We congratulate Dr. Aleksandra Borek-Dorosz for the OPUS26 grant, she received from the Polish National Science Center. OPUS is a competition for research projects, intended for scientists at all stages of their scientific career. Her research project entitled “Raman4Cell2Cell: Uncovering the reciprocal interactions of leukocytes and endothelial cells by (stimulated) Raman imaging” will receive a funding of ~2M PLN (~460 k€) for 48 months. The grant will be implemented at the Chemistry Department of the Jagiellonian University, with the ZOR-Raman Imaging Team. The research program will effectively start after Aleksandra’s stay with the Laboratory of Lightwave Metrology and is likely to benefit from her results until then.

The interplay and communication of all systems in the human body are paramount for the proper functioning of the body. With the development of civilization, different factors may cause various disorders, referred to as civilization diseases. So far, these constitute a major medical challenge of the 21^st century. A factor associated with their development is strongly linked to the inflammation of cells, in which communication between leukocytes and endothelial cells is crucial. Cell-to-cell (Cell2Cell) interactions may occur in different ways, from sending intercellular signals, and by direct contact between these cells, called transmigration. Those cell-cell interactions are crucial for understanding the changes in civilizational diseases, which requires consideration of the community of cells. The research will be conducted using a range of in-situ Raman techniques accompanied by other established biological methods. However, after getting acquainted with the novel measurement possibilities at Laboratory for Lightwave Metrology, Aleksandra intends to explore the expansion of the range of methods used during the grant implementation, in particular by IR-FRS flow cytometry, which is currently being developed in group.