Nanoseminar in Medicine & Health

IN PRESENCE EVENT - REGISTER HERE to attend

Speaker: Prof. Cristina Flors, IMDEA Nanociencia, Madrid, Spain

Abstract: Advances in high resolution imaging techniques have led to an increasingly detailed insight into structures and mechanisms in cells and materials. Hybrid approaches that exploit the synergies between two of these techniques can provide an even more comprehensive understanding of many systems. In this talk, I will discuss the benefits and challenges of combining super-resolution fluorescence microscopy with atomic force microscopy (AFM) in situ. This tool can be used to validate novel super-resolution imaging methods,1,2 or to obtain complementary information about the structure and properties of (bio)materials.3 Moreover, I will show that correlative AFM and fluorescence microscopy is a unique tool to characterize the mechanism of action of amyloid-targeting drugs.4

In the last part of my talk, I will discuss the use of simultaneous AFM nanoindentation and fluorescence imaging to quantify the forces necessary to inflict critical damage to the bacterial cell wall.5 We have also explored the effect of weak mechanical interactions on bacteria and are able to monitor the initial stages of bacterial death in real time.6 Overall, our results contribute to a quantitative understanding of the complex interaction between bacteria and nanomaterials, in the context of mechano-bactericidal strategies.

References:

1. A. Monserrate et al, Correlative Atomic Force Microscopy and Localization-Based Super-Resolution Microscopy: Revealing Labelling and Image Reconstruction Artefacts, ChemPhysChem 2014, 15, 647.

2. J. Torra et al, Versatile Near-Infrared Super-Resolution Imaging of Amyloid Fibrils with the Fluorogenic Probe CRANAD-2, Chem. Eur. J. 2022, 28, e202200026

3. P. Bondia et al, Hybrid nanoscopy of hybrid nanomaterials, Small 2017, 13, 1603784

4. P. Bondia et al, Nanoscale view of amyloid photodynamic damage, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 922

5. A. del Valle et al, Mechanically Induced Bacterial Death Imaged in Real Time: A Simultaneous Nanoindentation and Fluorescence Microscopy Study, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2020, 12, 31235

6. F. Viela et al, Real‐Time Imaging of the Mechanobactericidal Action of Colloidal Nanomaterials and Nanostructured Topographies, Small Sci. 2023, 2300002

Bio: Cristina Flors is a Senior Research Professor at IMDEA Nanociencia in Madrid. She received her PhD in Chemistry from Institut Químic de Sarrià in Barcelona in 2004, and moved to KU Leuven (Belgium) as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2008 she started her independent research career at the University of Edinburgh (UK) and moved to Madrid in 2012. Her laboratory develops microscopy and nanoscopy methods to address problems at the interface of Biology and Materials Science. Some of her recent work involves the use of advanced fluorescence and atomic force microscopy for a range of applications, such as the mechanistic understanding of amyloid-targeting drugs, or the quantification of mechanical interactions between bacteria and nanomaterials. Her publications have contributed to the fields of photophysics and photochemistry, fluorescence microscopy, biophysics and materials science.

Hosted by Prof. Laura M. Lechuga, Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group Leader at ICN2

A coffee service will be available at the room for attendees.