Metabolic Imaging & Tissue engineering Group News

Wow, time really does fly! It's been a while since our previous update but by no means our team was idle.  End of 2024 was memorable with exciting conferences, including SPAOM 2024, Histochemical Society Annual online meeting 2024, FHERITALE consortium and others! We've received funding to study neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases (more news soon) so we can plan new & exciting research projects. Our team currently hosts 2 international researchers, Valerie Cote and Dr. Simone Perottoni, both learning and doing exciting science in FLIM, organoids and imaging of cancer cells / tissues. In addition, we are looking forward to host more of PhD students from FLIMagin3D consortium! Here are some recent publications, from our team and collaborative research projects: Sheehan A, Okkelman IA, Groslambert G, Bucher C, Dmitriev RI, Filatov MA: Optoelectronic Properties and Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Application of Donor-Acceptor Dyads Derived From 2,6-DicarboxyBODIPY ...

Prof. R. Dmitriev will participate in online event 'See the hidden: discover more with FLIM' on 10-Oct-2024! More info & registration can be found here: https://events.bitesizebio.com/see-the-hidden-discover-more-with/join

Our team is growing and we can present at the same time in two different places now! PhD candidate Nore Van Loon (joint project with FunGen lab, Prof. S. Vergult) gave a talk at the Methods and Applications of Fluorescence 2024 conference (8-11 September Valencia, Spain)! She presented her work in progress on using autofluorescence and fluorescent cholera toxin labelling to monitor differentiation of neural cells in human iPSC-derived 'brain' organoids. This work is a part of ongoing efforts of bringing together multi-omics approaches and advanced imaging of organoids to better understand aetiology of such neurodevelopmental disorders as FOXG1 syndrome, funded by the Special Research Fund at Ghent University (BOF) and Marguerite-Marie Delacroix foundation. At the same time, Prof. Ruslan Dmitriev travelled to Munster, Germany, to present an invited lecture on imaging oxygenation and cell metabolism in multicellular spheroids in 4th Inflammation & Imaging symposium! This l...

It's been busy, it's been tough but it's been also fun! Our team has trained a number of MSc students, with excellent projects, spanning the scope from establishment of novel organoid models, to testing of mechanical properties of the hydrogel-producing biomaterials on the small intestinal epithelium organoids and FLIM analysis of neural ('brain') iPSC-derived organoids. Thanks to everyone involved! The end of year (June) was culminated in presenting of research at Ghent Gut Inflammation Group (Ruslan, Irina, Hang, Lenie) and participating (as instructors, Ruslan and Michele) in the FEBS course on Functional Imaging of cellular dynamics (Amsterdam, 9-15 June 2024)!         Stay tuned for more exciting news on our research!

We will attend and present at TERMIS-EU 2023 (Manchester, UK, 28-31 March 2023)! Prof. R. Dmitriev will co-chair (together with Prof. M. Monaghan, Trinity College Dublin) and present at the symposium ' Wanted: dead or alive? Quantitative microscopy of single-cell, spheroid and organoid cultures': Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) to study niche-specific regions and metabolism in epithelial organoids More on the program and the event can be found here .

 We are proud to organise a symposium at TERMIS-EU 2022 conference in Krakow, Poland! More information on TERMIS can be found here: https://eu2022.termis.org/call-for-abstracts/

  We are not presenting this year and the TERMIS world congress is virtual but we are still participating! - Prof. Dmitriev will co-chair the session ET2.2. on ' Advanced spatiotemporal imaging in regenerative medicine' (November, 17th, 15.30-17.00). In this session, Prof. Michael Monaghan (Trinity College Dublin) is also going to talk about our recently published joint research on microfluidic-based perivascular stem cell niche modelling . Stay tuned!

Prof. R. Dmitriev will be presenting at HSR research symposium (Ghent University, 11-Feb-2021) and speak about new biosensors for organoid research. Full details and registration can be found here:  https://www.ugent.be/ge/hsr/en/news-events/events/2nd-hsr-research-symposium-2021

Dr. Ruslan Dmitriev  recently presented a talk at the Biophysical Society 2020 Annual Meeting, in San Diego Convention Center, California, USA. In his talk, Ruslan summarised recent group developments in a multiparameter imaging of stem cell metabolism in the small intestinal organoid model. He focused on measuring oxygenation of live intestinal organoids, assessing mitochondrial polarisation and combining O2 with NAD(P)H redox microscopy analyses. He also received  Travel Award from the Biophysical Society to attend this meeting. More information on the meeting can be found on Twitter .  The abstract of presentation published in Biophysical Journal supplement can be viewed here .

In year 2019 we achieved the following: - 1 PhD student successfully graduated ( Neil O'Donnell , 2014-2018) - We published 5 research articles on new pH-sensitive ( Analytical Chemistry ), redox-sensitive ( Dyes and Pigments ) and O2 sensing films ( Sensors and Actuators B ), new FLIM method of visualising mitochondrial membrane potential ( Cytometry A ) and a work on tissue engineering ( Xenotransplantation ) - Submitted 1 preprint ( BioRxiv ) on assessing metabolism in the intestinal organoids, together with 2 other articles under consideration, 1 book chapter for the book 'Intestinal stem cells' (Springer, 2020?). - We presented at ISSCR Organoids Amsterdam Symposium (poster), Sechenov Biomedical Summit (Invited talk, organised and chaired a session), ASCB-EMBO 2019 (talk and poster), visited Leica training center and University Tubingen with short-term collaborative visits, lectures and seminars. - 3 funding awards were secured: SFI Industry Fello...

Our Team will present at the American Society for Cell Biology / EMBO 2019 Annual Meeting! Dr. R. Dmitriev will give a short talk at the Microsymposium 17 (New perspectives in cell biology, Tuesday) entitled 'Multiplexed FLIM reveals dynamic stem cell niche metabolism in Lgr5-GFP intestinal organoids' and present a poster on the biosensor tissue engineering scaffold materials (P1629, Monday): These presentations will briefly summarise our main research efforts in designing novel imaging tools and their application in study of stem cell niche metabolism in organoids. R. Dmitriev has also received ASCB-EMBO postdoctoral Travel Award to attend this meeting. More info on this Meeting  and the  Program . Twitter

Dr. R. Dmitriev organised, chaired and gave an invited talk at the Sechenov Biomedical Summit 2019 conference. His section 'Functional imaging in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine' gathered world-known experts in the areas of intestinal organoid and stem cell niche metabolism, non-invasive imaging in tissue engineering and development of novel fluorescent protein-based biosensors. Dr. Dmitriev's talk was on visualization of stem cell niche by the fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). The details of the section can be found here: The conference website: https://sechenov-sibs.confreg.org

Dr. R. Dmitriev will attend the Stem Cells & Organoids in Development and Disease symposium, where he will present a poster on the visualisation of stem cell niche by the multi-parametric FLIM approach. This international meeting promises to be one of the main events in the organoids science in 2019. More information and program can be found here . The program & abstracts are available  as PDF.

Dr. Ruslan Dmitriev will co-chair and present at the Symposium 57 (57-SY) 'Multi-parametric quantitative imaging of live cells in 3D tissue models' during TERMIS-2018 World Congress. TERMIS World Congress is one of the major conferences in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, gathering > 1,000 participants (~ 500 oral presentations) from around the world: https://www.termis.org/wc2018/general-information.php Dr. Dmitriev's section will gather some of the renown experts and cover the applications of FLIM, PLIM, fluorescence, Raman, X-Ray Phase contrast, ultrasound microscopy and multi-parametric imaging in tissue engineering. The section will be co-chaired with Prof. Y. Yang (Keele University, UK).

Dr. R. Dmitriev participated in Strategic workshop on cancer biology (subcellular to cellular cancer imaging) held at National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD, USA on 5-6 April 2018. The event helped to network some leaders in quantitative imaging of cancer across the scales, from cell cultures to advanced in vivo imaging, consolidating the knowledge in two-photon intravital, imaging 3D tissue models, biosensors, FLIM, label free methodologies and others. The event was organised by National Cancer Institute, USA and the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). Dr. R. Dmitriev presented a poster summarising recent developments of FLIM and PLIM for multi-parametric live imaging of 3D tissue models: The event webpage Twitter link .

Members of the lab will attend the Europt(R)ode conference on 25-28 Mar 2018. They will discuss multi-parametric FLIM-PLIM imaging of 3D tissue models (Dr. R. Dmitriev, regular talk) and biomedical applications of phosphorescent oxygen sensors and probes (Prof. D. Papkovsky, invited talk). Europt(R)ode is one of the leading worldwide conferences focusing on innovations in optical sensors and biosensors and their multi-disciplinary applications. More information on the conference and the program can be found here .

Metabolic Imaging Group & Laboratory of Biophysics and Bioanalysis can be found on Twitter now! Make sure to follow our channel  @ PhotoBioLab  to stay informed about our latest accomplishments!

Dr. Ruslan Dmitriev has attended the ISSCR 2017 meeting, which was held in Boston (13-18 June). ISSCR meeting is a global event for specialists working in stem cell research, cancer and regenerative medicine, gathering ~ 3,900 participants from all over the world. Dr. Dmitriev presented the poster on new FLIM method allowing high-resolution live cell microscopy of S phase positive cells. The method is broadly compatible with 2D and 3D cultures including mouse intestinal organoids and is expected to have broader in vivo application in stem cell research area. Downloadable version of poster:

Dr. R. Dmitriev attended (invited speaker) the 2nd workshop on advanced FLIM & PLIM applications organised in BioCev, Vestec (Czech Republic). He presented a talk on multi-parametric FLIM-PLIM microscopy and combining the high-resolution O2 measurements with analyses of temperature and cell cycle by these methods in 3D tissue models of cancer and stem cells. This workshop organised by Becker & Hickl GmbH gathers some world-leading (from USA to Australia) experts in microscopy and time-correlated single photon counting. More info on this event can be found here . 

Dr. Ruslan Dmitriev has attended the European Charter Meeting of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society ( TERMIS-EU ), held in Uppsala, Sweden during 28 June - 1 July. This time, the meeting gathered 800+ participants from regenerative medicine and adjacent research areas. Dr. Dmitriev co-chaired the session 'Non-destructive imaging for TERM' and presented an invited lecture on multi-parametric imaging of oxygen in scaffold free and scaffold-based 3D tissue models.