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Dr Andy Downes, a RCUK fellow in Biomedical Engineering with the Institute for Materials and Processes, has won a Medical Research Council discipline hopping award to study “Chemical microscopy and spectroscopy of live stem cells”.
The MRC Discipline Hopping Grant scheme enables established researchers in the engineering or physical sciences to apply for funding to investigate and develop ideas, skills and collaborations in biological, clinical and population health research.
Dr Downes will collaborate with Prof Jim Ross, who is professor of liver cell biology at the Centre for Regenerative Medicine (as well as being a member of CBEE). Live stem cells and liver cells will be studied with Raman spectroscopy, giving a spectral ‘fingerprint’ to enable measurement of how far the stem cells have differentiated into liver cells. This is far more desirable than currently employed destructive methods.
Features in the Raman spectrum will be observed at high speed with CARS microscopy – images can be acquired in seconds. Individual cells will be monitored in real time as they divide, or differentiate, to enhance the understanding of differentiation. Furthermore, it will be an invaluable tool to refine the chemical composition of differentiation media, to improve the efficiency and reliability of differentiation of stem cells into any required cell type.
These optical techniques will also be evaluated in controlled studies, to determine how much laser power can be reasonably used without affecting the cells’ biology.
May 2009 |
