With its game-changing technology, the nanoSCAN project will provide crucial 3D spatial biology imaging insights into cell and tissue function, improving the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy by identifying the best therapy for a patient. The project will receive around 2.49 million euro funding from the European Innovation Council programme.Spatial biology visualises the interaction of molecules with their 3D environment and is essential for cell and tissue screening as used in cancer therapy. However, most spatial biology imaging technologies are lacking spatial resolution and the ability to perform quantitative molecular profiling. Another major obstacle to progress on quantitative tissue imaging is the lack of a single instrument that can cover multiple complementary scales from tissue to molecule with high speed, high throughput and high accuracy.To overcome these limitations, five partners, coordinated by the French CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique), joined forces in October 2023 to develop an imaging platform called SAFe-nSCAN. The innovative platform will combine multi-scale optical microscopy solutions, from structured illumination microscopy for rapid inspection and classification of cell and tissue to single-molecule localisation microscopy techniques for deeper and higher nanoscopic 3D information over pre-selected regions.The new SAFe-nSCAN imaging platform will be the first solution to cover the entire length spectrum from tissue to sub-molecule in a single instrument (mm to nm) and to provide imaging at multiple scales, from widefield to structured illumination to single molecule localisation microscopy. It will also use a new chip technology and a microfluidic device for multiplexed nanoscopy, increasing speed and efficiency.About the projectnanoSCAN (Revolutionizing spatial biology with a cutting-edge multi-scale imaging platform) is funded by the European Innovation Council under the EU Horizon Europe programme with 2.49 million euro (grant agreement 101136680). The consortium consists of the Institute of Molecular Sciences of Orsay (ISMO, a joint research unit of the CNRS and the Université Paris-Sud / Paris-Saclay), the Politecnico di Milano (Dipartimento di Fisica) and the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies (IFN, part of the Italian National Research Council) as academic partners who will develop the technology, the French SME Abbelight that will collaborate with a new start-up company to manufacture chips and bring molecular resolution spatial biology to the market, and the non-profit association Laserlab-Europe AISBL in Belgium, which will facilitate beta testing and promote the technology. The duration of the project will be 36 months.For more information, visit: https://nanoscan-project.eu/
