Imagine a laser beam, an ultrasound receiver, and cells. What can we do with all this stuff? We do not aim at recording an echography of a fetus in its mother’s womb, but at tracking cells that circulate in the veins and are amenable to inform of developing diseases or dysfunctions. Here, you have understood that we deal with something much smaller and mobile than a fetus. We need thus consider very tiny objects, 1000 times finer than a hair; in short, biodegradable materials to label immune cells and track them in vivo. How? Well, thanks to photoacoustic imaging, an emerging technique enabling visualization a few centimetres deep and single cell tracking. This is where the laser comes, to excite nanomaterials that will reversibly deform and create a mechanical wave, detected by ultrasonic sensors. In the pluri-disciplinary AZOTICS project gathering teams from Nantes and Grenoble, chemists will manufacture photodeformable nanomaterials, physicists will measure their mechanical properties at the nanoscale, opticians will set up effective instrumentation for in cellulo activation of these nanomaterials, and finally biologists will be interested in labelling immune cells, namely macrophages, with the photoacoustic nanoprobes, toward ultimate imaging of their fate in a highly inflammatory context.

Eléna ISHOW

Professor

Project Manager

Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique (LIPHy)

UMR CNRS 5588

Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel (IMN)

UMR CNRS 6502

Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie et Immunologie Intégrée Nantes Angers (CRCI²NA)

INSERM U1307, UMR CNRS 6075

Laboratoire de Recherche Translationnelle et Innovation en Médecine et Complexité (TIMC)

UMR CNRS 5525