Concept & objectives

Contemporary Biology and Neuroscience study cells, neurons and tissues either by using conventional microscopes or by studying at a molecular level biological events inside cells and neurons.On one side, contemporary biologists and neuroscientists visualise and study cells with conventional microscopes with a spatial resolution reaching 1 micron or slightly less.On the other side, molecular and structural biologists reason at a molecular level where events and reactions occur at an Angstrom scale or just above.

Therefore, events occurring at a submicron scale and above the single molecule dimension represent a new and unexplored perspective for Biology and Neuroscience. These are the emerging scientific issues at the core of the present proposal:

• Cells have micrometer dimensions but are composed of molecules which have dimensions of some Angstroms rarely larger than a few nanometres. What is it happening at the scale comprised between 1 and 1000 nanometres?
• The building blocks of the cytoskeleton of cells, i.e. microtubules and actin filaments, have dimensions in the range of 10 nm, which is also the scale of the extra-cellular matrix (ECM). Is it possible that the structure of the nanoscale environment where cells and neurons grow affects and controls their properties? If so, what are the physical and chemical mechanisms underlying these events? 
• Soluble and membrane proteins can diffuse at some extent in their environment. Therefore it is expected that interactions between proteins occur at a variable scale from just some Angstroms to some tens of nanometres. Is it possible that a controlled printing of specific proteins and molecules at the nanoscale affects and determines growth and properties of developing neurons?