Seminars Archive

Synchrotron radiation FTIR microspectroscopy for life sciences at SISSI

Abstract
Synchrotron radiation (SR) FTIR microspectroscopy has been developed as a sensitive, rapid, label-free and non-destructive bioanalytical tool in the past decade. By exploiting brightness advantage of synchrotron light it has become possible to monitor subtle biochemical changes occurring in living matter at sub-cellular level. This has motivated construction of IR beamlines in each SR facility in order to respond the exponentially increasing user demands from different domains of life science. The presentation will report selected results demonstrating the in-house research activities carried out the last 3 years at the SISSI (Synchrotron Infrared Source for Spectroscopy and Imaging) beamline branch dedicated to bio-applications. Different scientific topics will be addressed, namely the immune modulatory action of human beta defensin 2 (hBD2) on immature dendritic cells, the mechanobiology of leucocytes, the toxicology of functionalized carbon nanotubes and the cellular effects of prion infection, focusing on the need of a multidisciplinary synergic approach in investigating bio-systems. Along with the recent scientific achievements, the technological challenges and the required future developments for improving the performance of the beamline and the experimental station will be highlighted.