Find all our news regarding our users, new applications, upcoming events, press articles or the development of Alvéole!
Today is Alvéole’s 10th Anniversary !! Time flies! Already 4 years since we launched PRIMO… New applications, improvements on our micropatterning technology, our community has grown, our team has evolved. Let’s keep up with the good work and the fun!
We are proud to collaborate with Leica Microsystems to ensure you obtain the best cell samples for cryo-ET! PRIMO micropatterning + Leica cryo-CLEM = Advanced workflow for whole cell cryo-ET
Learn more on this partnership.
Dr Elizabeth Wright’s team launches a series of cryo-CLEM webinars which will start on June 11, 10am PDT with “Correlative (cryo-)microscopy for cell biology”.
Register now for the live and Q&A session.
Faced with the epidemic of Coronavirus and following the measures announced by the French government, our offices in Paris, Germany and USA are closed. Our team members are working from home to minimize the risk of contamination.
Our whole team remains available to answer your scientific or after-sales questions via email or mobile.
Take care of yourselves.
In 2019, our user community and our expertise have grown ; and now in 2020 it’s our distribution network’s turn ! We are happy to start the year by announcing the opening of a subsidiary in Fairfax (Virginia), USA and the successful expansion of our distribution network.
Ask your questions live to Dr Leeya Engel during our sponsored Nature Research webcast on “Micropatterning on EM grids: A strategy for improving cell cryo-ET workflow” > Controlling cell positioning within EM grids. Attend our webinar.
Here comes another paper using PRIMO contactless micropatterning on TEM Grids! “Tailoring cryo-electron microscopy grids by photo-micropatterning for in-cell structural studies”, M. Toro-Nahuelpan et al, BioRxiv, 2019. From Julia Mahamid’s team at EMBL.
Read the paper.
“Substrate area confinement is a key determinant of cell velocity in collective migration”, Mohammed et al, Nature Physics, 2019. –> They used micropatterning to mimic the spatial confinement experienced by follower cells within epithelial tissues.
Access the research paper.
See how Leonardo offers two ways to generate series of homogeneous micropatterns automatically positioned within the mesh of the TEM Grid, without damaging its surface (contactless technique): Using one same pattern VS different series of micropatterns on one TEM Grid!
Watch the tutorial video.
“Traction forces at the cytokinetic ring regulate cell division and polyploidy in the migrating zebrafish epicardium”, M. Uroz et al., Nature Materials, 2019.
So proud to see PRIMO used in this research work! Check Figure 5.
Read the paper.
Extracellular matrix micropatterning technology for whole cell cryogenic electron microscopy studies. L. Engel et al., BioRxiv, 2019
Read the preprint.
Aurélien Pasturel (PhD candidate, CNRS, Alvéole) presents us his work: “Tailoring 3D cell culture templates with common hydrogels”, A Pasturel, BioRxiv, 2018
Watch the scientific video.
What’s the common point between a laboratory mouse and a Petri dish? See the answer in video.
Read the interview of Marie-Charlotte Manus from Alvéole explaining how PRIMO Bioengineering platform gives the researchers the flexibility to create tailor-made in vitro microenvironment for better cell experiments: “Customizing the cellular microenvironment to improve physiological relevance”
In the starting blocks for SLAS 2019! Meet us BOOTH 548, we will present the evolution of PRIMO which has grown into an Automated bioengineering Platform performing both microfabrication & micropatterning!
Giant cells moving on a building and adapting to obstacles. We are amazed by the CytoMorphoLab team’s creativity and how they used PRIMO bioengineering technology to miniaturise a building to the size of cells!
Find more details about the whole project on their website & make sure you watch THE VIDEO!
Are you interested in understanding the role of the extracellular matrix in cell morphology? This application note is for you.
Check how we worked with Nanosurface Biomedical to micropattern their microstructured substrate.
Using quantitative antibodies micropatterning with PRIMO and RICM imaging, the team studied haptotaxis of T lymphocytes.
See all our users’ scientific papers.
Did you miss our live webinar presented by Dr. Manuel Théry and Dr. Harikrishnan Parameswaran? They explained how PRIMO allows to work with controlled and reproducible microenvironments in vitro to more efficiently study living cells and model diseases.
Register and watch the replay on Nature dedicated webpage.
“Optical magnetometry of single biocompatible micromagnets for quantitative magnetogenetic and magnetomechanical assays”, Toraille, Aïzel et al, Nano Lett., 2018
The figure shows HeLa cells micropatterned near micromagnets and injected with magnetic nanoparticules.
Access the paper.
Biotech Info 3.0 – Alvéole : des outils de création d’environnements cellulaires in vitro biomimétiques, pour des modèles cellulaires plus fiables!
Pour les abonnés de Biotech Info 3.0, accéder à l’article.
Un beau bilan pour les startups françaises la semaine dernière, mis en lumière par Maddyness!
Toute l’équipe d’Alvéole est très fière de la réussite de notre première levée de fonds d’1 million d’euros.
Lisez l’article par Maddyness.
A focus on “Microenvironment Mimics” explains how PRIMO allows researchers to better study living cells in vitro, by creating sophisticated and complex in vitro microenvironments to better understand and control the key parameters regulating cell functions and behavior.
Read the article.
“Alvéole lève 1 million d’euros et valide le modèle de son Company Builder Quattrocento.”
Accédez à l’article publié par EduBourse.
New paper by researchers from Harvard University and Northeastern University using PRIMO contacltess and maskless photopatterning, show “ECM stiffness can act as a switch that regulates whether forces are transmitted via the ECM or through cell-cell contacts”.
Access our users’ papers.
Abstract: The interrelationship between microtubules and the actin cytoskeleton in mechanoregulation of integrin-mediated adhesions is poorly understood. Here, we show that the effects of microtubules on two major types of cell-matrix adhesions,… Read paper.
The Institute for Interdisciplinary Neuroscience, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, in collaboration with Alvéole shows PRIMO can create complex microenvironments for cells from hydrogel structuration to precise functionalization.
“A generic widefield topographical and chemical photopatterning method for hydrogels.”
Last week we were at The University of Geneva to instal PRIMO after a successful demo!
Pau Guillamat from Aurélien Roux’ lab uses PRIMO contactess and maskless micropatterning to study epithelial dynamics.
Check some of his previous work with PRIMO.
The team who loaned a PRIMO for this year Physiology Summer Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory made quite an experiment!
To study cell junctions under curvature, they patterned MDCK cells on a spiral fibronectin pattern.
Check the video.
Yay, we are back to the Marine Biological Laboratory!
This year with 2 micropatterning PRIMO systems installed:
1 for the MBL Physiology Summer course
+ 1 for Dr Edgar Gomes’ (iMM Lisboa) summer lab who is already enjoying it !
“Controlling the topography and biochemistry of cell culture substrates with PRIMO”
One of the challenges confronting cell biologists is to mimic the micro-environment in vitro to more efficiently study living cells. (…) PRIMO allows to tailor cell microenvironment topography via microfabrication and biochemistry via micropatterning…
Read the application note
When you offer cells a choice… Yes they go for the higher protein density! Experiment conducted by Pau Guillamat from Aurelien Roux’ lab – University of Geneva.
Watch the video of cells migrating towards two different protein densities in Pau Guillamat’s testimonial.
Meet us on Booth 8, ask us all your questions and see how PRIMO custom micropatterning system can help you tune the cell microenvironment chemistry and topography. And thus precisely control cell development and proliferation !
Special thanks to the team of the Laboratory of Structural Biophysics & Mechanobiology, Gregory M. Alushin PhD, The Rockefeller University, for sending us this picture of them photopatterned with PRIMO custom photopatterning system!
We look forward to seeing your experiment results with PRIMO, studying the cytoskeleton!
Virgile Viasnoff‘s lab at the Mechanobiology Institute – National University of Singapore is going further in controlling cell microenvironment in 3D: with micro-niches in which they control chemical, topographical and rheological cues using PRIMO photopatterning system!
Read their Paper.
PRIMO contactless & maskless photopatterning for controlling topography and chemistry of cellular microenvironment now in DEMO at Université de Mons in the Mechanobiology & Soft Matter Group!
Want to test it too? Request a demo!
See how Jorge Ferreira form i3S, Universidade do Porto used PRIMO custom micropatterning technology to control cellular geometry and impose spatial constraints during mitotic progression.
And read his feedback on PRIMO technology.
New scientific paper in which PRIMO was used: In situ photo-patterning of pressure-resistant hydrogel membranes with controlled permeabilities in PEGDA microfluidic channels, Lab Chip, 2018, Advance Article, Jérémy Decock, Mathias Schlenkb and Jean-Baptiste Salmon.
Read it here
List of papers using PRIMO here
Meet us on Booth 319 and learn more about PRIMO applications in cell biology by attending our exhibitor presentation with some of our users as special guests on Sunday, February 18 – 12:30pm – Room 6!
Find the programme of the presentation here.
Nandor Roczo from GeneWorks – our Australien Distributor – presents PRIMO with a poster at the Lorne Cancer 2018 conference from 8 to 10 February. Don’t miss it!
PRIMO and Leonardo installation/training last week at Cell Adhesion & Mechanics lab, Institut Jacques Monod: CNRS Research Directors Benoit Ladoux and René-Marc Mège, and PhD candidate Estelle Gauquelin seem to have enjoyed it, and so did we!
Jakub Pospíšil – PhD student in Dr. Josef Jaros Department of Histology & Embryology at Faculty of Medicine, Masarykova univerzita – working on his first pattern with PRIMO custom micropatterning for cell control and the new version of Leonardo Photopatterning software.
The new version of Leonardo software is now available! Discover it on our dedicated webpage!
In addition to the replication, rotation, alignment, grayscale images management features, you can now define ROIs, program complex experimental sequences and map your samples!
Pau Guillamat, Postdoctoral Fellow at Université de Genève Biochemistry department in Aurélien Roux’ Research Group, is testing PRIMO micropatterning solution and Leonardo software. We’re looking forward to discovering the results!
ASCB EMBO 2017 conference official pictures are online. Here Manuel Théry during our in-booth demo.
We are looking forward to attending the ASCB annual meeting again this year and meeting many more interesting people!
2D-STORM image by Abbelight of patterned epithelial cells labelled for Actin on square micropatterns done with PRIMO.
Jorge Ferreira (Group leader) and Vanessa Nunes (PHD Student) are testing PRIMO and starting to use it on their own. Here is there first test: photopolymerization of photocurable material shaped in the i3S logo.
The team of Pr. Rudolf Merkel from Institute of Complex Systems Biomechanics (ICS-7) at Forschungszentrum Jülich enjoying their first self-made protein micropattern with PRIMO!
Now in Xavier Trepat’s lab! Here is Raimon Sunyer Borrell starting using Leonardo software which controls PRIMO photopatterning system! We are looking forward to seeing your micropatterning experiments conducted with PRIMO.
Epithelial cells plated on a grid micropatterned with PRIMO: Actin (green), focal adhesions (red) and nuclear enveloppe (blue).
Verena Schwach from Robert Passier’s lab at the University of Twente is preparing her experiments of micropatterning of cardiomyocytes on glass. We are looking forward to discovering her results.
We witnessed a micrometric solar eclipse over France before the real one happened in the USA! Scale bar = 50µm
Pattern of the day done with PRIMO, Eiffel Tower in Fibronectin and then with MDCK cells.
Niccole Schaible and Sam Polio from the Northeastern University – Department of Bioengineering – now have a PRIMO! They are using it to study cardiomyocytes on PDMS with direct photopatterning and cell-cell interaction on polyacrylamide gel doing micropatterning transfer.
Proud to have installed a PRIMO at Stanford University! Gaspard Pardon can now start experimenting with it to micropattern proteins on hydrogels in 3D, multi-protein patterning and many other projects!
Thibaut Brunet shared on Twitter a picture of cells plated on micropatterns he generated with PRIMO, during the Physiology summer course at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL). Imaged by Nikon USA.
Custom micropatterning for cell control.
With PRIMO, you can design your own micropatterning experiments, both in 2D and 3D.
Check the list of events we are attending or organizing. We will be glad to present you the PRIMO custom micropatterning technology and discuss your application projects with you!
Our users describe their research projects and explain why they chose to use PRIMO!