Project description
Affordable, open-source force microscopy
Mechanical forces and interactions play a crucial role in various biological functions, including cell growth, differentiation, migration, and tissue development. Mechanobiology studies how cells sense, respond and adapt to mechanical stimuli such as pressure, stretch or stiffness in their environment. It is particularly important for understanding how mechanical forces contribute to disease processes like cancer progression. The ERC-funded OpenFMLab project aims to develop an affordable, open-source atomic force microscopy (AFM) prototype dedicated to biological mechanical testing. The project builds on prior research and aims to overcome the high cost and lack of specialisation of commercial AFM systems, making nanomechanical testing accessible to all biology and biomedical laboratories.
Objective
The emergence and establishment of mechanobiology has led to a growing demand for the mechanical characterization of biological samples. Moreover, nanomechanical tests for diagnosis and prognosis of diseases are now being applied in clinical trials. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is likely the most versatile, robust, and standardized tool for nanomechanical tests of biological systems. However, commercial AFM systems are expensive, not dedicated to mechanical tests, and difficult to use and customize. To solve these problems, we propose to develop and build an open-source force microscopy prototype: openFMLab. Built on the instrumentation developed during ERC Consolidator project MechaDynA, the openFMLab system will be affordable, customizable, user-friendly, and dedicated to mechanical tests in biology. Cost reduction will be assured by using open-source design, hardware and software and a function exclusively dedicated to mechanical measurements. The development of robust protocols and algorithms for calibration, data acquisition and data processing will provide ease-of-use. Finally, the system will be modular and adaptable to any optical microscope and experimental setup. During the openFMLab project, we will design, build, implement, and test the system in-house and with external end-users at biology and biomedical laboratories and industrial partners. We will explore cost reduction and create collaborations to add value to the system and define licensing and knowledge transfer and commercialization strategies. The final goal of openFMLab is to make AFM for nanomechanical testing a common tool in any laboratory.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsmicroscopy
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept GrantsHost institution
13284 Marseille
France