Biology subjects

Badon, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Badon, A..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Pheno-morphological screening and acoustic sorting of 3D multicellular aggregates using drop millifluidics

Three-dimensional multicellular aggregates like organoids and spheroids have become essential tools to study the biological mechanisms involved in the progression of diseases. In cancer research, they are now widely used as in vitro models for drug testing. However, their analysis still relies on tedious manual procedures, which hinders their routine use in large-scale biological assays. Here, we introduce a novel drop millifluidic approach to screen and sort large populations containing over one thousand multicellular aggregates. Our system utilizes real-time image processing to detect pheno-morphological traits in cellular aggregates. They are then encapsulated in millimetric drops, actuated on-demand using the acoustic radiation force. We demonstrate the performance of our system by sorting spheroids with uniform sizes from a heterogeneous population, and by isolating organoids from spheroids with different phenotypes. We anticipate that this work offers the potential to standardize drug testing on multicellular aggregates, which promises accelerated progress in biomedical research.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2024

zIncubascope: long-term quantitative imaging of multi-cellular assemblies inside an incubator

Recent advances in bioengineering have made it possible to develop increasingly complex biological systems to recapitulate organ functions as closely as possible in vitro. Monitoring the assembly and growth of multi-cellular aggregates, micro-tissues or organoids and extracting quantitative information is a crucial but challenging task required to decipher the underlying morphogenetic mechanisms. We present here an imaging platform designed to be accommodated inside an incubator which provides high-throughput monitoring of cell assemblies over days and weeks. We exemplify the capabilities of our system by investigating human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) enclosed in spherical capsules, hiPSCs in tubular capsules and yeast cells in spherical capsules. Combined with a customized pipeline of image analysis, our solution provides insight into the impact of confinement on the morphogenesis of these self-organized systems.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2021

The Incubascope : a simple, compact and large field of view microscope for long-term imaging inside an incubator

Optical imaging has rapidly evolved in the last decades. Sophisticated microscopes allowing optical sectioning for 3D imaging or sub-diffraction resolution are available. Due to price and maintenance issues, these microscopes are often shared between users in facilities. Consequently, long term access is often prohibited and does not allow to monitor slowly evolving biological systems or to validate new models like organoids. Preliminary coarse long-term data that do not require acquisition of terabytes of high-resolution images are important as a first step. By contrast with expansive all-in-one commercialized stations, standard microscopes equipped with incubator stages offer a more cost-effective solution despite imperfect long run atmosphere and temperature control. Here, we present the Incubascope, a custom-made compact microscope that fits into a table-top incubator. It is cheap and simple to implement, user-friendly and yet provides high imaging performances. The system has a field of view of 5.5 x 8 mm2, a 3 m resolution, a 10 frames/second acquisition rate, and is controlled with a Python-based graphical interface. We exemplify the capabilities of the Incubascope on biological applications such as the hatching of Artemia salina eggs, the growth of the slime mold Physarum polycephalum and of encapsulated spheroids of mammalian cells.

biophysics↗