Imaging data can complement information obtained by “Omics” Sciences. Collaborations with Nikon specialists are ongoing to develop methods for image segmentation, automatic acquisition and classification that improve large-scale imaging data analysis (signal screening and quantification, classification of cellular morphology and/or subcellular structures etc.).

More information:

• Di Francesco et al., Sci Rep 2018
• Tutorials

Ongoing collaborations with Crestoptics, a company for innovation in microscopy, aim at implementing super-resolution approaches to optimise the resolution of small subcellular structures and define the 2D/3D organization of cellular models of disease.

More information:

• Crestoptics application note: https://crestoptics.com/colorful-acini-grown-in-3d-culture/
• Crestoptics application note: https://crestoptics.com/super-resolution-microscopy-to-visualize-microtubules-and-nuclear-lamin-organization-at-mitotic-exit/
• Crestoptics application note: https://crestoptics.com/high-content-imaging-for-morphological-profiling-of-3d-breast-acini/

The IBPM Imaging platform is a node of the CNR-guided IMPARA project, funded by the MIUR (Ministry of University of Research)-PON programme to implement the National bioimaging infrastructure. The reference European infrastructure is EuroBioImaging. IMPARA is designed to implement cutting-edge technologies in biological (microscopy) and preclinical biomedical imaging in several nodes nationwide.

Department of Biochemical Sciences "A. Rossi Fanelli"

Collaborations with teams in this Department combine the use of structural biology, proteomics and molecular modeling approaches with microscopy-based techniques. Imaging studies are optimized to define the subcellular localization of specific enzymes, their expression, their interactions with particular organelles, as well as protein-protein interactions in intact cells in situ. Chemical inhibitors of protein function or interaction with their partners are also validated in imaging studies at the platform.

Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Charles Darwin”

The imaging platform is hosted within the Department of Biology and Biotechnology of Sapienza University (“San Lorenzo” compound), strengthening the collaboration between BBCD and IBPM research teams and offering opportunities for adapting imaging methods to a variety of model systems, ranging from bacterial species to yeast, drosophila and mice tissues, as well as multiple mammalian models of cell division and differentiation.

Green Drosophila on the cover: a fluorescent Drosophila larva expressing a UAS-Yeti-GFP transgene

Department of Drug Chemistry and Technologies

Collaborative work integrates high-content imaging approaches to define the effects of compounds of innovative design (e.g. based on SAR, molecular modeling of targets, etc.) in cultured cell lines, including ad-hoc engineered cell systems expressing specific markers. Time-lapse videorecording methods are employed to follow up the cellular fates at the single cell-level, with a special focus on cell division, autophagy and cell death as target processes.

The IBPM Imaging platform has been recruited to PromoTT Instrument, a shared initiative by the CNR National Research Council and Unioncamere to promote the access of CNR technologies to the market and private sector stakeholders.