Descrizione del progetto
Laser intracellulare come nuovo strumento per studiare le singole cellule
Attualmente, le sonde fluorescenti sono gli strumenti privilegiati negli studi sulle cellule vive, nonostante alcuni evidenti svantaggi come il fotosbiancamento, la potenziale tossicità e l’ampio spettro di emissione che ne limita la sensibilità. Recentemente, sono stati integrati laser di dimensioni microscopiche in oggetti biologici come singole cellule che consentono la registrazione dell’emissione laser invece che della fluorescenza. Questo progetto finanziato dall’UE si propone di sviluppare micro-laser intracellulari come strumento per studiare la dinamica, la biofisica e la biochimica cellulari a livello di singola cellula. Poiché le caratteristiche spettrali dell’emissione laser sono stabili durante il viaggio attraverso l’ambiente, i laser intracellulari potrebbero consentire la localizzazione e l’analisi delle cellule inserite in profondità nel tessuto di interesse.
Obiettivo
Recently, micro-sized lasers have been integrated into biological systems including cells and tissues. Currently the most frequently used techniques to study complex processes in live cells employ fluorescent probes. However, fluorescent probes have several disadvantages including photobleaching, sensitivity to environmental factors, potential phototoxicity and broad emission spectrum, which limits their sensitivity, multiplexing ability and imaging capabilities in biological tissues. The transition from detecting laser emission from bio-integrated lasers instead of fluorescence represents a paradigm shift. Due to narrow emission linewidth, high coherence, large intensity and highly nonlinear output from lasers, they open huge opportunities in ultrasensitive sensing, spectral multiplexing and microscopy. The applicant has recently for the first time demonstrated a laser completely embedded inside a live human cell. However, to date it has only been demonstrated that laser light can be generated within the cell, but not how is the laser output coupled to the biophysical and biochemical processes inside cells. The goal of Cell-Lasers is to study these intimate interactions including forces acting within cells, properties of natural cavities in lipid droplets and the intracellular chemical environment. Since the spectral positions of laser lines do not change with propagation through scattering and absorbing media, the cell lasers will enable multiplexed sensing, tracking and localization of cells embedded deep inside tissues. In the long term Cell-Lasers aims to transform the bio-integrated lasers from being a pure scientific curiosity into powerful tool for the study of biophysical and biochemical processes taking place on a single cell level.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-STG - Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia