Bio-Branch

Introduction

The SISSI Bio-branch, built and operated by Sincrotrone Trieste, is equipped with a Bruker VERTEX 70 interferometer coupled with the Hyperion 3000 Vis/IR microscope. The branchline is optimized for working in the MIR, being equipped also with a 64x64 pixel Focal Plane Array (FPA) detector for fast sample imaging. It hosts mainly proposals from the community of biologists and medical doctors aimed at the understanding of biochemical pathways responsible for disease onset, progression, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, just as an example.
 

Research


IR Microspectroscopy for Life Sciences

The field of application of IR microspectroscopy for life sciences is huge and in constant evolution. It comprises the analysis of cells, tissues and small microorganism, such as bacteria, with the intent to shed some light on the biochemistry of life. At variance with conventional IRMS, the exploitation of SR brilliance allows achieving a lateral resolution of few micrometers, therefore permitting to selectively record IR microspectra from a single cell or even sub-cellular compartments. A broad range of experiments can be designed, for example for drug screening (G. Bellisola et al., Analyst 135, 3077-3086 (2010), K.R. Flower et al., Analyst 136, 498-507 (2011), E. Giorgini et al., Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 398, 3063-3072 (2010)), for investigating the cellular behavior upon infection (A. Didonna et al. ACS Chem. Neurosci. 2, 160-174 (2011)) or chemotactic stimulation (F. Morgera et al., Biochem. J. 436, 537-546 (2011)) as well as the mechanisms underlying elemental accumulation, distribution and storage whithin plant seeds (M. Regvar et al., J. Exp. Bot. 62, 3929-3939 (2011)) and many other applications. 


IR Microspectroscopy of Living Cells

The detection of biological events in living systems is a topic that stands at the edge of physics, biology, and engineering. In the last years, the teams of Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Litography (LILIT IOM-CNR, Trieste, Italy) and of the SISSI beamline focused their efforts into the development of methodologies and technologies for upgrading InfraRed MicroSpectroscopy (IRMS) into a mature technique to observe in real time biological processes, improving the set-up for performing in vitro bio-experiments under physiological conditions. Fully sealed microfluidic devices suitable for SR-IRMS of living cells have been used for several kind of experiments and are available for external users. For more information on the topic, see G. Birarda et al., Vibrational Spectroscopy 53, 6-11 (2010); G. Birarda et al. Microelectronic Engineering 87, 806-809 (2010); G. Birarda et al., Microscopy: Science, Technology, Applications and Education, A Mendez Vilas and J. Diaz (Eds), 442-432 (2010).

 




Other Applications

The advantages offered by SR-IRMS, the possibility to correlate the sample morphological features with its vibrational local patern at diffraction limited spatial resolution, can be succesfully exploited for application other than life sciences. Geology (K. Hidas et al, Chemical Geology 274, 1-18 (2010)), forensic science (F. Cervelli et al. Proc. SPIE 7870, 78700B (2011)), cultural heritage, as well as combinatorial chemistry (L. Sinigoi et al., J. Comb. Chem. 11 (5), 835-845 (2009)) are just a few examples of fields that can potentially benefit from the SISSI beamline set-up.
 


IR Microspectroscopy for Industrial Applications

The characterization capabilities of infrared spectroscopy are well known and have been extensively axploited in many industrial fields, from pharmaceutics to microelectronics. The equipment of SISSI Bio-Branch, that comprises many accessories for IRMS and FTIR spectroscopy, is appealing fro many companies that aim at better understanding the industrial processes in order to optimize them. Some industrial collaborations are ongoing at SISSI, with textile and other are under evaluation.


Last Updated on Thursday, 15 December 2011 13:06