Projektbeschreibung
Bildgebung für einzelne Viren
Die Bekämpfung von Virusinfektionen durch neuartige Behandlungen erfordert die Charakterisierung von Virusstrukturen und die Ermittlung therapeutischer Ziele. Die Bildgebung von Viren kann jedoch ausschließlich in speziellen Forschungsinfrastrukturen durchgeführt werden und setzt eine kostenintensive Ausstattung voraus. Um diese Einschränkung anzugehen, entwickelt das EU-finanzierte Projekt NanoXCAN ein neuartiges Tischmikroskop, das Röntgenstrahlen zur Abbildung von Viren nutzt. Das Mikroskop wird eine biomedizinische Bildgebung im Nanomaßstab durchführen können und der allgemeinen Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft zur Verfügung stehen. Abgesehen von strukturellen Untersuchungen kann es zur Erforschung der Mechanismen, die bei Virusinfektion beteiligt sind, sowie der Wirkungsweise neuer antiviraler Wirkstoffe, angewandt werden.
Ziel
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease that emerged in late 2019. By March 2020, the outbreak was declared a devastating pandemic and clearly illustrated the threat that viruses pose to our society. The characterization of viral structures and the identification of key proteins involved in each step of the cycle of infection are crucial to developing treatments. Yet imaging single viruses can only be performed in a few specialized centers in Europe, while every hospital could benefit from it. NanoXCAN proposes to develop a tabletop virus imaging X-ray microscope, with foreseeable impact as revolutionary as the invention of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy, paving the way towards determination of structure and dynamics of matter to a large community. For this purpose, we will develop an original digital laser that delivers, on a daily operation, subwavelength focusing, reaching relativistic intensities at MHz repetition rates. This will be used to create a nano-source of hard X-rays from the Kalpha plasma emission of metallic nano-targets at an average power comparable to that of a synchrotron beamline. We will capitalize on this high brilliance, high average power hard X-ray source to perform lensless nanoscale biomedical imaging based on recent findings in incoherent imaging and machine learning. All these ingredients will create a unique nanoscopy platform that our consortium will illustrate by imaging a single virus. In the future, our X-ray IDI microscope could help to study mechanisms involved in viral infection and antiviral design. X-rays have the advantage of performing in-situ non-destructive and non-invasive imaging over competing techniques. NanoXCAN will create a transformative positive effect on our economy and society by proposing this new technology for single virus imaging.
Wissenschaftliches Gebiet
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyvirology
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsmicroscopy
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesRNA virusescoronaviruses
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticslaser physics
Schlüsselbegriffe
Programm/Programme
Aufforderung zur Vorschlagseinreichung
HORIZON-EIC-2021-PATHFINDEROPEN-01
Andere Projekte für diesen Aufruf anzeigenFinanzierungsplan
HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC GrantsKoordinator
1000-043 Lisboa
Portugal