Queensland University of Technology

12 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Neuroscience

Coherence between Brain Cortical Function and Neurocognitive Performance during Changed Gravity Conditions

Vera Brümmer¹, Stefan Schneider¹, Tobias Vogt¹, Heiko Strüder¹, Heather Carnahan², Christopher D. Askew³, Roland Csuhaj⁴

¹Institute of Movement and Neurosciences, German Sport University Cologne, ²Deptartment of Surgical Skills, University of Toronto, ³School of Human Movement Studies, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, ⁴Brain Products GmbH, Scientific Support, Gilching, Germany

The effect of weightlessness and hypergravity on both hemodynamic and electrophysiological processes in the brain is going to be followed during parabolic flight by EEG and NIRS techniques. A feasibility study of a more complex experiment, which is planned to carry out during medium- and long-term space flight.

Medicine

Adjustable Stiffness, External Fixator for the Rat Femur Osteotomy and Segmental Bone Defect Models

Vaida Glatt¹, Romano Matthys²

¹Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, ²RISystem AG

One constraint of preclinical research in the field of bone repair is the lack of experimental control over the local mechanical environment within a healing bone lesion. We report the design and use of an external fixator for bone repair with the ability to change fixator stiffness in vivo.

Developmental Biology

Isolation and Expansion of Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells Derived from Human Placenta Tissue

Rebecca A. Pelekanos¹, Varda S. Sardesai¹, Kathryn Futrega², William B. Lott², Michael Kuhn², Michael R. Doran^2,3

¹UQ Centre for Clinical Research, The University of Queensland, ²Translational Research Institute, Queensland University of Technology, ³Translational Research Institute, Mater Medical Research - University of Queensland

Herein we describe methods for the dissection of fetal and maternal tissues from human term placenta, followed by isolation and expansion of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC) from these tissues.

Bioengineering

Melt Electrospinning Writing of Three-dimensional Poly(ε-caprolactone) Scaffolds with Controllable Morphologies for Tissue Engineering Applications

Felix M. Wunner¹, Onur Bas¹, Navid T. Saidy¹, Paul D. Dalton², Elena M. De-Juan Pardo¹, Dietmar W. Hutmacher^1,3,4

¹ARC ITTC in Additive Biomanufacturing, Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), ²Department for Functional Materials in Medicine and Dentistry and Bavarian Polymer Institute, University of Würzburg, ³Institute for Advanced Study, Technical University of Munich (TUM), ⁴George W Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

This protocol serves as a comprehensive guideline to fabricate scaffolds via electrospinning with polymer melts in a direct writing mode. We systematically outline the process and define the appropriate parameter settings for achieving targeted scaffold architectures.

Chemistry

Measurements of Long-range Electronic Correlations During Femtosecond Diffraction Experiments Performed on Nanocrystals of Buckminsterfullerene

Rebecca A. Ryan¹, Sophie Williams¹, Andrew V. Martin¹, Ruben A. Dilanian¹, Connie Darmanin², Corey T. Putkunz¹, David Wood³, Victor A. Streltsov⁴, Michael W.M. Jones⁵, Naylyn Gaffney⁶, Felix Hofmann⁷, Garth J. Williams⁸, Sebastien Boutet⁹, Marc Messerschmidt¹⁰, M. Marvin Seibert¹¹, Evan K. Curwood¹¹, Eugeniu Balaur², Andrew G. Peele⁵, Keith A. Nugent², Harry M. Quiney¹, Brian Abbey²

¹ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging, School of Physics, University of Melbourne, ²Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging, Department of Chemistry and Physics, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Sciences, La Trobe University, ³Department of Physics, Imperial College London, ⁴Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, ⁵Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, ⁶Swinburne University of Technology, ⁷Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, ⁸Brookhaven National Laboratory, ⁹Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, ¹⁰BioXFEL Science and Technology Center, ¹¹Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, ¹²Australian Synchrotron

We describe an experiment designed to probe the electronic damage induced in nanocrystals of Buckminsterfullerene (C₆₀) by intense, femtosecond pulses of X-rays. The experiment found that, surprisingly, rather than being stochastic, the X-ray induced electron dynamics in C₆₀are highly correlated, extending over hundreds of unit cells within the crystals¹.

JoVE Journal

Optimization, Test and Diagnostics of Miniaturized Hall Thrusters

Jian W. M. Lim¹, Igor Levchenko^1,2, Muhammad W. A. B. Rohaizat¹, Shiyong Huang¹, Luxiang Xu¹, Yu Fei Sun¹, George C. Potrivitu¹, Jen S. Yee¹, Roysmond Z. W. Sim¹, Youmei Wang³, Svitlana Levchenko¹, Kateryna Bazaka^2,1, Shuyan Xu¹

¹Plasma Sources and Applications Centre, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, ²School of Chemistry, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, ³Department of Physics, School of Science, Hangzhou Dianzi University

Here, we present a protocol to test and optimize space propulsion systems based on miniaturized Hall-type thrusters.

Medicine

Absorbent Microbiopsy Sampling and RNA Extraction for Minimally Invasive, Simultaneous Blood and Skin Analysis

Benson U.W. Lei^1,2, Miko Yamada¹, Van L.T. Hoang³, Paul J. Belt⁴, Mark H. Moore⁵, Lynlee L. Lin², Ross Flewell-Smith¹, Nhung Dang^1,2, Shoko Tomihara², Tarl W. Prow^1,2

¹Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia, ²Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, ³Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, ⁴Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Princess Alexandra Hospital, ⁵Australian Craniofacial Unit, Women's and Children's Hospital

In this article, we demonstrate how the absorbent microbiopsy technique is performed and how the sample can be used for RNA extraction for simple and simultaneous sampling of skin and blood in a minimally invasive manner.

Bioengineering

Growth of Human and Sheep Corneal Endothelial Cell Layers on Biomaterial Membranes

Jennifer Walshe¹, Najla Al Khaled Abdulsalam², Shuko Suzuki¹, Traian V. Chirila^{1,3,4,5,6,7,8}, Damien G. Harkin^1,3,4

¹Queensland Eye Institute, ²King Faisal University, ³School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, ⁴Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, ⁵Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, ⁶Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, ⁷Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland, ⁸Faculty of Science, University of Western Australia

This protocol describes the critical steps required to establish and grow corneal endothelial cell cultures from explants of human or sheep tissue. A method for subculturing corneal endothelial cells on membranous biomaterials is also presented.

Bioengineering

An Open Source Technology Platform to Manufacture Hydrogel-Based 3D Culture Models in an Automated and Standardized Fashion

Sebastian Eggert^1,2, Melanie Kahl^1,3, Ross Kent¹, Lukas Gaats¹, Nathalie Bock^1,3,4,5, Christoph Meinert^1,2, Dietmar W. Hutmacher^1,2,3,4,6

¹Centre in Regenerative Medicine, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, ²School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, ³School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, ⁴Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, ⁵Translational Research Institute, Queensland University of Technology, ⁶ARC ITTC in Additive Biomanufacturing, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology

This protocol serves as a comprehensive tutorial for standardized and reproducible mixing of viscous materials with a novel open source automation technology. Detailed instructions are provided on the operation of a newly developed open source workstation, the usage of an open source protocol designer, and the validation and verification to identify reproducible mixtures.

Cancer Research

Rapid Optical Clearing for Semi-High-Throughput Analysis of Tumor Spheroids

Gency Gunasingh¹, Alexander P. Browning², Nikolas K. Haass¹

¹The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, The University of Queensland, ²School of Mathematical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology

Tumor spheroids are becoming increasingly utilized to assess tumor cell-microenvironment interactions and therapy response. The present protocol describes a robust but simple method for semi-high-throughput imaging of 3D tumor spheroids using rapid optical clearing.

Engineering

Imaging of the Microstructural Failure Mechanism in the Human Hip

Saulo Martelli^1,2, Egon Perilli²

¹School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, ²Medical Device Research Institute, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University

The protocol enables the measurement of the deformation of the bone microstructure in the entire proximal human femur and its toughness by combining large-volume micro-CT scanning, a custom-made compressive stage, and advanced image processing tools.

Production and Optimization of LTE, a Leishmania tarentolae Derived Cell-Free Protein Expression System for Recombinant Protein Production

Wayne A. Johnston^1,2,3,4, Juan Alfaro Palma^1,2,3,4, Kirill Alexandrov^1,2,3,4,5

¹CSIRO-QUT Synthetic Biology Alliance, Queensland University of Technology, ²ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, Queensland University of Technology, ³Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy, Queensland University of Technology, ⁴School of Biology and Environmental Science, Queensland University of Technology, ⁵Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health, Queensland University of Technology

Leishmania Translational Extract (LTE) is a eukaryotic cell-free protein expression system derived from the single-celled parasite, Leishmania tarentolae. This optimized protocol makes LTE simple and cost-effective to manufacture. It is suitable for various applications focused on the multiparallel expression and study of complex eukaryotic proteins and their interactions.