The Cambridge Advanced Imaging Centre is building two custom microscopes that can track individual molecules moving through living tissue at the nanometre scale. This matters because standard commercial microscopes cannot resolve the tiny protein complexes and molecular trafficking events that underlie how cells function in health and disease. Biologists studying cancer, neurodegeneration, and development currently lack the tools to watch these processes unfold in living cells. The centre brings together physical scientists who build the instruments with biomedical researchers who need them, so the technology is driven by real experimental demands rather than engineering convenience. If the project succeeds, researchers will gain direct visual access to the molecular machinery of disease—watching how proteins cluster in cancer cells or how aggregates form in neurodegeneration, in real time. The centre also trains a new generation of interdisciplinary microscopists who can build the next wave of imaging tools. This is primarily fundamental science: it deepens understanding of cellular structure and function, with the potential to eventually guide drug development and diagnostic strategies.
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The Cambridge Advanced Imaging Centre (CAIC) will collaborate with internationally leading laboratories to develop two instruments that surpass currently available commercial solutions in terms of resolution, versatility and depth of recording. These instruments will enable us to observe at nanometer scale the trafficking of individual molecules in living tissue and determine the structure of protein complexes in live cells. A investment from the Wolfson Foundation together with significant contributions from University funds have enabled us to build a modern, purpose-built facility that fosters collaboration of physical scientists and biologists. Dedicated staff imaging specialists and a computer programmer will assist scientists with the use of new instruments and data analysis. From the start, the instrument development is driven from end user need, arising from research topics in cancer, developmental biology, neuroscience and neurodegeneration. Due to the wide range of biological and optical physics expertise present at CAIC, biologists will be able to quickly test the suitability of imaging platforms for their specific experimental requirements and establish what will be needed to perform these experiments successfully. This proposal addresses some of the most pressing needs in modern biological imaging identified by world-class biologists at Cambridge University. Biomedical scientists at Cambridge interested in the molecular and cell biology of diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration, and biological scientists interested in basic questions of developmental biology and neurobiology, will help physical scientists devise and refine these microscopes so that they can ask the most fundamental questions about cellular structure and function and gain new insights into cellular functions in health and disease. CAIC is a top priority initiative of the University of Cambridge. The new CAIC facility will consists of two areas: the multi-user imaging facility and a separated optics lab to allow the development of prototype equipment requiring open laser path arrangements. Strong links exist between CAIC and the other imaging hubs at Cambridge, which allows synergising on complementary expertise. CAIC is not just a physical hub for advanced microscopy at the University of Cambridge, it is the basis of a pipeline for the advancement of imaging technology. In the optical development area, new microscopes are built and trialled. From there they will be moved to the service area, where they enable biologists to use state-of-the-art imaging methods without the need to find funds to buy or build these instruments themselves. But as this happens new space becomes available to build and test new machines in the optical development area. A training programme is a key component in the long-term success of the centre. New developments in imaging technologies will feed through to enhancing training in the theoretical and practical aspects of biological microscopy, and in image processing techniques. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will work alongside the physical scientists building the new machines and the biological scientists trialing them. This new breed of interdisciplinary microscopists will, it is hoped, be inspired to build the next generation of advanced imaging instruments.
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