More information
Description
Many cancer cell lines have been found to exhibit multiple structural and numerical aberrations of chromosomes – a condition known as ‘aneuploidy’ and most tumor types are predicted to be the same. It is not yet exactly understood why aneuploidy occurs but increasing evidence suggests that cells which abnormally develop more than two complete sets of chromosomes are likely to finally become aneuploid cells. These mechanisms are intimately intertwined with various cellular processes involved in the regulation of the cell cycle, such as the physical separation of the two daughter cells in the final step of the cell division, the self-killing of cells that malfunction, the internalization of external objects, such as synthetic nanoparticles, and others. Many aspects of these mechanisms and cellular processes are however still poorly defined because an important number of their defining components and properties are not accessible to standard imaging techniques and approaches. This project aims to combine complex optical and photonic approaches with sophisticated machine learning methods to achieve an innovative multimodal prototype nanoscope. This will offer easy operation and flexibility for imaging the structure and chemistry of cells in 2D & 3D based on complementary state-of-the-art and novel imaging techniques, providing unprecedented possibilities for cell imaging. The two partners will involve this prototype system, together with other already existing systems for nanoscale imaging, to implement a series of experiments focusing on questions still pending to be answered concerning the cell life and fate, with emphasis on aneuploidy. The novel research perspectives to be enabled by this project will be important for developing novel cancer diagnostic, prevention and therapeutic solutions that exceed current ones in terms of efficiency and ease of implementation. Other high-impact applications of this systems in life and materials sciences will be as well explored.