Adaptive Optics-enhanced multiphoton microscopy: AOscopy

Programme(s): HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Topic(s): HORIZON-EIC-2024-TRANSITIONOPEN-01 - Transition Open 2024

Call for proposal: HORIZON-EIC-2024-TRANSITION-01

Funding Scheme: HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC Grants

Grant agreement ID: 101214841

Objective: 
AOscopy aims to establish, quantify and validate the value offer of next-generation multiphoton microscopy using Adaptive Optics (AO), for several applicative use cases in biology, as a key milestone for future exploitation. When targeting deep imaging of biological tissue with subcellular 3D resolution, multiphoton microscopy is the technique of choice, thanks to a unique capability to provide fluorescence images with sub-micron 3D resolution even in scattering media. Due to these features, multiphoton microscopy is widely used in application fields such as e.g. neuroscience, immunology, oncology, dermatology or developmental biology, as a key tool to enable better understanding of both morphological and functional characteristics of biological systems, with a view on improved diagnosis and therapy of multiple diseases. However, it is most of the time severely limited by the intrinsic optical inhomogeneity of biological media, which is responsible for a limitation of imaging depth and sensitivity. While AO has proven its capability to overcome this limitation, no integrated, robust AO-enhanced multiphoton microscope is currently available, as an answer to the need from biologists to routinely and easily image deeper, with enhanced contrast, and reduced phototoxicity. AOscopy will: 1. Develop a prototype of an AO-2-photon microscope, based on our recent innovations, enabling to achieve strong signal enhancement (typ. x5), at large depths in biological media (typ. ≥700µm in the mouse brain), while reducing phototoxicity; 2. Perform market/applicative tests, through the use of the prototype by representative end- users, in order to precise, quantify and validate its value offer in intended environement, for several application fields; 3.Create structure and develop a start-up company 100% dedicated to AO-based microscopy, in order to accelerate its exploitation and adoption.