START2CROSS: Cellular signal transduction with antenna-resolved trans BI-layer crossing hotspots

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Thomas S. van Zanten obtained his master’s degree in Chemical Engineering in 2006 from Twente University (Enschede – The Netherlands).

For his doctoral studies he joined the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC, Barcelona – Spain) and received his PhD in physics from the University of Barcelona in 2011. He continued his research on bridging the gap between plasmonic nano-antennas and cell membrane biology at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO, Casteldefels – Spain) as a postdoctoral researcher.

In 2014 he joined the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS, Bangalore – India) with an EMBO longterm fellowship (2014-2016) followed by an NCBS Campus Fellowship (2016-2020) and focussed his research on the quantitative understanding of organizing principles of the cell membrane.

Starting April 2023, he became a ComFuturo fellow at the Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón (INMA, CSIC-UNIZAR) at Zaragoza, Spain, where he carries out his project START2cross.

Cada señal o estímulo externo que percibe un organismo vivo se procesa en la célula como una cascada dinámica de macromoléculas que interactúan y cambian para dar una respuesta adecuada. Debido a la alta concentración de biomoléculas en el entorno biológico en el que ocurren estos procesos, el seguimiento de las moléculas a nivel individual para entender cómo funcionan y se comportan sigue siendo uno de los principales desafíos de la biotecnología. El proyecto START2CROSS tiene como objetivo proporcionar una herramienta que permita extraer información de una molécula individual conectando a ella una antena fotónica que, al igual que las antenas convencionales, funcionará enviando y recibiendo información. Esta antena fotónica actuará como sensor ultrasensible capaz de sondear lo que sucede en el entorno fisiológico real de dicha molécula individual, lo que supondrá un gran avance al posibilitar el diseño de dispositivos de diagnóstico, dado que la mayoría de las enfermedades conocidas son causadas por alteraciones en la interacción y transmisión de señales entre moléculas.
Each external signal or stimulus perceived by a living organism is processed in the cell as a dynamic cascade of macromolecules that interact and change to provide an appropriate response. Due to the high concentration of biomolecules in the biological environment in which these processes occur, tracking molecules at the individual level to understand how they function and behave remains one of the main challenges in biotechnology. The START2CROSS project aims to provide a tool to extract information from an individual molecule by connecting to it a photonic antenna that, like conventional antennas, will work by sending and receiving information. This photonic antenna will act as an ultra-sensitive sensor capable of probing what is happening in the real physiological environment of that individual molecule, which will be a breakthrough in enabling the design of diagnostic devices, given that most known diseases are caused by alterations in the interaction and transmission of signals between molecules.

Extended project summary:

Every external signal or stimulus that a living organism perceives is processed as a dynamic cascade of interacting and changing macromolecules. These cascades are essential for normal day-to-day functioning of cells and the majority of diseases we know are caused by alterations in how molecules relay such signals. Because of the crowded environment in which these processes occur, following molecules individually has remained one of the major challenges in the field of biotechnology.

START2cross project aims to extract local information from individual molecules by attaching a nanoscale photonic antenna to the molecule in its native environment. Just as conventional antennas on our phones or radios can send and receive information, photonic antennas are able to exchange local and far-away information. The design, construction and usage of these devices will combine expertise from chemistry, physics, biology and medicine.

The ability to probe what happens in physiological environments at a molecular level will open avenues for both diagnostics and improving our understanding of biological signal transduction.