The SWaP project aims at developing revolutionary components for the next generation of cooling systems, directly embedding sensors in a hydraulic circuit element by the combination of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies. AM technologies, often referred to as “3D-printing”, are opening today new possibilities to manufacture objects with shapes that either were not possible before, or...
This project will investigate innovative ways to realise single photon visible light imagers for a number of applications in astronomy, quantum technologies, autonomous systems, and life sciences. The main objective is to create image sensor designs suitable for adaptive optics systems and low-light level spectroscopic and imaging applications, based on detailed semiconductor and technology device...
Harsh-environment sensors are key elements for the development of smart sensor networks. They enable extending the boundaries of such networks to the most inaccessible parts of human infrastructures. For the same reason, the design of harsh-environment sensors poses multiple material challenges, since these devices must survive in a hostile environment, while at the same time facilitate data acquisition...
We aim to develop multilayer structures that alternate dielectric and metallic layers with nanoscale thickness for extremely high resolution imaging and optical sensing. Such structures constitute hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) that can act as super-lenses with a spatial resolution of some tens of nanometers, thus well below the diffraction limit. The layered geometry and fabrication, that...
The project is generically related to advanced optical microscopy and more particularly to fluorescence superresolution microscopy. For many years, optical microscopy has been troubled by an apparently insurmountable obstacle: the diffraction limit imposed by the wave nature of light, which restricts its capacity to resolve sample details below 200 nm, an increasingly inadequate size limit. It is then...
The SPHINX project aims building an ultrafast X-ray holographic camera able to record images of microscopic samples and of their internal parts with nanometer resolution. The proposal is based on a new implementation of the phase-contrast holography, that overcomes the main limitations encountered in the current systems (mostly based on absorption-contrast), namely the low energy...
Nowadays, mammography screening is the most effective tool to fight breast cancer. Still, more than 30% of cancers are not detected, in particular in case of dense breast tissue. Today, X-ray detectors for mammography are optimised for resolution but still lack in sensitivity if compared to angiography systems. Reason is the different technology they rely on. Mammography is...
IMAGO project has the ambitious objective to develop nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with a resolution down to the micron scale. Considering that currently, the resolution of clinical MRI is about 1mm while the intrinsic resolution of molecular diffusion MRI (DMRI) is about 10-20 micrometres, the technology proposed to represent a clear advance on the state of the...
Medical X-ray imaging improvements contribute to better diagnosis and treatments of many medical conditions. The next breakthrough in radiography will be X-ray spectral imaging, which will make it possible to distinguish much better between the different types of biological tissues of patients’ organs than current imaging techniques. Thus, these highly precise medical imaging based on chemical contrasts will deliver...
The plastics industry is a major player in the European economy, and has an important role to play in the ecological transition into an energy-efficient and waste-free society. In addition to a higher recycling rate, a better design of plastic products is critical to reach Europe’s sustainable development goals as well as to stay competitive. The present project...
Radiation in the 1GHz-10THz range has attracted growing attention in the last 20 years from both a basic science and an application points of view. On the one hand, several studies in modern science, such as Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), Axion-Like Particles (ALPs), arrangement of proteins and electron/hole/phonon dynamics, show distinctive signals in this frequency...
In the science fiction movie Fantastic Voyage, the PROTEUS is a submarine that is miniaturised with all its crew to “about the size of a microbe” and sent into the body of a scientist to remove a blood clot from his brain. Although miniaturisation of a human body is clearly impossible, the dream of “touching” single cells has...
High-content screening (HCS) is a technology for high-throughput phenotypic analysis of cells which is integrated into all aspects of contemporary drug discovery and development and increasingly attracts attention in cell biology. HCS enables investigating a variety of cell phenotypes including those linked to the cell metabolism. However, despite the growing interest to understand metabolism – in particular as a...
The RAMANTIS project aims to develop a unique system capable of ‘seeing’ the chemical composition of materials and biological tissues. Raman spectroscopy is a ubiquitous technique for material inspection, offering accurate and non-destructive identification of the composition of samples. Raman imaging (RI) applies this technique to extended two-dimensional samples. Current RI systems require scanning times of seconds to even...
Cancer is the second leading cause for death worldwide. A current trend in medicine demands to develop minimal-invasive optical imaging techniques to visually determine lesion boundaries. If such a device was available, the current 2-step procedure of biopsy and follow-up analysis of stained tissue under the microscope by the pathologist could be replaced by a...
SCENT aims to realise isolated, single-chain polymeric nanostructures (i.e. conjugated polymers and carbon chains), featuring one-dimensional (1D) quantum-confined properties in configurations suitable for exploitation as gas-sensors. The key elements of our proposal are: i) the development of inert zeolites with hierarchical porosity controlled at the nm and sub-nm scale; which will be used to template the realisation of...
Europe is investigating the Einstein Telescope to enhance its research infrastructure. Around 2030 this facility should be operational to image the universe with gravitational waves with a ten-fold improved sensitivity compared to current interferometers. To reach this sensitivity one requires seismic sensor networks to subtract noise caused by direct gravitational coupling of mass density fluctuations to suspended components of...
The main objective is to design and build the innovative CORaHE (COld Raman Head) sensor for Deep-UV Raman spectroscopy, to operate under cold environments between -30 and -5 oC. This portable sensor will perform non-destructive micro-Raman measurements of cold samples, without any limitation in size. The CORaHE sensor has been designed to cover the absence of technology to...
With PHIL we are proposing to design, build and evaluate a system for liquid biopsy (LB). Liquid biopsy, or the capacity to noninvasively isolate and analyse plasma tumour DNA (ptDNA) in blood samples, represents an important tool for modern oncology that enables increasingly safe, personalised, and robust cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, the very low concentration of ptDNA...
Recent anatomical studies on macaque brains have revealed that 80% of the network connectivity occurs at the millimetre/centimetre, i.e. mesoscopic, scale, within brain areas (Markov). However, due to technical limitations, this scale remains by far the less studied (Chemla et al 2017). Most neuronal recording techniques are indeed restricted to microscopic (neuron, intra/extracellular recordings) or macroscopic scales (whole brain)....
