Shedding new light on cell membranes with coherent multiphoton nanoscopy
PhD Research
Project details:
Supervisor: Dr Paola Borri
Secondary Supervisor: Prof John Harwood
This project is embedded within a research programme funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to develop and demonstrate a novel imaging modality which will enable the observation of living cells with an unprecedented combination of nanoscale resolution, intrinsic chemical sensitivity, photostability and absence of photo-toxicity.
The aim of this particular project is the direct observation of lipid nanodomains (rafts) in cell membranes. Lipid rafts, described as fluctuating nanoscale assemblies of sphingolipids, cholesterol and specific proteins, are thought to have a key role in the way cytosolic membranes work in signalling and other important functions and have gained prominence recently in basic biology and disease research. For example, highly pathogenic membrane viruses such as influenza and HIV are thought to employ rafts to exit from the host-cell plasma membrane, and in Alzheimer’s disease the cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein into β-amyloid is thought to take place in specific raft platforms. Although many experiments indicate their existence, lipid rafts remain controversial owing to their small size (<200nm), transient structure and the lack of suitable in vivo detection techniques. The new imaging modality available within the research programme will provide a unique tool to characterise lipid rafts in living cells.
The project is suitable to graduates in biological sciences and offers a unique cross-disciplinary training opportunity at the physics-life sciences interface in the Biophotonics Group at Cardiff University. The student will be trained by Dr. Borri, internationally recognised for her innovative work in the development of laser spectroscopy and microscopy techniques, and Prof. Harwood, a world expert in lipid biochemistry.
For informal enquiries, please contact Dr Paola Borri (BorriP@cf.ac.uk)
Intake Date: 1st October 2011
For application form and procedures:
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/biosi/degreeprogrammes/postgraduateresearch/howtoapply/index.html
Funding:
The studentship is fully-funded, i.e. includes the payment of tuition fees at the Home/EU rate and a tax free maintenance stipend. Non-EU applicants are welcomed but successful applicants would have to self-fund the difference between the Home/EU and International Fee.
References:
D. Lingwood and K. Simons (2010) “Lipid Rafts As a Membrane-Organizing Principle” Science 327 46.
Vigh, L., Escriba, P.V., Sonnleitner, A., Sonnleitner, M., Piotto, S., Maresca, B., Horvath, I. and Harwood, J.L. (2005) “The significance of lipid composition for membrane activity: new concepts and ways of assessing function” Progress in Lipid Research 44, 303-344
Israel Rocha-Mendoza, Wolfgang Langbein, Peter Watson and Paola Borri (2009) “Differential Coherent antistokes Raman scattering Microscopy using linearly-chirped ultrafast laser pulses” Optics Letters 34, 2258.