "Universitätsmedizin Göttingen" (UMG). It is funded by the "Deutsches Zentrum für Herz- Kreislauf-Forschung" (DZHK) and the UMG.

It aims to provide patient-specific induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to the research community at the Göttingen Research Council (GRC) and its partners. All iPS cell generations follow established and validated SOPs.

Contact

Head Stem Cell Unit

Dr. rer. nat. Lukas Cyganek

Dr. rer. nat. Lukas Cyganek

contact information

Muscle Pharmacology and Biophysics

We employ isometric force measurements and dynamic mechanical analyses to define tissue properties of engineered and natural muscle tissue.

Organ Bath
Organ Bath
nanoString nCounter
nCounter (nanoString)
Langendorff-System
Langendorff-System
Tissue Organ Bath System (Detail)
Tissue Organ Bath System (Detail)

3-Dimensional Prototyping

We are using CAD design and 3D printing to develop prototypes, mold casts, and support materials for tissue engineering, cell culture, electrophysiology and other applications.

Robot Arm Bioprinter

Flow Cytometry

Flow Cytometer (Becton Dickinson)

Our lab provides access to a Becton Dickinson LSRII cytometer which contains 5 lasers (355 nm, 405 nm, 488 nm, 561 nm, and 640 nm excitation) and up to 18 detectors for multicolor experiments.

Macro- and Microscopy

Sharp Microelectrode Setup
Sharp Microelectrode Setup
Confocal Microscope
Confocal Microscope

Next to macroscopic methods, we use standard light, confocal, and 2-photon microscopy in fixed and life samples under controlled environmental conditions; equipment: IX-81 with life cell chamber (Olympus), SteREO Lumar.V12 (Zeiss), LSM 710 NLO (Zeiss), Dual-Ultima L System (SciMedia), TCS LSI (Leica), Functional Optical Imaging (Ionoptix, Andor), Spectral Karyotyping (SKY).

High Content Screens

Cellavista (Synentec)
CellVoyager CV8000 (Yokogawa)
SynchroPatch 384 (Nanion Technologies)

High-throughput recordings of cellular electrophysiology

Our new technology platform provides access to a patch-clamp robot “SyncroPatch 384” from Nanion Technologies. This enables high-throughput recordings of cellular electrophysiology of isolated cardiomyocytes and neurons.

We utilize several higher content screening platforms to analyze absorbance, fluorescence intensity, fluorescence polarization, time-resolved fluorescence, and luminescence; equipment: FlexStation 3 (Molecular Devices), GloMax® 96 Microplate Luminometer (Promega), Cellavista (SynenTec GmbH).

CQ1 Benchtop High-Content Analysis System (Yokogawa)
SynchroPatch 384 (Nanion Technologies)

Histology

We perform standard histological analyses, immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescence labeling in paraffin (1-4 µm, Leica RM 2255), cryo (6-20 µm, Leica CM 3050S), and vibratome (20-150 µm, Leica VT 1000 S) sections.

Small Animal Imaging and Interventions

We perform comprehensive cardiovascular phenotyping in rodent models with myocardial infarction and heart failure by ultrasound biomicroscopy (Vevo 2100 Imaging Systems, VisualSonics) and minimal invasive telemetry (DSI).

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