Karolinska Institute. Sweden: The inventors of the nanoscope were
awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year. The new technology of
super-resolved fluorescence microscopy has made it possible to study
molecules on a nanoscale.
It is for example possible to look at how proteins form
aggregates in Parkinson’s disease, or what the connections between the
nerve cells of the brain look like.
This technology is now also being used within immunology to
study the cells of the immune system.
Much of the conference at
Karolinska Institutet will be devoted to this method. In addition to a
lecture by Hans Blom,
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
and
SciLifeLab
, Eilon Sherman,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
, Israel, will also talk about how immunology can benefit from this technology.
There are also several other methods based on fluorescent light. Theo Lasser,
EPFL
, Lausanne, Switzerland, will talk more about this in his lecture
Seeing is believing
. The whole conference focuses on how technologies such as these
can be used to study the molecular dynamics of the immune system.
Subjects include the movement of immune cells and how they are
controlled in terms of time and space. Using these new methods, it is
possible to find out where on the surface of the cells the receptors are
placed and how these signal and activate the cells.
"
Molecular dynamics is a relatively new concept in
immunology. The fact that the cells of the immune system are mobile is a
great difference compared to other cells. The immune cells course
through the body, scanning other cells to see if there are any foreign
substances found. Using these new fluorescent technologies we can learn
much more about the cells than we could with previous methods,” says
Sofia Johansson, Department of Microbiology, Tumour and Cell Biology,
Karolinska Institutet, who is organising the conference together with
Elina Staaf from the same department.
Björn Önfelt, KTH and SciLifeLab, has developed a
method that allows researchers to study a single cell and the activity
that takes place around it. This is made possible through a microchip
that contains a great number of wells, where one cell is placed in each
well. More on this subject during the conference.
These methods will to a great extent be used for
basic research within immunology. By extension, this will also lead to
improved diagnosis and treatment of diseases. There are already
cell-based methods of cancer treatment. It is possible to transplant
immune cells between people. It is also possible to extract a patient’s
own cells, treat them outside of the body and then retransplant them
into the patient. These are areas that can be expanded with the help of
the new knowledge that is being developed.