Newsletter January: Breaking records and paving the way for future discoveries in car-t, mitochondria & lipid droplets research

Welcome to the January edition of the AI for Live Cell Insights Newsletter, bringing you the latest live cell analyses powering drug discovery and cosmetics development. Each month, we will explore a new application of AI-based cellular analysis for label-free live cell imaging, with publication highlights and news from Nanolive. This month, we are highlighting the application of AI for in-vitro immune-oncology research, as well as recent publications in the fields of nanomaterials and oncology.

Breaking Records: Over 100 Nanolive client publications achieved in 2024

The use of Nanolive technology in scientific research has reached a new record in 2024, with over 85 new publications in peer-reviewed journals and more than 25 pre-prints, showcasing groundbreaking discoveries.

Among the diverse applications enabled by Nanolive’s advanced imaging and analysis technologies, oncology and nanomaterials research were the most popular fields. Importantly, nanomaterials research showed the largest growth, with publications increasing from 4 last year to 11 this year.

Scientists used Nanolive’s label-free technology to capture high-resolution, high-content timelapse images of a wide variety of cell types including human, animal, fish, plant, bacteria and fungi cell lines. In addition, Nanolive’s technology also gained recognition in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, with leading companies such as Amgen and Mesoestetic contributing to this year’s publication record.

The following scheme summarizes the key words that the most featured in publications this year:

Find over 300 publications featuring Nanolive imaging here.

Nanolive’s research among the top 1% in 2024

A publication highlight was work carried out by Nanolive’s own R&D team in collaboration with the Institut Pasteur, published in the prestigious Nature Communications journal. The cutting-edge mitochondrial segmentation techniques featured made a big impact online, and the paper has been widely shared and read over 5000 times since it was published in June, putting it in the top 1% of all journal articles published at a similar time.

You can read the full paper here.

Uncovering new insights into lipid droplets in fatty liver disease using Nanolive technology

Nanolive’s advanced imaging technology played a key role in uncovering how the PNPLA3-I148M variant, the leading genetic risk factor for fatty liver disease, affects lipid metabolism, in a recent publication by Amgen. Researchers used high-resolution holotomography to detect lipid droplets in live hepatocytes, without the need for fluorophores or dyes. They further employed Nanolive’s Smart Lipid Droplet Assay to monitor and quantify lipid droplet dry mass and area in Hep3B cells in a label-free manner. This powerful combination of imaging and analysis technologies provided valuable insights into how the PNPLA3-I148M variant disrupts triglyceride clearance pathways, offering a deeper understanding of its role in the development of fatty liver disease.

To access the full paper, click here.

Advancing CAR-T Cell Research with Nanolive Technology

In a recent Nature Metabolism publication Nanolive’s label-free imaging technology enabled the real-time study of the behavior and metabolic function of CAR-T cells.

The team of Professor Roddy S. O’Connor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, utilized Nanolive’s 3D Cell Explorer 96focus to monitor and quantify cancer cell viability for a period of time of 5 hours. Additionally, they employed Nanolive’s LIVE T Cell Assay to observe the motility of CAR-T cells. The team analyzed the generated timelapse images, focusing on effector cells and calculating their velocity (µm/s).

By combining high-resolution, label-free imaging with advanced AI-driven analysis, this study provided valuable insights into CAR-T cell dynamics and their anti-tumor effectiveness, presenting the first quantitative data of CAR-T cell velocity under glucose-limited conditions.

Nanolive’s technology continues to enable groundbreaking research, empowering scientists to enhance and refine therapies for cancer treatment.

Read the full paper here.

Latest publication highlights with Nanolive imaging:

• Nanomaterials: Jeena, M. T. et al. (2024) ‘Chaperone-Derived Copper(I)-Binding Peptide Nanofibers Disrupt Copper Homeostasis in Cancer Cells’, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202412477

• Electrochemotherapy: Rembiałkowska, N. et al. (2024) ‘Enhancing lung cancer growth inhibition with calcium ions: Role of mid- and high-frequency electric field pulses’ Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2024.117691

• Metabolic stress: Wang, J. et al. (2024) ‘Non- lethal sonodynamic therapy inhibits high glucose and palmitate-induced macrophage inflammasome activation through mtROS- DRP1- mitophagy pathway’ FASEB Journal https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.202402008R

• Nanomaterials: Marsik, D., et al. (2024) ‘Preparation and Biological Activity of Lignin–Silver Hybrid Nanoparticles’ ACS Omega https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.4c08117

• Macropinocytosis: Lim, R. et al. (2024) ‘CARMIL1-AA selectively inhibits macropinocytosis while sparing autophagy’ Molecular Biology of the Cell https://doi.org/10.1091/mbc.E24-09-0434

• Viral endocytosis: Wang, R., et al (2024) ‘An Auger electron-loaded theranostic biosensor triggered by the ACE2-mediated virus/host endocytosis’ Talanta https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2024.127288

• Mitochondria: Nayak, D. et al (2024) ‘Trehalose extricates impaired mitochondrial and autophagy dysregulation in patient iPSC-derived macular corneal dystrophy disease model’ Stem Cell Therapy and Research https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-024-04016-4

Find over 300 publications featuring Nanolive imaging here.

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