Descrizione del progetto
La microscopia a fogli luminosi in vivo negli embrioni di pesce zebra fa luce sulla cardiogenesi
Dal 1990 al 2021 i decessi per malattie cardiovascolari nel mondo sono passati da circa 12 milioni a circa 20 milioni di persone e sopravvivono sempre più bambini affetti da cardiopatie congenite, il più diffuso dei difetti congeniti. Il progetto 4DHeart, grazie al sostegno del programma di azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie, studierà i fattori genetici e ambientali che influenzano lo sviluppo cardiovascolare utilizzando il noto modello del pesce zebra per visualizzare lo sviluppo cardiaco in vivo. Il programma di formazione sfrutterà la rivoluzionaria microscopia a fogli luminosi e introdurrà strumenti e tecniche, fra cui software avanzati e pinzette ottiche, con i quali il gruppo di ricerca ideerà un toolbox compatibile con i pacchetti software esistenti che consentirà di modellare in modo olistico la morfogenesi cardiaca del pesce zebra.
Obiettivo
Cardiovascular (CV) disease is a main cause of death worldwide. During adulthood, ischemic heart disease leads to heart failure and perinatally, congenital heart defects are found in over 20% of deaths. Moreover, genetic or epigenetic factors altering development can have an impact much later in life. These facts underscore the need of a better understanding of the genetic and environmental factors that influence CV development. An important way to increase our knowledge is by visualizing cardiac development in vivo. Recent advance in microscopy allows monitoring CV development at a cellular level in organisms such as the zebrafish model. Particularly revolutionary has been the development of light sheet microscopy (LSM). We want to further exploit LSM for in vivo manipulation of cells in the embryonic zebrafish heart and measure with high precision biophysical parameters, by introducing novel features to LSM such as optical tweezers. High throughput cardiac imaging protocols for zebrafish larvae suitable for screenings will be set up. We will develop softwares to enhance resolution of acquisition, large dataset handling and image-processing. The aim is to generate a toolbox to be implemented into existing software packages allowing a complete modeling of zebrafish cardiac morphogenesis. We will adapt LSM for adult zebrafish hearts to study cardiac regeneration and mouse heart development at cellular resolution. Each Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) will develop their own technology to solve a biological problem at the frontier of knowledge. ESRs will receive multidisciplinary (CV development, physics, biocomputing, bioimaging) as well as intersectorial (academic research, SMEs, large companies) training and will achieve unique skills on microscopy, in-vivo imaging and image analysis allowing them to interrogate questions on cardiac development and regeneration. Their profile will be at the interface of a bioengineer and a life science researcher filling a currently existing gap on the market.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-ITN - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN)Coordinatore
28029 Madrid
Spagna