Biology subjects

Zamponi, N.

Publications and source records attributed to Zamponi, N..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

Profiling emergent behaviors from single-cell motility

Cell motility plays an essential role in many biological processes as cells move and interact within their local microenvironments. Current methods for quantifying cell motility typically involve tracking individual cells over time, but the results are often presented as averaged values across cell populations. While informative, these ensemble approaches have limitations in assessing cellular heterogeneity and identifying generalizable patterns of single-cell behaviors, at baseline and in response to perturbations. In this study, we introduce CaMI, a computational framework designed to leverage the single-cell nature of motility data. CaMI identifies and classifies distinct spatio-temporal behaviors of individual cells, enabling robust classification of single-cell motility patterns in a large dataset (n=74,253 cells). This framework allows quantification of spatial and temporal heterogeneities, determination of single-cell motility behaviors across various biological conditions, and provides a visualization scheme for direct interpretation of dynamic cell behaviors. Importantly, CaMI reveals insights that conventional cell motility analyses may overlook, showcasing its utility in uncovering robust biological insights. Together, we present a multivariate framework to classify emergent patterns of single-cell motility, emphasizing the critical role of cellular heterogeneity in shaping cell behaviors across populations. TeaserA computational framework to identify and classify single-cell motility patterns and phenotypic heterogeneity across biological conditions.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2020

HSP90 facilitates oncogenic alterations of metabolism in B-cell lymphomas

HSP90 is critical for maintenance of the cellular proteostasis. In cancer cells, HSP90 also becomes a nucleating site for the stabilization of multiprotein complexes including signaling pathways and transcription complexes. Here, we described a novel role of HSP90 in the cytosolic compartmentalization of metabolic pathways in proliferating cancer cells. We found that HSP90 assists in the organization of metabolic enzymes into non-membrane-bound functional compartments termed metabosomes. Under experimental conditions that conserved the cellular proteostasis, we demonstrated that the compartmentalizing activity of HSP90 is critical to sustain the coordinated synthesis of multiple metabolites required for energy production, maintenance of the cellular biomass and secretion of immunometabolites. Conversely, inhibition of the nucleating capacity of HSP90 modified the topology of cytosolic metabosomes before protein degradation was apparent decreasing the efficiency of MYC-driven metabolic pathways. Inhibition of HSP90 decreases cancer metabolism in B-cell lymphoma cells and patients providing a novel mechanism of activity for this class of drugs.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Fractional re-distribution among cell motility states during ageing

Ageing in humans is associated with a decreased capacity to regulate cell physiology. Cellular properties, such as cell morphology and cell mechanics, encode ageing information and as a result can be used as robust ageing biomarkers. Using a panel of dermal fibroblasts derived from healthy donors spanning a wide age range, we observe an age-related reduction in average cell motility, which we show is not due to the decreased motility of all cells, but results from fractional re-distribution among motility states. By taking advantage of the single-cell nature of our motility data, we show that cells can be classified based on spatial and activity patterns that define age-dependent motility states. These findings highlight an important feature of ageing cells shown by the decrease in the heterogeneity of cell movement in older adults, that potentially offer new mechanistic insights into the ageing process and avenues for novel biomarker development.

bioengineering↗