 So we're here in the tessaloniki and hi. Hello. Welcome to the LTFN lab. I am stereo. I'm a biologist Here is a multi-disciplinary lab, and we will start your tour from vacuum technologies Nice, so you have a your colleague right here. Yes. This is three for us. Hello. Hi He's a physicist Cool. So what do you what do you have here? We have here an ultra high vacuum chamber in particular any beam evaporate of chamber If you want to see the machine inside, what can I see there in there here? We can see the gate of the pump Makes the vacuum in there. Yes. Yes, which makes the module and also here we have the sources Where an epima operator is focused on these sources and the material is evaporated and is deposited on the substrate Inside the inside the vacuum. So what's the purpose of doing this kind of stuff the thin film and everything? So here there is a vacuum technology that we can remove all air molecules so that they will not interact with other molecules that we want to spin around and we can modify a surface of Substrate we can add some molecules there in a very defined way and We can also apply some masks and start building some kind of device some kind of electrical device by alternating the Different layers that we have so how do you do that? we deposit metal metal layers like silver or gold And how do you put them in? How does it work? You have to put your hand in there or Here we put the sources See if the source is in the book of the sources Which are in this which are here if you can see you have the sources the crucibles and Here we adjust the voltage and the current to create the beam the electronic beam which is focused in these Sources and the material is evaporated and is deposited on the substrate in particular the metal Metal metallic pellets gold pellets or silver pellets, and what do you do in there with these and here we were we put the sample in this chamber these Firstly in this chamber and then we open the gate that I show late the two chambers and we pass The sample in this with the high volume chamber. So we're here in Tessaloniki and Do you have some special? Competencies you are like really good at making a lot of cool things in this field Yeah, the really cool thing about this technology is that It's not only one of the few around the world, but also we combine it with a real-time metrology So we can measure At the same time that everything is deposited Onto a substrate we can measure the changes of the properties of the Film that is created. So this is something very unique So this is applicable also to when we go to larger larger scale production And is this also another machine here? How does it combine? What does this one do? What is this one do? Is also is just a totally different machine right here, right? Main piece of equipment is this one that we describe now But on this tour we're gonna be checking out the whole bunch of stuff, right? Yes So should we go in another room and check some more? Yes, we can so you can follow us. All right So where are we right now? Actually, we're in a we are in Aristotle University physics department We are visiting the different Rooms of LTF and love. This is a nuclear particle physics Danger radiation Okay, it's just your neighbors. I hope they are yeah, so you can all right We enter here. Hi. Hello. Who are you? My name is Alexandra student master Technology and science. What's happening right here in the computer? now we are slicing a model for a 3d Bioprinter to convert it in a readable document for For a printer. It's a like a bio printer is a special kind of printer, right? Yes the procedure is Same for all kind of printers nice. We're gonna check that just after so so where are we right now this room here? We are where we produce our nanoparticles and nanofibers So this is a biology Group that deals with a lot of things with printed electronics organic electronics Photovoltaics, but also a lot of coatings and things around Biomedicine and nano biomedicine So one of the main focuses of the lab is nano technology We go down to nano as a production fabrication, but also characterization of nano structures and here you can see a device that is called Electro spinning or electro spraying We as you can see there is a needle there. It's not a 3d printer. It produces some kind of 3d structures But at the nano level so depends on how you just 3d Objects So what do you how does it work? What does it do? Yeah, so in that series over there? you put inside a polymer solution and and Let me move the needle so that you can see Yeah, it goes down as you can see and when it is in position We apply a big voltage difference between the metallic needle and the metallic stage So this accelerates the polymer that's inside and as it evaporates it creates nanoparticles or nanofibers depending on the parameters that we have already set By this way we create a Nanofibers and nanoparticles that have that can have encapsulated any type of drug And drive yeah active Substance so it could be for like the medicine field. Exactly. It could be a coating on a contact lens It could be a coating on a bone screw Used for orthopedic surgery It could be whatever you want a Very controllable release of some kind of active substance because the Encapsulated active substance inside the nanofibers or the nanoparticles has a controlled release So how does a vacuum machine and this? Interface are they compatible or it's totally different first of all They are all at the nano level they produce all some nano surfaces nano coatings Here we produce nanofibers nanoparticles. So the specialty of the lab is Whatever comes around none none of application or nano characterization Nice, and we can check so we can also go now to the nano characterization Nice because it's not Enough to know That you build something that but you have to know exactly what the properties are. All right. Hi Hi, hello, so who are you? Develops in the electrospinning you can see here the scaffold. This is the scaffold So this is an AFM image atomic force microscope image where we can see the scaffold that Stereos develops you can see the scaffold here with It's a 3d image of the atoms is it with this machine. It's five. It's nanofibers It's the what Stereos developed in the electrospinning. It's a nanofibers with nanoparticles And you can see here the net of the nanofibers you see Is this with this machine? This is an also awesome machine called AFM atomic force microscope It has a cantilever that interacts with atoms and it can Measure some very small distances you can depict you can depict the nano Materials you can so any much of the nanomaterials. How they what he's showing is actually atoms or what is this nanofibers and Drugs nanoparticles and How does it work this machine? So what's happening there? there is a There is a cantilever a very tiny cantilever In nanometers who are scans the surface and with the scanning and the laser reads this Movement and in this way you can depict the surface of the samples you can see here the laser and this is the spot And this is the spot of the laser you can see it here on the photo cathode So how's it connected? Can you transition like on the vacuum to this to this? What's the story here still you cannot see the connection? We will connect everything soon But up to now you have seen how we produced the nanoparticles and nanofibers and here how we visualize them How we measure the heart how we measure the roughness how we analyze what we have produced now three for us It's a basically is a camera with very high resolution or very low size a very special microscope that goes down to Nanometers, it's a like do you remember the term terrible? Yeah, where you have this pin that reads The music so in this way we use a pin a very tiny pin in nanometers with which we can read the nano material the The materials in nanoscape the topography of the surface cool So now we also showed you at the beginning of the video the vacuum technologies There we can also develop some kind of devices electrical devices like that can be used for sensors And also we need to characterize their performance So here before us will show you a machine that can characterize all the electrical performance of the devices that we are trying to build What is this machine? What do you call it? This is an electrical characterization machine is a key for a machine and we can characterize the devices they return organic electronic devices such as Organic transistors devices and here we have a flexible device all the device are fabricated on the on flexible pet foil and and Does a flexible? Yes, yes, it's a flexible transistor. So what the flexible transistor devices and We fabricate these devices with the printing technologies such as Lodi method engine printing for for the electrodes of the transistors and now we'll put these devices to the proper station and we can put Here we put the flexible devices and We can put with these proper and we put these proper to the electric of the devices to make a contact and To measure you wish to take some photos from here by that. No If you can take it so in there, yes, so what does it see? Here we have a transistor channel devices We can see the source a dream device the the contacts. Yeah, and here you can we can see the transition channel It's a single transistor and The orange color is the organic semiconductor of the device. How do you produce these? Is it organic? flexible transistors Is it's like standard technology in the industry or you making something special with this or? You're researching. What's the best way to do it? There are there are some innovations depending on the characterization how we can see in real time What we are producing here and also the ability to make everything printable Printable means very cheap. They can be scaled up And they can be flexible. It can be rolling machine. Yeah, roll to roll. Yeah, so potentially this is a Billions of devices printed very much way. Yeah, very cheap And this is happening right far away Fast way very fast happening in a large scale here, and we can upscale in another facility Nice, that's cool, and you have even more stuff, right? Yeah, so we can go to more biological stuff. Yeah, cool Go on here so So what's your your background? I am a biologist my PhD is on Mechanical engineering department on biomechanics So from my PhD. I saw that we have to combine many disciplines in order to achieve greater things and Because I saw that let's say studying a static Cell culture is not enough. You have to go dynamic So you did biology, but you want to go into the electronics from the biology? Or not yet, but this is what we are trying to do nice We are trying to combine some Living computers living computer something like that. Yeah Yeah Whoa, so this is our cell culture room medicine here. Yeah, yeah And we also have a bio printer so we saw how we produce some scaffolds and some drug delivery systems in the nano scale that is the nano particles and nano fibers They can also be used as a part of a 3d complex construct That mimics somehow the native tissues and in order to do that we need to build This structure with a 3d printer, which is called bio printer This is bio X. This is bio X. Yeah, this is our 3d bio printer Wow now it is set up to bio print a model of a nose Yeah It means that we have to combine some special biomaterials that mimic the native tissue and some cells together It's gonna take a while to print a nose now Of course, it's just a model But this is a very powerful research So we have the 3d model of the nose We sliced it this means that we Created a language that the printer can understand and now the printer deposits material wherever we dictate it So in the future potentially you can print organs organs organs. Yeah, this is this is the ultimate goal Or print what could you potentially print like medicine? Sorry potentially could print Potentially you can replace an organ. You can take some the ultimate goal the ideal Outcome would be to take some cells from the patient. So you have personalized medicine here You don't have some problems with immune systems. We You cultivate the cells you take the appropriate biomaterials you mix them all together you design the exact Volume the exact shape that you want to buy a print based on 3d imaging technique like CT scan like MRI or whatever and then along with some Growth factors some biological cues that dictate what the cells you want to do you buy a print this constant Nice, so Yeah, this is just a basic cell culture Equipment, this is the landlord flow where we work under a septic conditions. This is the Incubator where we cultivate cells. This is a microscope right now. We see an image of What we early earlier created? This is the network of non-woven nanofibers So these nanofibers could be used as a scaffold For cells to grow on if they could be used as a barrier For cells not to penetrate or they can use they can be used as a drug delivery system this means that they can very Controllable release the active substance So when you build some kind of Organ you can embed there some information on The fate of the cells what the cells you want to do Nice, what what is this some papers? Yeah, there are some papers from our lab past papers 2000 Not sorry on a scaffold producing techniques and characterization Scaffold producing techniques, so what is a scaffold? fabrication in this scaffold as I mentioned earlier is all these math this mess of Nanofibers that can be used as a scaffold for cells cells will attach on there nice so you can Spray them on or something in the special specific way exactly and then They have all different Yeah, you can tailor the properties of the scaffold To mimic a specific part of a tissue So what we also want to do is not only stay on Separately biological things or electronic devices we want to combine everything So we want to make tiny devices that can measure pressure that can measure some biological activity that can Quantify some biological molecules. They are called biosensors and we want to embed them into these Biological systems these tissues to get some insight for the activity of the 3d printed tissue Nice, and we just take the sectors on the nose right here. It's going to take a little while to finish the nose So what else do you have in this room here? You have some other stuff over there. Yeah, of course as I mentioned earlier We have some potential many potential To characterize what we have done This is an ellipsometer. You can emit a kind of light you have a reflection on the Surface that you want to measure and you have the detection here So from the changes in the properties of light you can understand many characteristics of the surface modifications that you achieved like the depth the many parameters of What you have created what Surface modification you have created This is a similar device that works with x-ray so In there it also measures Surface exactly and also this is a nano-identa Because you want to measure the mechanical properties of the surface that you have created No matter if it is a scaffold or if it is a thin film Deposited with vacuum technologies you want to measure also mechanical properties mechanical properties are very important for cells When they have a stiff substrate They will behave very in a very different way compared to when they are grown on a very soft material so if you want to tailor to Guide the cells cells behavior. You need also to know the mechanical properties of the or Extracellular matrix the materials that you make or your substrate nice and all that in combination also lead to very Interesting applications like systems on a chip Where you can build a whole system with microfluidics with sensors with a compartmentalization of basic organ unit in a single Glass slide and you can observe that there the let's say the potentials of a new drug Also in a very personalized way because it's possible to have cells from a specific patient While you build that so it's a very effective way to screen the efficacy of Combination of drugs or a new drug substance So all these awesome things you showing around here And what you just talking about right here. How far is it in the future? Yeah, we're still in research level for some things. Let's say systems on a chip Or guns on a chip Organ replacement, but for some things we are very close. Let's say biosensors are very close to happen Biosensors, what kind of as we said we can have an electrical device miniaturized in In size and we can bio functionalize it against some biomolecules So we can detect a specific concentrations of these bio molecules in let's say blood So we can detect some cancer markers. We can detect some any kind of markers that circulate around our blood Depending on the molecules that we have chosen to bio functionalize the biosensor Also, we went to we want to make this a smart system for reading Some biomarkers, so we want to make it very fast and very responsive system and this is not far nice so and at the trade show there's a lot of Flexible Photovoltaics yeah of being shown so that's actually Happening. Yeah, this is happening. Yeah, this is also a Product a product that can be used This is happening and it's not only for research purposes. It's also it could be a Product it's also depends on the material the price the manufacturer the cost of manufacturing yes Also depends on the application efficiency. Yeah efficiency is very high for printed Organic electronics. I'm not the expert to talk about that but also depends on the applications and there are many applications like Let's say make wearables that you can charge your smart devices Make some photovoltaics for greenhouses cover some energy Needs for houses the Or automotive industry the potential is huge and if you can explain again the the specific Advantage you have here in to Saloniki are you you have some specific combination of you able to do something nobody else does or yes the the advantage we have here in this lab is that we have all this ecosystem of Combination of different expertise like thin film coatings electronics bioelectronics Scaffold producing technologies for bio applications 3d bio printing metrology Nanometrology and we can mix all that together in order to make a fantastic outcome and The potential is that if you get the right partners the right customers the right It may potential investments or we are we have a lot of projects we Collaborate with many entities in Europe and in Greece that are companies small companies Industry other universities and we work on many different projects like Agricultural processes for greenhouses Biosensors and nano cosmetics Whatever you want something that is that goes to the scale of nano we can make nice And here's the the nose The nose needs a little bit more to finalize. All right, that's cool. So thanks a lot and In a few hours, it'll be a second day of the nano technology conference 2019 a lot of things happening. Do you have presentations there? Also a lot of presentations post the stations Expo There are several events that are running parallel one is on Nanosciences and nanotechnologies. The other is on organic Flexible organic electronics. The third one is on 3d printing and that includes 3d bio printing There is also a school that's happening and also other much-making events some Other events that have to do with collaborations with some projects and also all that happens here in Thessalonica Hundreds of people coming from all over the world, right? It's around 800 people I think latest statistics 800 people from 60 countries