Unambigous localization of chemotherapeutic compounds promoting immunogenic cell death in tumour cells

This proposal aims at taking advantage of high-resolution imaging technologies to identify molecular patterns generated during immunogenic cell death (ICD). ICD is a recently described, poorly understood process involving regulated tumour cell death as a signal for immune responses. We want to use state-of-the-art cryocorrelative hard X-ray tomography to allow tracking organometallic platinum compounds used to induce ICD and non-ICD of tumours and perform nanofocus imaging to identify their location in cells. Then, correlate ultrastructural and elemental information allowing us to infer the mechanism of action of the different compounds and to discover patterns in the structure of organelles that serve as features to identify potential ICD-promoting compounds to treat cancer. This will allow us to improve the discovery of bioactive elements that enhance immunogenicity, key to the development of effective combination therapies against cancer.