Sauer group: Develop a technique for robust and automatized cell counting

In cell culture experiments, cell number must be often assessed in a precise and quantitative manner. However, measuring cell number is typically a manual, time consuming and error-prone procedure. Nevertheless, cell proliferation is a crucial aspect in the normalization of numerous experimental applications, such as consumption and secretion rates of metabolic species.

The goal of this project is to overcome several of the limitations related to the common usage of dyes (e.g. Hoechst or DAPI), which reduce cell viability, or green fluorescent proteins (GFP), which require to create new cell lines before each experiment, and use phase contrast microscopy and image processing analysis to develop a robust and automatized way to directly count adherent cells.

The candidate will familiarize with parallel cell cultivation systems, microscopy and image processing techniques. Programming experience is required.

Contact: Mattia Zampieri