Experiencing the micro-world - a cell's perspective
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Engineering
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Manlio Tassieri (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Ashworth JC
(2020)
Peptide gels of fully-defined composition and mechanics for probing cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions in vitro.
in Matrix biology : journal of the International Society for Matrix Biology
Ciccone G
(2020)
What Caging Force Cells Feel in 3D Hydrogels: A Rheological Perspective.
in Advanced healthcare materials
Ferraro R
(2024)
i-Rheo-optical assay: Measuring the viscoelastic properties of multicellular spheroids
in Materials Today Bio
Ferraro R
(2023)
Compressional stress stiffening & softening of soft hydrogels - how to avoid artefacts in their rheological characterisation
in Soft Matter
Guadayol Ò
(2021)
Microrheology reveals microscale viscosity gradients in planktonic systems.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Hardiman W
(2023)
Living cells as a biological analog of optical tweezers - a non-invasive microrheology approach.
in Acta biomaterialia
James J
(2023)
Hydrogel-Based Pre-Clinical Evaluation of Repurposed FDA-Approved Drugs for AML
in International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Khalid M
(2019)
Computational Image Analysis of Guided Acoustic Waves Enables Rheological Assessment of Sub-nanoliter Volumes
in ACS Nano
| Description | The aim of this work is to develop a new instrument capable of imaging cells live in 3D culture and perform local measurements of the viscoelastic properties of the matrix next to the cells. So far, the team has made significant progresses towards the development of the novel light sheet microscope, and I have been exploring alternative microrheology methods that could complement the one originally suggested in our project, i.e. optical tweezers. These activity has led to the publication of five scientific articles in high impact international journals. Moreover, the team has just published a scientific article that introduce a novel tool for 3D microrheology, which combines Optical Tweezers with Integrated Multiplane Microscopy (OpTIMuM); https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85013-y. This technology underpins the one originally proposed in the project. Moreover, the dissemination of our achievements has led to establish new collaboration with researchers working at the University of Lincoln in Marine Biology and interested in studying the local viscosity gradients surrounding plankton. We have published a scientific article in PANS (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2011389118). |
| Exploitation Route | They will enable to acquire e better understanding of how local mechanical properties around cells effect their fate. |
| Sectors | Education Healthcare Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| URL | http://nu-sense.ac.uk/home.aspx |
| Description | High resolution, cryogenic analytical and transfer scanning electron microscope (HR-CAT-SEM) |
| Amount | £1,564,542 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/S021434/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2019 |
| End | 03/2025 |
| Description | Investigating the Biophysical Properties of Chromosomes |
| Amount | £180,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The Leverhulme Trust |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2021 |
| End | 11/2024 |
| Description | Lighting the Way to a Healthy Nation - Optical 'X-rays' for Walk Through Diagnosis & Therapy |
| Amount | £5,577,754 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/T020997/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2020 |
| End | 05/2023 |
| Description | Manipulating Molecules with unprecedented resolution and control - the Lumicks C-trap |
| Amount | £1,156,747 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/X019837/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2023 |
| End | 07/2024 |
| Description | Nano-plasmonics for healthcare |
| Amount | £12,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2019 |
| End | 01/2021 |
| Description | New horizons in Electrostatic Force Microscopy |
| Amount | £202,149 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/X018024/1 |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2023 |
| End | 03/2025 |
| Description | Quantum-enabled nano-scale rheology of the microbial seawater environment |
| Amount | £319,609 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/X035905/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2023 |
| End | 02/2025 |
| Description | Squeezing the most out of DNA; developing nanoconfinement tools to study DNA repair |
| Amount | £90,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The Royal Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2019 |
| End | 04/2022 |
| Description | U-care: Deep ultraviolet light therapies |
| Amount | £6,132,366 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/T020903/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 06/2025 |
| Title | Data for: Peptide Gels of Fully-Defined Composition and Mechanics for Probing Cell-Cell and Cell-Matrix Interactions In Vitro |
| Description | Supporting data for the Matrix Biology publication 'Peptide Gels of Fully-Defined Composition and Mechanics for Probing Cell-Cell and Cell-Matrix Interactions In Vitro'. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/r77hhgf99k |
| Title | Data for: Peptide Gels of Fully-Defined Composition and Mechanics for Probing Cell-Cell and Cell-Matrix Interactions In Vitro |
| Description | Supporting data for the Matrix Biology publication 'Peptide Gels of Fully-Defined Composition and Mechanics for Probing Cell-Cell and Cell-Matrix Interactions In Vitro'. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/r77hhgf99k/1 |
| Title | I-Rheo |
| Description | I-Rheo is a MATLAB app designed to evaluate the Complex Modulus and the Complex Viscosity by means of the Fourier transform of the time-dependent stress and strain. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | http://researchdata.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/1289 |
| Title | I-Rheo-AFM2 |
| Description | I-Rheo-AFM2 is a MATLAB app designed to evaluate the frequency-dependent materials' viscoelastic moduli via the ratio between the Fourier transform of the time-dependent force and indentation functions. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | http://researchdata.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/1311 |
| Title | i-RheoFT: Fourier transforming sampled functions without artefacts |
| Description | We have developed a new open-access code named "i-RheoFT" that implements the analytical method first introduced in [PRE, 80, 012501 (2009)] and then enhanced in [New J Phys 14, 115032 (2012)], which allows to evaluate the Fourier transform of any generic time-dependent function that vanishes for negative times, sampled at a finite set of data points that extend over a finite range, and need not be equally spaced. I-RheoFT has been employed here to investigate three important experimental factors: (i) the 'density of initial experimental points' describing the sampled function, (ii) the interpolation function used to perform the "virtual oversampling" procedure introduced in [New J Phys 14, 115032 (2012)], and (iii) the detrimental effect of noises on the expected outcomes. We have demonstrated that, at relatively high signal-to-noise ratios and density of initial experimental points, all three built-in MATLAB interpolation functions employed in this study (i.e., Spline, Makima and PCHIP) perform well in recovering the information embedded within the original sampled function; with the Spline function performing best. Whereas, by reducing either the number of initial data points or the signal-to-noise ratio, there exists a threshold below which all three functions perform poorly; with the worst performance given by the Spline function in both the cases and the least worst by the PCHIP function at low density of initial data points and by the Makima function at relatively low signal-to-noise ratios. We envisage that i-RheoFT will be of particular interest and use to all those studies where sampled or time-averaged functions, often defined by a discrete set of data points within a finite time-window, are exploited to gain new insights on the systems' dynamics. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Too early to say. |
| URL | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-02922-8 |
| Description | Adelaide Nottingham Joint PhD Studentship |
| Organisation | University of Adelaide |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | A new joint PhD student started in January 2021. The student will be supervised by Kylie Dunning and Amanda Wright and will spend years 1 and 3 in Adelaide and year 2 in Nottingham |
| Collaborator Contribution | Initial contact was made via Kylie Dunning and we then applied jointly for this studentship. |
| Impact | PhD studentship |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Alan Huett - joint PhD student |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Joint PhD student - William Hardiman |
| Collaborator Contribution | Joint PhD student - William Hardiman |
| Impact | - |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Alan Huett - joint PhD student |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Joint PhD student - William Hardiman |
| Collaborator Contribution | Joint PhD student - William Hardiman |
| Impact | - |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Alexander Thompson - joint PhD student |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Joint PhD studentship via the EPSRC Regenerative Medicine CDT. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Joint PhD studentship via the EPSRC Regenerative Medicine CDT. |
| Impact | This is a multidisciplinary collaboration with supervisors in Medicine (Merry, Thompson, Arkill) and Engineering (Wright) |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Anna Kotowska |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Anna Kotowska has been awarded an EPSRC doctoral prize that will use the instrumentation and methods developed during this project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Anna Kotowska has been awarded an EPSRC doctoral prize that will use the instrumentation and methods developed during this project. |
| Impact | - |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Claire Friel - Joint PhD Student |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Joint PhD student - William Hardiman |
| Collaborator Contribution | Joint PhD student - William Hardiman |
| Impact | N/A |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Joint PhD student with Kishan Dholakia |
| Organisation | University of St Andrews |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have a joint student under the Nottingham and Adelaide Studentship scheme |
| Collaborator Contribution | With Kylie Dunning at the University of Adelaide we were awarded a joint PhD studentship via the Nottingham and Adelaide partnership. Kishan Dholakia is on secondment at the University of Adelaide and is part of the supervisory team. The student started in January 2021. |
| Impact | PhD student started in January 2021 |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Kenton Arkill - joint PhD student |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We jointly supervised a PhD student supported by the EPSRC/MRC CDT in Regenerative Medicine |
| Collaborator Contribution | We jointly supervised a PhD student supported by the EPSRC/MRC CDT in Regenerative Medicine |
| Impact | The is a multi-disciplinary PhD project with supervisors in Medicine (Thompson, Arkill, Merry) and Engineering (Wright). |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Mattéa Finelli - healthy and diseased human brain models: the importance of tissue stiffness |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | OptoRheo, the instrument developed on this EPSRC award, has been used to study the importance of tissue stiffness in 3D human brain models. A preliminary study has been conducted comparing two cell types in mono- and co- culture. Results have demonstrated the capabilities of OptoRheo to tackle key questions in this field of research. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The samples were provided by our collaborator and the research questions in the area of 3D human brain models driven by them. |
| Impact | Multidisciplinary collaboration involving the Cancer and Stem Cells Division in Medicine, the School of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Engineering. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Stuart Humphries - Evolution and Ecology Research Group |
| Organisation | University of Lincoln |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Our optical trapping micro-rheology technique has been used to assess the local viscosity gradients close to individual phytoplankton and marine aggregates |
| Collaborator Contribution | The group Lincoln have supplied the to samples and preformed equivalent measurements using a multi-particle tracking method for characterising micro-scale viscosity gradients. |
| Impact | This a multidisciplinary collaboration including Manlio Tassieri (Engineering, University of Glasgow), Amanda Wright (Engineering, University of Nottingham) and Stuart Humpheries (Life Sciences, University of Lincoln). |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Guardian article - linked to Nobel Prize announcement |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A quote was provided for a Guardian article on the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics. As a result the article referred directly to the experiencing the micro-world grant. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Pint of Science (Nottingham) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A 30 min presentation as part of the Pint of Science festival |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | School Visit - National Literacy Trust |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The event was to promote leadership roles and literacy skills to girls of secondary school age. I was a panel member at a women leaders event at an inner-city state-funded girls school in Nottingham. The event was attended by over 150 students from years 10 through to 13. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Science in the Park |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The activity was a science festival in Nottingham run by the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University. It was mostly aimed at families. Our research group had a stand called 'Light up the Park'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Scientific conference - Optical Trapping and Optical Manipulations, SPIE - Invited talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at an international scientific conference |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |