Ambizione: Single-cell (S.cerevisiae) level examination of the telomere maintenance process

Aging affects a countless number of chemical and biological processes within the cell. Put simply, aging can be pictured as a shift from fully functional to failing-to-function. Although cell aging is not biologically programmed, the cell viability is. Cell viability is controlled via cell regulation and cell maintenance mechanisms. Interestingly, some of the components of these two cell mechanisms are inherently stochastic. These stochastic characteristics can then propagate through the biological network system, giving rise to the more complex observable traits that are associated with aging. The goal of this proposal is to understand how the S. cerevisiae metabolic network maintains homeostasis using a novel analytical platform for monitoring metabolic network changes as a consequence of gene deletion in order to induce cellular telomerase dysfunction, and trigger the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) phenotype in cells.

Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (FP7): DiSC-MS - Direct Single cell Mass Spectrometry: a novel analytical platform for monitoring the metabolism at single-cell level

Cells can display different variations in behavior toward different external cues. The multidisciplinary field of metabolomics provides a unique insight into the molecular feedbacks and cross-talk between metabolic cascades that allow organisms to adapt toward different sources of biotic and abiotic stress. Unfortunately, there is still a substantial technological limitation (in terms of sensitivity and throughput), when trying to understand the complex and highly interrelated metabolic processes occurring within a clonal cell population under stress, and how these metabolic processes could lead to the generation of resistant cells toward a specific stress cue (i.e. stochastically-induced phenotypic heterogeneity). The objective of this proposal is to overcome the substantial technological limitation in single cell metabolomic analysis by developing an automated microfluidic device couple to a mass spectrometer for obtaining high quality ¿metabolic profiles¿; in order to build models of signal cascades and of metabolic activity occurring in single cell organisms under different nutrient stress conditions. The proposed single cell metabolomic instrumentation belong to a group of analytical platforms, we called Direct Single Cell - Mass Spectrometry (DiSC-MS) platforms, currently the forerunners of single cell metabolomic studies are in Japan and in the USA, while only a handful of groups in Europe are also active in this field. Although the proposal focuses on monitoring the metabolic profiles of E. coli and S. cerevisiae to identify resistant phenotypes within a large clonal population toward a nutritional shift, the developed analytical method may also be used to better understand, how some populations of bacteria can exploit their regulatory metabolic feedback to create multiple types of coexisting phenotypes that are drug resistant.

Alexander von Humboldt: Development of UV-MALDI- & IR-LDI-IMS methodology for discovery of lipid-based biomarkers for cross-kingdom pathogens

Inflammation is one of the multiple complex biological responses against harmful stimuli such as pathogens, and damaged cells. Abnormalities associated with inflammation comprise a large group of disorders which are related to a variety of diseases. One of the biological pathways activated during the inflammation response is the Lipoxygenase pathway, which is common in plant as well as in animal tissue. The goal of this research project is the development of a Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-IMS) methodology for discovery of lipid-based biomarkers produced during a pathogen attack on healthy plant and animal tissue.

International Max Planck Research School fellowship - Lab-on-a-chip platform for proteomics studies

The ability to perform proteomics analysis quickly and easily is becoming increasingly important in the fields of bioanalytical chemistry. The success of the high-throughput proteomic technique know as matrix-assisted laser/desorption ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS) is related to the sample preparation prior to the analysis.The goal of this project is to overcome the deficiencies of the state-of-the-art methods for proteins sample preparation, such as Zip-Tips(r) and dialysis-based methods. To accomplish our goal, we introduce a proteomic tool known as plastic-MALDI substrates (pMALDI). The pMALDI chips can address the deficiencies of the state-of-the-art methods and out-perform them in a variety of genomics and proteomics applications.

DESARROLLO DE UN INMUNOSENSOR PARA LA DETECCION DE T3

ESPECTROSCOPIA SPECKEL PARA LA MEDICION DE CORROSION