Metabolic Imaging & Tissue engineering Group News

Our new lab at the Ghent University is starting. We are proud to be a part of the Department of Human Structure and Repair. Feel free to visit our webpage at the University (UGent) website . We are still in the process of re-starting the research, buying / upgrading equipment & the infrastructure, getting to know people and initiating new collaborations. We have also joined Ghent Gut Inflammation Group (GGIG.be), feel free to visit our webpage . More news to follow soon.

Our team has contributed to the Intestinal Stem Cells book, edited by Prof. P. Ordonez-Moran and published by Springer. The long-awaited book has gathered a number of experts and pioneers in the fields of intestinal stem cell biology, organoids, tissue engineering and innovative methodologies to study them. Our book chapter, written in collaboration with Jens Puschhof (Prof. Hans Clevers lab) describes  applications of FLIM and 3D FLIM for visualising stem cell niche in the small intestinal organoids. We describe imaging of oxygenation, cell and redox metabolism, labelling cell proliferation, with particular attention to 3D FLIM and multiplexed detection. The chapter link . Twitter link Link to the whole book by chapters.

From September 2020, Dr. Ruslan Dmitriev will start as Assistant Professor at Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium), where he will lead Group of Tissue engineering and Biomaterials (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences) .  This means that our group is moving to Ghent, an exciting new location, where we will grow and continue our research at the interface of cancer / stem cell biology, mitochondrial function, organoids, biosensors, FLIM and tissue engineering! More news on our blog & website function to follow.

Our group published new research article, focused on further development of the 'biosensor scaffold' concept for advanced tissue engineering applications, such as imaging-assisted organoid engineering. Here, we collaborated with colleagues from Agilent Technologies and University of Tubingen (Laboratory of Professor Katja Schenke-Layland, Germany) to develop and functionally evaluate recombinant extracellular Ca2+-specific protein biosensors that can bind collagen- and cellulose-based tissue engineering scaffold materials. Using confocal and two-photon FLIM, and Matrigel-based 3D culture of mouse intestinal organoids, we evaluated performance of the collagen-binding biosensor and found that 3D culture of the intestinal epithelium can regulate extracellular Ca2+, potentially through the function of lipid droplets. The article published in ACS Applied Bio Materials journal can be assessed here . Twitter link . 

Dr. Ruslan Dmitriev  has co-authored a paper focused on molecular mechanisms of breast cancer and the role of mitochondrial function in thermogenesis. This work, which is a result of collaborative efforts  from Oxford University, Kyoto University, University College Cork and Sechenov Medical University research groups, has been recently published in Cancer & Metabolism journal. Full-text is available here . Twitter link .

Our recent collaborative work on pH-sensing DAOTA dyes (published in Analytical Chemistry in 2019) has been included into the virtual issue of ACS Sensors journal, celebrating 5 years and entitled 'Giants in sensing'. To reflect back to what we have published over the period of 2015-2020 with ACS journals, see the list below: Dmitriev RI , Borisov SM, Düssmann H, Sun S, Müller BJ, Prehn J, Baklaushev VP, Klimant I, Papkovsky DB: Versatile Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles for High-Resolution O2 Imaging in Cells and 3D Tissue Models.  ACS Nano  2015,  9 (5), 5275-5288. Dmitriev RI , O’Donnell N, Papkovsky DB:   Metallochelate Coupling of Phosphorescent Pt-Porphyrins to Peptides, Proteins, and Self-Assembling Protein Nanoparticles .   Bioconjugate Chemistry   2016,   27 (2):439-445. Fomin M,  Dmitriev RI , Jenkins J, Papkovsky DB, Heindl D, König B: A Two-Acceptor Cyanine-Based Fluorescent Indicator ...

We are still alive and continue to work! Over the past month of nation-wide work restrictions and subsequent lockdown our team did not stay idle and we participated in a number of research, collaborative and teaching activities. - Shortly before the lockdown we finalised our new manuscript reporting new biosensor scaffold materials reporting extracellular calcium dynamics in 3D organoid model. The preprint version is available on BioRxiv . - Together with Dr. M. Monaghan group (Trinity College Dublin) Dr. Dmitriev co-authored a review book chapter on optical imaging approaches employed in tissue engineering. This book chapter has been published as part of Springer Reference Series in Biomedical Engineering . The text (free to the members of TERMIS) is available here . Twitter link - Members of the team in collaboration with Hubrecht Institute has prepared a book chapter for a book 'Intestinal Stem Cells', which is edited by Paloma Ordonez-Moran and will b...