JoVE | Peer Reviewed Scientific Video Journal

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Quantitative Live Cell Imaging of 3D Models

Guest Editors

Ruslan Dmitriev

Ghent University, Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials Group

Ruslan I. Dmitriev is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Structure and Repair, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. He received his PhD in bioorganic chemistry from the Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, and received postdoctoral training from University College Cork, Ireland. Before joining Ghent University in 2020, Ruslan has led the Metabolic Imaging Group as a staring investigator/research fellow at University College Cork. Dr. Dmitriev’s research interests are in imaging cellular oxygen gradients and cell metabolism in the three-dimensional tissue models, such as tumor and stem cell-derived spheroids and intestinal organoids, using such multi-parameter live cell microscopy methods as fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and high-performance protein-, bioconjugate- and nanoparticle-based biosensors. Dr. Dmitriev's current work aims at developing advanced tools to study cell metabolic requirements in intestinal organoids and addressing their heterogeneity using imaging-assisted tissue engineering tools.

Margarida Barroso

Albany Medical College, Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology

Margarida M. Barroso is a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Albany Medical College in Albany, New York. She received her PhD in Genetics from the University of Lisbon/Gulbenkian Institute of Sciences in Portugal and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, New Jersey. She is a faculty instructor in several international imaging courses and has two issued patents on Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) imaging technology. Dr. Barroso belongs to SPIE - The International Society of Optics and Photonics, American Society of Cell Biology (ASCB), Biophysical Society, and is the Past-President of the Histochemical Society. She has published more than 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals and acts as a reviewer for several internationally recognized journals as well as for U.S. and international research funding institutions. Dr. Barroso’s research goal is to accelerate preclinical drug discovery by developing novel imaging assays to screen and optimize the delivery of targeted anticancer drugs. She is also interested in the regulation of membrane trafficking pathways and of receptor-mediated cholesterol and iron transport in vitro and in vivo. Dr. Barroso’s diverse expertise integrates basic cell biology with methodological advances in imaging technologies to position her research group as a major force in the visualization, quantitation, and optimization of drug delivery into cancer cells using receptor-targeted approaches.

Collection Overview

To fully understand the importance of three-dimensionality in development, cancer, and other areas of biology, there is a growing need to master quantitative, live, and multiparameter macro- and microscopy methods. This is particularly important at the interface of tissue engineering and organoid research fields, where live imaging can reveal intrinsic cell phenotypic data, inform minute changes in cell metabolic requirements, and help predict cell fate decision trajectories. This collection aims at summarizing recent advances in optical metabolic imaging, Forster energy transfer resonance (FRET), fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), two-photon and intravital modalities, and 3D quantitative imaging approaches, applied to a broad range of biological applications. With selected examples of research models (organoids, live animals, bioprinted constructs, tumor xenografts and complex biological communities) and imaging approaches, we will highlight and demonstrate practical aspects of several exciting and up-to-date quantitative imaging methodologies which are highly useful in current developmental and cell biology and bioengineering.