Lab infrastructure

Through the BMBF funding "Center of Excellence for Medical Technology") in cooperation with the company Siemens Healthcare and the Department of Neuroradiology of the University Hospital Erlangen, a C-arm supported angiography system (Siemens Artis Zee Floor) was installed in our animal operating room. With the help of this equipment it is possible to visualize the vascular supply of the experimental tumors in 2 and 3 dimensions. This is an important prerequisite for the correct positioning of our electromagnet MagDrug Magnet 2 (Siemens) in the tumor region. To achieve optimal enrichment of drug-loaded particles in the tumor, our magnet was installed in 2019, also through the support of the Manfred Roth Foundation, on a TX200 uniVal Drive robotic arm from Stäubli. With a robot-controlled, freely programmable and positionable magnet, all body regions should be able to be approached and a change of position should also be possible during treatment.

Minipilot 15 system from Büchi for highly scaled syntheses, consisting of a double-walled 15 liter glass reactor temperature-controllable from -60 °C to +200 °C. The reaction chamber is CIP-capable (Cleaning in Place) and the modular design allows the exchange of components to adapt to different synthesis requirements. A dosing unit, a hand hole for reactant addition, an inert gas connection, a stirring shaft feedthrough, a reflux condenser, and a manometer for pressure monitoring are mounted above the cover plate, which was specially designed for particle syntheses. This enables a small-scale parameterization process for synthesis adaptations from laboratory scale to larger-scale production volumes under quality-controlled conditions.

The "Vantage 64 LE" is a research ultrasound device from the company Verasonics. While in medically used systems the raw data is already displayed processed (B-scan, color Doppler, etc.) and it is not so easy to access the raw data, the Vantage system offers the possibility to access the raw data, to program the imaging itself and also to influence the sending and receiving of the ultrasound signal.

Freeze drying is based on the physical process of sublimation: In freeze drying, the ice crystals sublime directly into the gaseous state without the intermediate occurrence of a liquid phase. With the Christ Alpha 1-2 LD Plus, we therefore have a device that is suitable for the gentle drying of high-quality products.

The endothelializer from VascuZell enables the inner surface of tubular structures to be populated with cells. For this purpose, cells are loaded with magnetic nanoparticles, which can subsequently be placed by the ring-shaped magnets of the device.