Nanoimager

Description du marché

There are currently several projects at the Light Microscope Facility which require a fully streamlined process to visualize extracellular vesicles in super-resolution, as well as to provide quantitative data on them. For example, some projects plan to investigate the clumping of proteins within a cell during the course of neurodegenerative diseases. Clumped proteins, so-called protein aggregates, do not form independently in individual cells, but are exchanged between cells and can thus spread in the tissue. The spread of the aggregates occurs either through expulsion from the cell or through direct cell contact. Protein aggregates can also be packaged in small membrane-enclosed vesicles (so-called extracellular vesicles, EVs), which are then released from the cell and can fuse with new cells. The exact mechanisms for this are well understood. EVs released by nerve cells can also be detected in body fluids, where they serve as important carriers of biomarkers that help diagnose neurodegenerative diseases. For example, protein aggregates made of tau and Abeta, which form in Alzheimer's disease, can be detected in isolated EV fractions. An understanding of the EV composition, certain subpopulations of EVs, as well as the formation and uptake by cells could contribute significantly to diagnostics and the development of new therapeutic approaches. EVs are very small and can only be examined using microscopes, which increase the resolution beyond the diffraction limit. Such a microscope optimized for EV imaging with user-friendly protocols is not available at the DZNE in Bonn. The high-resolution ONI Nanoimager microscope that we favor meets these requirements. The ONI Nanoimager is a user-friendly, high-resolution microscope that was also developed for the examination of EVs.

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