Master internship offer Date of the intership : 01-07/2015 Internship supervisor: Name: GOURRIER First name : Aurélien Name: DEBARRE First name : Delphine Tel : 0476514729 / 0476415760 Fax : email:
[email protected],
[email protected] Laboratory name: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique Identification code : UMR 5588 Institution : CNRS – Univ. Grenoble Alpes Web site: http://www-liphy.ujf-grenoble.fr/ Address: Campus Grenoble, 140 rue de la Physique, F-38402 St Martin d'Hères Internship location: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique WHAT ARE THE SUB-MICROSCOPIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CELLULAR NETWORK IN BONE TISSUE ? Keywords: fluorescence microscopy; image processing; complex systems characterization; bone quality
Bone cellular network imaged by confocal microscopy (250 µm)2
The optical characterization of the cellular network embedded in bone tissue is an important biomedical challenge. This network consists of strongly interconnected dendritic cells (osteocytes) which closely resembles the neuron system from a physical point of view. Its main function in mechano-sensing is achieved in the form of a biological feedback loop controlling biomechanical adaptation and tissue repair and is believed to play a role in aging and pathological processes. However, imaging this network requires achieving high spatial resolutions and large fields of view which constitutes a strong challenge for 3D characterization. Thus, the geometrical characteristics of the network and their impact on the physical properties at the organ level are still poorly defined.
This master project follows a first PhD which allowed acquiring a unique expertise in confocal and non-linear optics (two-photon, second and third harmonic generation SHG/THG) imaging and characterization of the cellular network in bone*. We now wish to extend this knowledge to to identify more precisely the characteristic parameters of the network on a murine model from the microscopic scale to the whole bone. The objectives of this internship are : - to prepare samples following a protocol allowing the full imaging of a mouse femur. - to acquire the images and analyze them in order to obtain the cellular network path. - to study the network parameters at the scale of the whole organ to characterize the spatial fluctuations and correlate them to the biomechanical stresses. This study first relies on experimental work (sample preparation, fluorescence microscopy) combined with image treatment to analyze the multiscale porosity network. This project is at the Physics/Medicine interface and could suit a candidate with a background in Physics or Materials Science wishing to strengthen his/her knowledge in imaging with biomedical perspectives, or to a biologist with a strong background in microscopy wishing to develop new analytical concepts for the study of complex networks as, e.g. neurons or vascular ones. * in collaboration with the Laboratory for Optics and Biosciences, École Polytechnique, Palaiseau
Possibility of a PhD ? : yes Financial support for the PhD: École Doctorale de Physique de Grenoble
