Biology subjects

Schweitzer, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Schweitzer, M..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Thermoresponsive, Shear-Thinning Supramolecular Hydrogels from Peptide-Polymer Conjugates for Bioinspired 3D Cell Culture

Physically assembled, supramolecular hydrogels often are formed by weak bonds, producing useful viscoelastic properties that are reminiscent of soft tissues within the human body yet presenting challenges in stability under physiological conditions. In this work, we establish an approach for creating self-assembling, supramolecular hydrogels based on a peptide-polymer conjugate (PPC) as a three-dimensional (3D) cell culture platform. The viscoelastic properties of these hydrogels, including thermoresponsiveness and shear-thinning, were measured using rheometry. Building on these observations, we then developed a method for the encapsulation and culture of human wound healing cells, fibroblasts, within the PPC hydrogels, observing both excellent cell viability and material stability over time. The modulation of stiffness by temperature variation and the reversible nature of these hydrogels imparts unique properties for both cell encapsulation and harvesting and offers potential for a variety of biomedical applications, from 3D cell culture systems to therapeutic delivery.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2025

Single-Cell Protein Interactomes by the Proximity Network Assay

Cellular functions depend on dynamic interactions of proteins and their spatial organisation. While transcriptomic and proteomic methods of molecular parts-lists have enabled single-cell profiling based on abundance, scalable technologies allowing high-resolution measurements of protein organization and interactions at scale are lacking. Here we present the Proximity Network Assay (PNA), a DNA-based method for constructing three-dimensional nanoscale maps of 155 plasma membrane proteins in single cells without the use of optics. PNA employs barcoded antibodies and in situ rolling circle amplification to generate >40,000 spatial nodes per cell, which are linked through proximity-dependent gap-fill ligation and decoded by DNA sequencing forming single cell Proximity Networks. PNA captures abundance, self-clustering, and [~]12,000 pairwise colocalization relationships per single-cell, validating established protein interactions. This new modality provides a framework to uncover novel spatial biomarkers, reveal functional mechanisms, and advance translational studies in immunology, oncology, and cell therapy.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2024

"Tiny Biome Tales": a gamified review about the influence of lifestyle choices on the human microbiome

In the last two decades, new discoveries from microbiome research have changed our understanding of human health. It became evident that daily habits and lifestyle choices shape the human microbiome and ultimately determine health or disease. Therefore, we developed "Tiny Biome Tales" (https://microbiome.gamelabgraz.at/), a science pedagogy video game designed like a scientific review based exclusively on peer-reviewed articles, to teach about the influence of lifestyle choices on the human microbiome during pregnancy, early and adult life, and related health consequences. Despite the scientific character, it can be played by a broad audience. Here, we also present a scientific assessment, and showed that playing the game significantly contributed to knowledge gain. The innovative style of the "gamified review" represents an ideal platform to disseminate future findings from microbiome research by updating existing and adding new scenes to the game.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2023

Molecular Pixelation: Single cell spatial proteomics by sequencing

The spatial distribution of cell surface proteins govern vital processes of the immune system such as inter-cell communication and mobility. However, tools for studying these at high multiplexing scale, resolution, and throughput needed to drive novel discoveries are lacking. We present Molecular Pixelation, a DNA-sequencing based method for single cell analysis to quantify protein abundance, spatial distribution, and colocalization of targeted proteins using Antibody Oligonucleotide Conjugates (AOCs). Relative locations of AOCs are inferred by sequentially associating these into local neighborhoods using DNA-pixels containing unique pixel identifier (UPI) sequences, forming >1,000 connected spatial zones per single cell in three dimensions. DNA-sequencing reads are computationally arranged into spatial single cell maps for 76 proteins without cell compartmentalization. By studying immune cell dynamics and using spatial statistics on graph representations of the data, previously known and novel patterns of protein spatial polarization and co-localization were found in chemokine-stimulated T-cells.

immunology↗