Compact Cell Imaging Device (CoCID) to provide insights into the cellular origins of viral infections

Viral diseases are not only one of the important causes of mortality; they also carry a significant social and economic cost to humanity. Viruses, such as hepatitis C virus, with incidence of 8.7 per 100 000 people in EU, can cause a lifelong infection and is a major cause of liver cancer. Hepatitis E virus causes acute viral infection worldwide, with an increasing incidence in Europe since 2010. The current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 global pandemic causing high number of deaths and infected people will probably lead to 50-fold or more increase in flu healthcare costs in Europe. While viruses are mostly known for their ability to cause disease, some viruses, such as herpes simplex virus 1, can be used to kill cancer cells. Altogether, viruses have an important impact on human health and the costs of development of antiviral therapies and virus mediated cancer therapy are considerable. Analysis of three-dimensional biological cell samples is critical for understanding the mechanisms of viral disease and for the development of novel therapeutics. Soft X-ray microscopy is the unique technology that can image whole intact cells in 3D under normal and pathological conditions without labelling or fixation, at high throughput and spatial resolution. The main challenge of SXM is that the photonic illumination required for imaging is currently only available at five football-stadium sized facilities, called synchrotrons and only a very small fraction of the Infectious Disease research community has been able to access this imaging modality. The new European Union Horizon 2020 project called CoCID, the 'Compact Cell Imaging Device', starting in January 2021, proposes to address this challenge by development of a lab-scale soft X-ray microscope for fast and inexpensive three-dimensional imaging of whole cells that can be readily performed in a laboratory.