Alvéole Lab

Alvéole is a French company based in Paris and founded in 2010 by Quattrocento,[1] a business accelerator company in the life science field, in collaboration with researchers from the French National Center for Scientific Research with expertise in bioengineering and cell imaging.

Alvéole Lab
TypePrivate
IndustryBiotechnology
Founded2010
FoundersQuattrocento, Vincent Studer, Maxime Dahan and Jean-Christophe Galas
Headquarters
Paris
,
France
ProductsPhotopatterning device and complementary products
Number of employees
12
Websitehttps://www.alveolelab.com/

Alvéole is specialized in the development of devices for controlling microenvironment in vitro.[2] Its first product is Primo, a contactless and maskless photopatterning device allowing researchers to control the topography (via microfabrication) and biochemistry (via micropatterning) of cell microenvironment.

Products

Alvéole's first product is Primo, a photopatterning device which can be docked on standard inverted microscopes. Primo photopatterning technique is based on LIMAP technology[3] and combines a maskless and contactless photolithography system controlled by a dedicated software (Leonardo) and a specific photo-initiator. This system modulate UV-light illumination through an array of micromirrors (digital micromirror device). The UV light is then projected through the objective of the microscope onto the substrate in order to either perform microfabrication or protein micropatterning.[4]

- Microfabrication: The modulated UV light is projected on a photosensitive resist. The cured photoresist can then be used as a mold to deposit PDMS and generate microstructured PDMS chips.

- Protein micropatterning:[5] The modulated UV light is projected onto a standard cell culture substrate previously coated with an anti-fouling polymer and reacts with the photo-initiator to locally degrade this coating. Adhesion proteins can then be adsorbed on the illuminated area only, allowing for the creation of proteins micropatterns on which cells can adhere.

Applications

By micropatterning adhesions proteins with a sub-cellular resolution, Primo enables to control cell adhesion and isolate single cells under highly reproducible conditions. This allows cell biology researchers from various fields – such as mechanobiology, toxicology, immunology, oncology or neurosciences – to control or study intracellular mechanisms[6] or screen the effect of molecules on cell functions.

On a larger scale, Primo also makes it possible to control complex cellular arrangements, to study cell migration,[7] axon guidance.

Furthermore, the micropatterning process with Primo can be performed on microstructures' sides, top or bottom, making it possible to confine single cells or multicellular arrangements in three-dimension.[8]

One last known possible application is the photopolymerization of photo-sensitive materials, such as resins for microfabrication or photosensitive hydrogel to include rheological cues in cell microenvironment[8] or to create permeable membranes in microfluidic channels.[9]

References
  1. Arnaud, Dumas (July 16, 2016). "Quattrocento lève 5,2 millions d'euros pour développer des medtechs". L'USINE NOUVELLE.
  2. "Here's a Flashy New Technique to Model Disease". Labiotech.eu. October 26, 2017.
  3. Strale, Pierre-Olivier; Azioune, Ammar; Bugnicourt, Ghislain; Lecomte, Yohan; Chahid, Makhlad; Studer, Vincent (2015-12-21). "Multiprotein Printing by Light-Induced Molecular Adsorption". Advanced Materials. 28 (10): 2024–2029. doi:10.1002/adma.201504154. ISSN 0935-9648. PMID 26689426. S2CID 205264604.
  4. Pierre-Olivier Strale; Matthieu Opitz; Marie-Charlotte Manus; Grégoire Peyret; Aurélien Duboin; Louise Bonnemay; Josselin Ruaudel (May 2018). "Controlling the topography and biochemistry of cell culture substrates with Primo photopatterning system". Nature Methods.
  5. "Micropatterning". nanoscaleLABS. 2017. Archived from the original on 2018-12-14. Retrieved 2018-05-30.
  6. Delépine, Chloé; Meziane, Hamid; Nectoux, Juliette; Opitz, Matthieu; Smith, Amos B.; Ballatore, Carlo; Saillour, Yoann; Bennaceur-Griscelli, Annelise; Chang, Qiang (2015-11-24). "Altered microtubule dynamics and vesicular transport in mouse and human MeCP2-deficient astrocytes". Human Molecular Genetics. 25 (1): 146–157. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddv464. ISSN 0964-6906. PMC 4690499. PMID 26604147.
  7. "Image of the Day: Cell Dance". The Scientist. November 24, 2017.
  8. Stoecklin, Celine; Yue, Zhang; Chen, Wilhelm W.; Mets, Richard de; Fong, Eileen; Studer, Vincent; Viasnoff, Virgile (2018-03-28). "A new approach to design artificial 3D micro-niches with combined chemical, topographical and rheological cues". bioRxiv 10.1101/291104.
  9. Decock, Jérémy; Schlenk, Mathias; Salmon, Jean-Baptiste (2018). "In situ photo-patterning of pressure-resistant hydrogel membranes with controlled permeabilities in PEGDA microfluidic channels". Lab on a Chip. 18 (7): 1075–1083. doi:10.1039/c7lc01342f. ISSN 1473-0197. PMID 29488541.
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