SISSI-Bio Research

A brief introduction

SISSI-Bio has been primarily conceived and consistently upgraded over the years for providing state of the art tools and expertise in the field of Life Sciences. Up to 2020, the majority of the SISSI-Bio users, both considering IR synchrotron radiation and off-line, belonged to the Life Science domain, a field of research very topical and in constant evolution. In the recent years, thanks also to the latest instrumental upgrades, a notable spiking of experiments in ecology and environmental sciences, soft and green materials, cultural heritage and paleo-archeological as well as biophysics fields has been recorded.

Life Sciences at SISSI-Bio

The potentialities of infrared vibrational techniques in Life Science are constantly increasing and evolving, in terms of dedicated instrumentation, sampling approaches and analytical tools. Infrared bio-spectroscopy relies on the ability of the technique to probe the vibrational modes of both small and large biomolecules, and to translate the chemical details contained in an IR spectrum into information useful for purposes such as disease screening, diagnosis, prognosis and many others. Infrared hyperspectral histology and cytology are nowadays gold standard in the field of Life Science research.

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Hyperspectral Histology
The diagnosis and study of many diseases relies nowadays on histopathology, an optical microscopy approach where the analysis of the patient biopsies, colored by staining, is made by the pathologists. The demand for more objective and quantitative tools for tumor grading, for example, boosted the field of infrared hyperspectral histology. As a matter of fact, infrared analysis provides qualitative and quantitative indications on the tissue’s composition in terms of macromolecular constituents, variations on the phenotype, and on events such as protein fibrillation and aggregation, cellular apoptosis, lipid peroxidation etc.

Cancer research, ultrarare diseases, human and animal fertility, toxic effects of ingested nanoparticles on animal model's tissues are among the areas of interest od SISSI-Bio user community. Some exemplative are listed below.

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DOIs: 10.1039/C8AN01387J, 10.1002/jbio.201960071, 10.1111/j1440-1681.2011.05618.x, 10.1016/j.bbagen.2017.02.008, 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2013.09.012, 10.1021/es402364w

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Hyperspectral Citology
Infrared radiation is not damaging for biological matter and therefore IR microscopy may be a valuable tool for label-free single-cell analysis, avoiding additional labeling or staining of the sample. The core application of IR Hyperspectral cytology is phenotyping, i.e. the evaluation of the variations of the spectral features upon different stimuli, either chemical, physical or genetic. Explicative examples of IR cytology capabilities exploited at SISSI-Bio are the investigation of the biochemical changes associated with glioma stem cell differentiation, prion Infection, platelets cryo-preservation protocols, drug administration, X-ray and gamma ray irradiation and many others.

In the field of IR Hyperspectral cytology, SISSI-Bio pioneered the exploitation of microfabrication technologies for the realization of both static and dynamic bio-compatible microfluidic devices for live cell analysis, dynamic experiments and correlative studies.
Figure on the left: Cover page of Analytical Chemistry journal, for the paper: Live-Cell Synchrotron-Based FTIR Evaluation of Metabolic Compounds in Brain Glioblastoma Cell Lines after Riluzole Treatment, by T. Ducic et al., Analytical Chemistry 2022, 94, 4, 1932-1940

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DOIs: 10.1016/j.bpc.2015.09.005, 10.1021/cn1000952, 10.1080/09537104.2023.2281943, 10.1039/C8AN00602D, 10.1038/srep10250, 10.1039/c3an00318c, 10.1039/C4AN00317A, 10.1021/ac5040659, 10.1039/C3LC50878A, 10.1039/d1lc00440a

Biochemtry
IR vibrational analysis is well-known to be sensitive to secondary structure of bio-macromolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids. This capability is maximized by Surface Enhanced Infrared Reflection Absorption (SEIRA) microscopy, a sampling technique that exploits plasmonic substrates, able to greatly enhance the IR performances in terms of the limit of detection and ability to work in physiological conditions. SEIRA microscopy has been exploited for the investigation of the subtle conformational changes affecting the secondary structure of proteins of medical relevance, such as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) upon binding with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor Lapatinib and the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, mPro, upon interaction with dimerization inhibitors.

IR microscopy plays also a key role in the validation of structure-function relationship paradigm in complex heteregogenous systems, such as loaded proteins in solid supports for biocatalysis or Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), adsorbed proteins on nanomaterials, such as nano-fibers and nanotubes, for better understanding their toxicity or potential applications as drug-delivery system. The nanoresolved capabilities of IR s-SNOM greatly boosted this field of research.
Figure on the left: Illustration of the contents of the paper: Binding of tyrosine kinase inhibitor to epidermal growth factor receptor: surface-enhanced infrared absorption microscopy reveals subtle protein secondary structure variations, by P. Zucchiatti et al., Nanoscale 2021;13(16):7667-7677.

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DOIs: 10.1039/d0nr09200b, 10.1016/j.saa.2024.124772, 10.1039/D2CY01949C, 10.1021/jacs.8b10302, 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e38966

digestive glands

Biophysics
The newest field of reserach at SISSI-Bio is the study of the chemo-physcial phenomena regulating the biohaviour of soft and bio matter.

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Environemntal Science
IR vibrational analysis is well-known to be sensitive to secondary structure of bio-macromolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids. This capability is maximized by Surface Enhanced Infrared Reflection Absorption (SEIRA) microscopy, a sampling technique that exploits plasmonic substrates, able to greatly enhance the IR performances in terms of the limit of detection and ability to work in physiological conditions. SEIRA microscopy has been exploited for the investigation of the subtle conformational changes affecting the secondary structure of proteins of medical relevance, such as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) upon binding with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor Lapatinib and the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, mPro, upon interaction with dimerization inhibitors.

IR microscopy plays also a key role in the validation of structure-function relationship paradigm in complex heteregogenous systems, such as loaded proteins in solid supports for biocatalysis or Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), adsorbed proteins on nanomaterials, such as nano-fibers and nanotubes, for better understanding their toxicity or potential applications as drug-delivery system. The nanoresolved capabilities of IR s-SNOM greatly boosted this field of research.
Figure on the left: Table of Content of the paper: Binding of tyrosine kinase inhibitor to epidermal growth factor receptor: surface-enhanced infrared absorption microscopy reveals subtle protein secondary structure variations, by P. Zucchiatti et al., Nanoscale 2021;13(16):7667-7677.

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DOIs: 10.1039/d0nr09200b, 10.1016/j.saa.2024.124772, 10.1039/D2CY01949C, 10.1021/jacs.8b10302, 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e38966

digestive glands

Biophysics
The newest field of reserach at SISSI-Bio is the study of the chemo-physcial phenomena regulating the biohaviour of soft and bio matter.

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Cultural Heritage
IR spectroscopy, microscopy and imaging for Cultural Heritage plays a pivotal role in the chemical characterization of a wide range of materials both organic and inorganic, to obtain information about the ancient manufacturing processes and degradation levels experienced by any type of archaeological and artistic artefact. Perfect examples of SISSI-Bio capabilities in the field of paleoarcheology are the non-invasive analysis performed on a microscopic fiber of an eagle talon discovered in the Krapina’s Neanderthal site (130,000 years BP), and on micro-sampled residues from lithic implements and ancient starches from putative stone pebbles dated back to 45-40,000 years ago, for highlighting hunting technologies and dietary habit of our ancestors.

FTIR microscopy and nanoscopy were applied to investigate ancient bowed string instruments produced by Stradivari and some of the most important luthiers of the XVII-XVIII century, to unveil the secrets of a manufacturing techniques, capable to produce so valuable objects, and to monitor their state of preservation for planning the most suitable conservation strategies in the futu~~re.~~

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DOIs: 10.1039/d0nr09200b, 10.1016/j.saa.2024.124772, 10.1039/D2CY01949C, 10.1021/jacs.8b10302, 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e38966

Last Updated on Thursday, 06 February 2025 16:27