Over the last ten years, the joint effort of the platform PLATIM and the laboratory of Plant Development and Reproduction (RDP) has developed a strong and recognized expertise in the imaging and quantification of cell mechanical properties in living plant issues. Specific pipelines have been developed to map and quantify:

1. Wall mechanical properties through direct measurements of key parameters such as wall stiffness, adhesion, and resistance to piercing, using AFMs and nano-indenters 

2. Cell hydrostatic pressure through stiffness measurements made using AFMs or nano-indenters and the subsequent application of physical models but also through the development of a nano-pressure probe (in progress).

In addition of the originality of these technological approaches in mecanotransduction, the interest of our R&D teams is to develop and support their evolution directly into the environment of an IBiSA core facility. Thus, the R&D Team PLATIM/RDP is one of the rare facilities in France to provide different and integrated mechanical evaluations for both plant and animal multicellular organisms.

Publications:

  • Bauer, A., Ali, O., Bied, C., Boeuf, S., Bovio, S., Delattre, A., Ingram, G., Golz, J.F. & Landrein, B. Spatiotemporally distinct responses to mechanical forces shape the developing seed of Arabidopsis. (2024) EMBO J. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44318-024-00138-w
  • Creff, A., Ali, O., Bied, C., Bayle, V., Ingram, G. & Landrein, B. Evidence that endosperm turgor pressure both promotes and restricts seed growth and size. (2023) Nature Comm. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35542-5

The Liphy R&D team has a long experience in collaboration, joint-development and consulting in optic projects between physics and biology labs. Recently, our team developed a robust method to obtain absolute values of FRET from any epifluorescence microscope. The QuanTI-FRET method calibrates the experimental system and the fluorophore pair, allowing for absolute FRET efficiency and stoichiometry measurements in living cells. Current work focuses on skipping the calibration step with specific samples, hence offering a direct calibration on the sample of interest. This project has been partly funded by the SATT Linksium, an intellectual property has been registered on the software part and discussions are ongoing with private partners.

Another part of the team’s expertise is reflection interference contrast microscopy which allows the measurement of distances with nanometric precision in the vicinity of a reference surface, and to assess the surface functionalization in situ without staining (quantification, quality control). The combination with force application techniques such as flow chambers permits probing biomechanics through the simultaneous control of the force (applied) and the distance (measured). This is essential to study adhesions forces of different organisms: from bacteria to immune cells. The dedicated microscope is fully automated with temperature control, and the PI is currently working on the development of a user-friendly interface for biology-oriented projects. 

Both developments are unique in France.

3D printing and 3D Bioprinting applied to biodetection.
Development of 3D microenvironment as models for cell culture and cancer study.

Topics: Microenvironement for cell culture, tissue engineering, cancer diagnosis, microphysiological systems.
Skills: Microfluidics, 3D printing, Bioprinting, Self assembly, Biopatterning

The team is a pioneer of Cybergenetics, which aims at controlling biological systems in real time thanks to computercontrolled feedback loops fed by real time image analysis and driven by microscopy automation. We are developing novel software solutions to enable smart microscopy applications.

Expertise of the Team

  • Smart microscopy
  • Dynamic control of living systems
  • Microfluidics for biology