A perspective into full cost recovery within a core facility/shared resource lab.

Here we outline a vignette of the Bioscience Technology Facility (BTF) at the University of York as a singular exemplar of the Full Cost Recovery model. It is fully appreciated that every facility operates slightly differently, and each are subject to various rules at the institutional, regional and national level. Understanding the regulations that need to be followed for your cost recovery model may require discussion with your administrators to ensure compliance regulations for your Institution and governing bodies are followed. The below is almost a pick and mix of ways of working. It is, however, one of the few examples that is able to fully recover its operating costs within an academic environment and has sought and obtained full institutional and funders support. This model is now being much more widely adopted across the United Kingdom although again always with slightly different interpretations.

Chemically induced neurite-like outgrowth reveals a multicellular network function in patient-derived glioblastoma cells.

Tumor stem cells and malignant multicellular networks have been separately implicated in the therapeutic resistance of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive type of brain cancer in adults. Here, we show that small-molecule inhibition of RHO-associated serine/threonine kinase proteins (ROCKi) significantly promoted the outgrowth of neurite-like cell projections in cultures of heterogeneous patient-derived GBM stem-like cells. These projections formed de novo-induced cellular network (iNet) 'webs', which regressed after withdrawal of ROCKi. Connected cells within the iNet web exhibited long range Ca2+ signal transmission, and significant lysosomal and mitochondrial trafficking. In contrast to their less-connected vehicle control counterparts, iNet cells remained viable and proliferative after high-dose radiation. These findings demonstrate a link between ROCKi-regulated cell projection dynamics and the formation of radiation-resistant multicellular networks. Our study identifies means to reversibly induce iNet webs ex vivo, and may thereby accelerate future studies into the biology of GBM cellular networks.

Metastatic breast cancer cells induce altered microglial morphology and electrical excitability in vivo.

BACKGROUND: An emerging problem in the treatment of breast cancer is the increasing incidence of metastases to the brain. Metastatic brain tumours are incurable and can cause epileptic seizures and cognitive impairment, so better understanding of this niche, and the cellular mechanisms, is urgently required. Microglia are the resident brain macrophage population, becoming "activated" by neuronal injury, eliciting an inflammatory response. Microglia promote proliferation, angiogenesis and invasion in brain tumours and metastases. However, the mechanisms underlying microglial involvement appear complex and better models are required to improve understanding of function. METHODS: Here, we sought to address this need by developing a model to study metastatic breast cancer cell-microglial interactions using intravital imaging combined with ex vivo electrophysiology. We implanted an optical window on the parietal bone to facilitate observation of cellular behaviour in situ in the outer cortex of heterozygous Cx3cr1GFP/+ mice. RESULTS: We detected GFP-expressing microglia in Cx3cr1GFP/+ mice up to 350 µm below the window without significant loss of resolution. When DsRed-expressing metastatic MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells were implanted in Matrigel under the optical window, significant accumulation of activated microglia around invading tumour cells could be observed. This inflammatory response resulted in significant cortical disorganisation and aberrant spontaneously-occurring local field potential spike events around the metastatic site. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that peritumoral microglial activation and accumulation may play a critical role in local tissue changes underpinning aberrant cortical activity, which offers a possible mechanism for the disrupted cognitive performance and seizures seen in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

TGF-ß promotes microtube formation in glioblastoma through thrombospondin 1.

BACKGROUND: Microtubes (MTs), cytoplasmic extensions of glioma cells, are important cell communication structures promoting invasion and treatment resistance through network formation. MTs are abundant in chemoresistant gliomas, in particular, glioblastomas (GBMs), while they are uncommon in chemosensitive IDH-mutant and 1p/19q co-deleted oligodendrogliomas. The aim of this study was to identify potential signaling pathways involved in MT formation. METHODS: Bioinformatics analysis of TCGA was performed to analyze differences between GBM and oligodendroglioma. Patient-derived GBM stem cell lines were used to investigate MT formation under transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-ß) stimulation and inhibition in vitro and in vivo in an orthotopic xenograft model. RNA sequencing and proteomics were performed to detect commonalities and differences between GBM cell lines stimulated with TGF-ß. RESULTS: Analysis of TCGA data showed that the TGF-ß pathway is highly activated in GBMs compared to oligodendroglial tumors. We demonstrated that TGF-ß1 stimulation of GBM cell lines promotes enhanced MT formation and communication via calcium signaling. Inhibition of the TGF-ß pathway significantly reduced MT formation and its associated invasion in vitro and in vivo. Downstream of TGF-ß, we identified thrombospondin 1 (TSP1) as a potential mediator of MT formation in GBM through SMAD activation. TSP1 was upregulated upon TGF-ß stimulation and enhanced MT formation, which was inhibited by TSP1 shRNAs in vitro and in vivo. CONCLUSION: TGF-ß and its downstream mediator TSP1 are important mediators of the MT network in GBM and blocking this pathway could potentially help to break the complex MT-driven invasion/resistance network.

Dimerization Drives Proper Folding of Human Alanine:Glyoxylate Aminotransferase But Is Dispensable for Peroxisomal Targeting.

Peroxisomal matrix proteins are transported into peroxisomes in a fully-folded state, but whether multimeric proteins are imported as monomers or oligomers is still disputed. Here, we used alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase (AGT), a homodimeric pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzyme, whose deficit causes primary hyperoxaluria type I (PH1), as a model protein and compared the intracellular behavior and peroxisomal import of native dimeric and artificial monomeric forms. Monomerization strongly reduces AGT intracellular stability and increases its aggregation/degradation propensity. In addition, monomers are partly retained in the cytosol. To assess possible differences in import kinetics, we engineered AGT to allow binding of a membrane-permeable dye and followed its intracellular trafficking without interfering with its biochemical properties. By fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, we measured the import rate in live cells. Dimeric and monomeric AGT displayed a similar import rate, suggesting that the oligomeric state per se does not influence import kinetics. However, when dimerization is compromised, monomers are prone to misfolding events that can prevent peroxisomal import, a finding crucial to predicting the consequences of PH1-causing mutations that destabilize the dimer. Treatment with pyridoxine of cells expressing monomeric AGT promotes dimerization and folding, thus, demonstrating the chaperone role of PLP. Our data support a model in which dimerization represents a potential key checkpoint in the cytosol at the crossroad between misfolding and correct targeting, a possible general mechanism for other oligomeric peroxisomal proteins.

Cytotoxic (cis,cis-1,3,5-triaminocyclohexane)ruthenium(II)-diphosphine complexes; evidence for covalent binding and intercalation with DNA.

We report cytotoxic ruthenium(ii) complexes of the general formula [RuCl(cis-tach)(diphosphine)]+ (cis-tach = cis-cis-1,3,5-triaminocyclohexane) that have been characterised by 1H, 13C and 31P{1H} NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, X-ray crystallography and elemental analysis. The kinetics of aquation and stability of the active species have been studied, showing that the chlorido ligand is substituted by water at 298 K with first order rate constants of 10-2-10-3 s-1, ideal for potential clinical use as anti-tumour agents. Strong interactions with biologically relevant duplex and quadruplex DNA models correlate with the activity observed with A549, A2780 and 293T cell lines, and the degree of activity was found to be sensitive to the chelating diphosphine ligand. A label-free ptychographic cell imaging technique recorded cell death processes over 4 days. The Ru(ii) cis-tach diphosphine complexes exhibit anti-proliferative effects, in some cases outperforming cisplatin and other cytotoxic ruthenium complexes.

Photoactivated cell-killing involving a low molecular weight, donor-acceptor diphenylacetylene.

Photoactivation of photosensitisers can be utilised to elicit the production of ROS, for potential therapeutic applications, including the destruction of diseased tissues and tumours. A novel class of photosensitiser, exemplified by DC324, has been designed possessing a modular, low molecular weight and 'drug-like' structure which is bioavailable and can be photoactivated by UV-A/405 nm or corresponding two-photon absorption of near-IR (800 nm) light, resulting in powerful cytotoxic activity, ostensibly through the production of ROS in a cellular environment. A variety of in vitro cellular assays confirmed ROS formation and in vivo cytotoxic activity was exemplified via irradiation and subsequent targeted destruction of specific areas of a zebrafish embryo.

Clearing up the signal: spectral imaging and linear unmixing in fluorescence microscopy.

The ongoing progress in fluorescence labeling and in microscope instrumentation allows the generation and the imaging of complex biological samples that contain increasing numbers of fluorophores. For the correct quantitative analysis of datasets with multiple fluorescence channels, it is essential that the signals of the different fluorophores are reliably separated. Due to the width of fluorescence spectra, this cannot always be achieved using the fluorescence filters in the microscope. In such cases spectral imaging of the fluorescence data and subsequent linear unmixing allows the separation even of highly overlapping fluorophores into pure signals. In this chapter, the problems of fluorescence cross talk are defined, the concept of spectral imaging and separation by linear unmixing is described, and an overview of the microscope types suitable for spectral imaging are given.

Ptychography--a label free, high-contrast imaging technique for live cells using quantitative phase information.

Cell imaging often relies on synthetic or genetic fluorescent labels, to provide contrast which can be far from ideal for imaging cells in their in vivo state. We report on the biological application of a, label-free, high contrast microscopy technique known as ptychography, in which the image producing step is transferred from the microscope lens to a high-speed phase retrieval algorithm. We demonstrate that this technology is appropriate for label-free imaging of adherent cells and is particularly suitable for reporting cellular changes such as mitosis, apoptosis and cell differentiation. The high contrast, artefact-free, focus-free information rich images allow dividing cells to be distinguished from non-dividing cells by a greater than two-fold increase in cell contrast, and we demonstrate this technique is suitable for downstream automated cell segmentation and analysis.

Validation of a new method for immobilising kinetoplastid parasites for live cell imaging.

The kinetoplastid parasites are responsible for three of the ten most neglected tropical diseases as classified by the WHO. Recent advances in molecular and cellular analyses have allowed rapid progress in our understanding of the biology of these lethal pathogens. In this study we validate a new method for immobilising Trypanosoma brucei and Leishmania major parasites while maintaining a high level of viability. This allows reproducible live cell imaging of these highly motile organisms, thus enabling a full complement of advanced microscopic techniques to be utilised to better understand these pathogenic species.