TAP: Tissue Handling and Analysis Platform Structural and functional analysis of tissues in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro

• Subject Area: Medical Physics, Biomedical Technology ; Biomedical Systems Technology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 498224366

The project TAP aims to establish a unique center of excellence for multimodal analysis and manipulation of biological tissues covering different scales from the molecular level up to systems’ analysis. It builds on interdisciplinary competences at HFU in different aspects of structural and molecular tissue analysis and handling in vivo and in vitro (impedance, elastography, expression analysis, proteomics metabolomics) and mathematical modelling of tissue characteristics. The implementation of a “center for tissue handling and analysis” will combine the existing expertise with novel methods for real time structural analysis such as OCT and microwave imaging and thus allows not only the characterization of mechanical changes in tissues (e.g. during therapy) but also of optical and electrical alteration. Functional characterization of physiological tissue changes will be enhanced by pathway-analyses using the Luminex System and by nontargeted metabolic analyses using the mass spectrometer. This allows for the first time a concerted characterization of structural and functional tissue changes from the macroscopic to the molecular level. Integration of these analyses in a (automated) platform enables continuous in depth tissue characterization at a novel and unique level of detail thereby establishing a worldwide unique center of expertise at the HFU that holds significant promise for biotechnology, pharmacy and medical technology.

• DFG Programme: Major Instrumentation Initiatives
• Major Instrumentation: Currentsensor, Digitalizer ; Elektroimpedanztomograph ; OCT System ; Quadrupol-ToF Massenspektrometer
• Instrumentation Group: 1710 Partialdruck-, Restgas-Massenspektrometer ; 3232 Optische Kohärenztomografie (OCT) ; 3290 Sonstige Geräte der Radiologie und Zubehör ; 7170 Transientrecorder, digitale Signalspeicher
• Applicant Institution: Hochschule Furtwangen
• Leader: Professorin Dr. Margareta M. Müller