Live-Cell Synchrotron-Based FTIR Evaluation of Metabolic Compounds in Brain Glioblastoma Cell Lines after Riluzole Treatment

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive brain tumor, characterized by short median survival and an almost 100% tumor-related mortality. The standard of care treatment for newly diagnosed GBM includes surgical resection followed by concomitant radiochemotherapy. The prevention of disease progression fails due to the poor therapeutic effect caused by the great molecular heterogeneity of this tumor. Previously, we exploited synchrotron radiation-based soft X-ray tomography and hard X-ray fluorescence for elemental microimaging of the shock-frozen GBM cells. The present study focuses instead on the biochemical profiling of live GBM cells and provides new insight into tumor heterogenicity. We studied bio-macromolecular changes by exploring the live-cell synchrotron-based Fourier transform infrared (SR-FTIR) microspectroscopy in a set of three GBM cell lines, including the patient-derived glioblastoma cell line, before and after riluzole treatment, a medicament with potential anticancer properties. SR-FTIR microspectroscopy shows that GBM live cells of different origins recruit different organic compounds. The riluzole treatment of all GBM cell lines mainly affected carbohydrate metabolism and the DNA structure. Lipid structures and protein secondary conformation are affected as well by the riluzole treatment: cellular proteins assumed cross beta-sheet conformation while parallel beta-sheet conformation was less represented for all GBM cells. Moreover, we hope that a new live-cell approach for GBM simultaneous treatment and examination can be devised to target cancer cells more specifically, i.e., future therapies can develop more specific treatments according to the specific bio-macromolecular signature of each tumor type

Building S.C.A.D.A. Systems in Scientific Installations with Sardana and Taurus

International audienceSardana and Taurus form a python software suite for Supervision, Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) optimized for scientific installations. Sardana and Taurus are open source and deliver a substantial reduction in both time and cost associated to the design, development and support of control and data acquisition systems. The project was initially developed at ALBA and later evolved to an international collaboration driven by a community of users and developers from ALBA, DESY, MAXIV and Solaris as well as other institutes and private companies. The advantages of Sardana for its adoption by other institutes are: free and open source code, comprehensive workflow for enhancement proposals, a powerful environment for building and executing macros, optimized access to the hardware and a generic Graphical User Interface (Taurus) that can be customized for every application. Sardana and Taurus are currently based on the Tango Control System framework but also capable to inter-operate to some extend with other control systems like EPICS. The software suite scales from small laboratories to large scientific institutions, allowing users to use only some parts or employ it as a whole