Prof. Dr. Herbert Schneckenburger

The project, carried out jointly with the University of Applied Sciences Reutlingen, was nominated by the BMBF for the German Future Prize 2009 of the Federal President. It is primarily aimed at identifying tumor cells and researching the causes of neurodegenerative diseases.

Coordination of a joint project with 6 universities of applied sciences, 2 university institutes and several consulting companies. The metrological dimensions of photonic processes were expanded in order to open up new fields of application. Seven innovative projects were carried out in the two thematic focus areas "Multidimensional Microscopy" and "Photonic Sensor Technology". They included the establishment of depth-resolving methods and multispectral imaging of 3D cell cultures as well as the expansion of optical 3D sensor systems into real-time systems and the introduction of new methods of non-tactile production metrology.

In cooperation with the Institute for Laser Technologies in Medicine and Metrology at the University of Ulm (ILM), information on the microstructure of cell and tissue samples was obtained from scattered light measurements. In particular, this concerns changes in cell morphology during necrosis or apoptosis as well as changes in tissue structure during the infiltration of tumor cells. The method is particularly important for label-free diagnostics.

In cooperation with a partner from medium-sized industry (J&M Analytik AG, Essingen), a conventional microscope was extended for light sheet microscopy. It enables high-resolution 3D microscopy of light-sensitive cell and tissue samples over a longer period of time and represents, among other things, a "low cost" alternative to existing light sheet microscopes.

With the developed methods of structured illumination microscopy (SIM) and axial tomography, a significant step was taken towards super-resolution microscopy with a resolution of less than 100 nanometers. Among other things, this enabled high-resolution imaging of the cytoskeleton as well as the cellular uptake and distribution of various metabolites, e.g. cytostatics (cooperation with Prof. Dr. C. Cremer, University of Heidelberg).

Figure: Visualization of the cytoskeleton after staining with Tubulin TrackerTM Green with wide-field microscopy (a) and Structured Illumination Microsocpy, SIM (b); from V. Richter, M. Piper, M. Wagner, H. Schneckenburger: Appl. Sci. 9 (6) (2019) 1188.

Herbert Schneckenburger has been researching and teaching as Professor Emeritus at Aalen University of Applied Sciences and the University of Ulm since fall 2019. He is invited worldwide to give scientific lectures or talks as part of the Student Chapter of the SPIE (Society for Optical Engineering). He is also a sought-after international reviewer and author of almost 300 scientific publications. He is currently researching the following topics:

• Application of high-resolution microscopy methods in cell biology and molecular medicine
• Measurement of subcellular transport processes and intermolecular interactions in the nanometer range for research into active pharmaceutical ingredients (in cooperation with the Forschungs- und Entwicklungs-GmbH at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria).
• Use of functionalized additively manufactured optics for fluorescence microscopy (as a sub-project of a Baden-Württemberg-Stiftung gGmbH research project led by Prof. Dr. A. Heinrich).

Project staff: Dr. Verena Richter, Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Michael Wagner MSc, Claudia Hintze