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Persone ■ Francesca Cella Zanacchi
Francesca Cella Zanacchi's foto

Francesca Cella Zanacchi

Post Doc

NAPH / Optical Nanoscopy

Address Via Morego 30
City Genova ZIP Code 16163
Country Italia
Phone 0039 (0)10 71781289
Web Site www.lambs.it

Bio

 

Francesca Cella is a post doctoral fellow at Italian Institute of technology. She graduated in Physics at the University of Genoa (Italy) in 2006. In 2010 she accomplished her PhD studies in Physics (University of Genoa). She was a  visitor scientist at EMBL (Heidelberg) in 2008 and at University of Maine in 2009. Her research activity is focused on the design, realization and utilization of optical imaging techniques to study biomolecules at the molecular level in thick biological samples and tissues. Her work is mainly  addressed to the study of biological molecules to investigate cell functioning using super-resolution microscopy, single molecule localization techniques (PALM, GSDIM), single plane illumination microscopy (SPIM), confocal, multiphoton fluorescence microscopy, nanostructured model systems and advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques (FRAP).

Past experience:

2010-present Post Doc at Nanophysics Dept (Nanoscopy group) at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), directed by Prof. A Diaspro, Genova, Italy.

Aug 2009 –Dec 2009        Visitor scientist at University of Maine, Orono, Maine

Aug 2008 –Dec 2008        Visitor scientist at "Light Microscopy Group"- EMBL Heidelberg

 

Education:

2007-2009          Ph.D. Degree in Physics, Department of Physics, University of Genoa, Italy

 

2006                     MSc. Degree  in Physics, Department of Physics, University of Genoa, Italy

 

International/national  Prizes and Awards:

2013                                   International travel award - Biophysical society meeting 2013 (Phyladelphia)

2012                                   TR35-Giovani Innovatori Ed.2012

2012                                   NEST Prize per la Nanoscienza Ed. 2012

2011                                   Best poster award at BIOS 2011 SPIE Photonics West (SF)   

2006                                    Prize for Degree Thesis in Physics: Premio di Studio GIC (Società Italiana Citometria)                             Menzione  Speciale per  la tesi di Laurea intitolata “Ruolo dei profili di                                                  eccitazione nello studio della diffusione di molecole fluorescenti” .

Activity within European projects: 

Working Package leader within the EU project RENVISION (Retina-inspired ENcoding for advanced VISION tasks) awarded within the initiative of Future Emerging Technologies: Neuro-Bio-Inspired Systems (NBIS).

 

 

Francesca Cella is a post doctoral fellow at Italian Institute of technology. She graduated in Physics at the University of Genoa (Italy) in 2006. In 2010 she accomplished her PhD studies in Physics (University of Genoa). She was a  visitor scientist at EMBL (Heidelberg) in 2008 and at University of Maine in 2009. Her research activity is focused on the design, realization and utilization of optical imaging techniques to study biomolecules at the molecular level in thick biological samples and ...

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Projects

  • Live cell super-resolution imaging of thick biological samples:

 

“ Since the super-resolution imaging techniques presented so far in literature provide a limited imaging depth suitable for thin specimens, here we propose a project  focused on the development of a new super-resolution imaging technique, termed  IML-SPIM, based on  light sheet illumination microscopy which will allow to extend the application of super-resolution to thick biological samples.”

In the last few years localization based techniques, which exploit photoactivation,  photoconversion  or ground state depletion of fluorescent molecules, became a popular tool for super-resolution imaging of biological samples.  Recently, approaches based on  two photon excitation have been implemented in order to get axial confinement of the photoactivation process allowing for  3D super-resolution imaging of biological samples at the cellular level. However, an open challenge is still represented by the development of new approaches for  3D super-resolution imaging in depth, allowing the widening of super-resolution applications to thick samples . This project is mainly focused on the development and optimization of a 3D super-resolution technique, based on coupling far-field individual molecule localization (IML) and selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM), which allows for live cell imaging through thick biological specimens, such as embryos or tissues. The improved signal to noise ratio and imaging depth provided by the light sheet configuration allow the application of  super-resolution imaging techniques based on single molecule localization to a wide range of biological contexts. 

The main aim of this project relies on the development, improvement and optimization of  super-resolution imaging techniques light sheet based techniques. In particular the main goal of this project is represented by the improvement in terms of the resolution and  penetration depth achievable by means of standard light sheet based technique, such as selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM).

To this end the project is focused on the improvement of the penetration depth and imaging capabilities of selective plane illumination microscopy exploiting two photon excitation.  The use of higher wavelengths for the light sheet illumination will reduce light-sample interaction increasing the penetration depth and the  image quality in thick scattering samples.  Two photon excitation will be implemented within the light sheet illumination regime and applied to 3D imaging of large biological samples and to super-resolution imaging of selected cellular compartments in depth.

  • Live cell super-resolution imaging of thick biological samples:

 

“ Since the super-resolution imaging techniques presented so far in literature provide a limited imaging depth suitable for thin specimens, here we propose a project  focused on the development of a new super-resolution imaging technique, termed  IML-SPIM, based on  light sheet illumination microscopy which will allow to extend the application of super-resolution to thick biological samples.”

In the last few years ...

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Selected Publications

 

Selected  publications:

 

  1. Cella Zanacchi et al. Light-sheet confined  super-resolution using two-photon photo-activation, (2013), Plos One (revision submitted).
  2. Cella Zanacchi F, Lavagnino Z., Perrone Donnorso M., Del Bue A., Furia L., Faretta M., Diaspro A. (2011) Live-cell 3D superresolution imaging in thick biological samples.Nature Methods. 8 (12): 1047 – 1049. DOI:10.1038/NMETH.1744.
  3. Lavagnino Z., Cella Zanacchi F., Ronzitti E., and Diaspro A. Two-photon excitation selective plane illumination microscopy (2PE-SPIM) of highly scattering samples: characterization and application Optics Express, Vol. 21, Issue 5, pp. 5998-6008 (2013)
  4. Aba Losi, Wolfgang Gärtner, Sarah Raffelberg, Francesca Cella Zanacchi, Paolo Bianchini, Alberto Diaspro, Carmen Mandalari, Stefania Abbruzzetti and Cristiano Viappiani A photochromic bacterial photoreceptor with potential for super-resolution microscopy Photochem. Photobiol. Sci., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2PP25254F.
  5. M. Perrone Donnorso, E. Miele, F. De Angelis, R. La Rocca, T. Limongi, F. Cella Zanacchi, S. Marras, R. Brescia and E. Di Fabrizio. Nanoporous Silicon Nanoparticles for drug delivery applications. Microelectronic Engineering. 2012.
  6. Mazza D., Braeckmans K., Cella F., Testa I., Vercauteren D., Demeester J., DeSmedt S.S., Diaspro A. (2008). A new FRAP/FRAPa method for three-dimensional diffusion measurements based on multiphoton excitation microscopy. Biophys Journal. 95(7), 3457–69
  7. D. Mazza, F. Cella, G. Vicidomini, S. Krol and A., Appl. Opt. 46, Role of three-dimensional bleach distribution in confocal and two-photon fluorescence recovery after photobleaching experiments, 7401 (2007)
  8. F. Cella Zanacchi, Zeno Lavagnino, Mario Faretta, Laura Furia, Alessio Del Bue, Michela Perrone Donnorso, Emiliano Ronzitti, Alberto Diaspro, (2012) 2D/3D Super-Resolution Microscopy by Means of Individual Molecule Localization (IML) and Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy Biophys Journal Volume 102, Issue 3, Supplement 1, 224a DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2011.11.1230.
  9. Cella Zanacchi F.Proc. of SPIE, vol.7903 “Multiphoton Microscopy in the Biomedical Sciences XI” "Two-photon fluorescence excitation within a light sheet based microscopy architecture" (2011)
  10. Lavagnino Z., Cella Zanacchi F. and Diaspro Role of scattering and Nonlinear Effects in the illumination and the photobleaching distribution profiles. Optical Fluorescence Microscopy: From the Spectral to the Nano Dimension., pp. 75-84, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg (2010)
  11. Diaspro A., Bianchini P., Cella Zanacchi F., Harke B., Perrone M., Ronzitti E., Galiani S., Chacko J. and LavagninoOptical Nanoscopy and Super-Resolution Microscopy: Nano(Bio)Photonics Approaches in Life Sciences Proceedings of Fotonica 2011 conference, Genoa.
  12. Cella F., Lavagnino Z., Diaspro A, Non-linear effects and role of scattering in multiphoton imaging of thick biological samples. Multiphoton Microscopy in the Biomedical Sciences IX Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 7183, pp. 718324-718324-7
  13. Cella F., Ronzitti E, Vicidomini G, Diaspro A, Studying the illumination puzzle towards an isotropic increase of optical Three-Dimensional and Multidimensional Microscopy: Image Acquisition and Processing XV (J.Conchello, C.J.Cogswell, T.Wilson, T.G.Brown) Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6861, 686112, (2008)
  14. Ronzitti E; Cella F., Diaspro Improving image formation from the illumination side: linear and non-linear excitation cases. Multiphoton Microscopy in the Biomedical Sciences IX. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 7183, pp. 718323-718323-6 (2009).

 

 

Selected  publications:

 

  1. Cella Zanacchi et al. Light-sheet confined  super-resolution using two-photon photo-activation, (2013), Plos One (revision submitted).
  2. Cella Zanacchi F, Lavagnino Z., Perrone Donnorso M., Del Bue A., Furia L., Faretta M., Diaspro A. (2011) Live-cell 3D superresolution imaging in thick biological samples.Nature Methods. 8 (12): 1047 – 1049. DOI:10.1038/NMETH.1744.
  3. Lavagnino Z., Cella Zanacchi F., Ronzitti E., and Diaspro A. Two-photon excitation selective ...

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