CZI Frontiers of Imaging Initiative – Dynamic Imaging

This Chan Zuckerberg Initiative aims to advance technology directed at real-time visualisation of biological processes at the level of cells and molecules.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) Frontiers of Imaging initiative, part of CZI’s broader Imaging programme, aims to drive the development of a suite of new imaging tools capable of observing biological processes across spatial scales at the level of tissues, cells, and proteins.

The Dynamic Imaging Request for Applications (RFA) aims to advance technology directed at real-time visualisation of biological processes at the level of cells and molecules. Applications are invited in the field of dynamic imaging that will support the development of new tools or significant enhancements of existing tools to monitor biological processes in motion, across time, and across spatial scales.

The long-term goal of this RFA is to drive technology development aimed at measuring cellular and molecular processes in real time in intact, living systems. Priority will be given to proposals for methods developed for imaging in intact tissues or primary cells rather than immortalised cell lines.

Grants are explicitly aimed at technology development. Funding is not intended to support question-driven basic or translational research, clinical trials, or drug development.

Examples of eligible research themes:

• Development, detection and/or tracking of multiple labels (eg multi-spectral Raman microscopy, hyperspectral imaging, tracking of multiple single particles labeled with different probes).
• Development of new dynamic reporters (eg reporters for protease activity, kinase activity, cellular ion concentration fluctuations, protein-protein interaction, organelle specific chemical labeling, mechanical or electrical forces).
• Development of correlative methods for temporal studies (eg correlative light and electron microscopy with a dynamic imaging component).
• Adaptation of static methods for dynamic imaging (eg improvements of liquid cell electron microscopy).
• Hardware, software, algorithm or biological probe development to obtain high-resolution dynamic measurements in deep tissue or in large volumes (eg 4D/5D imaging at cellular resolution in whole organs, 4D/5D cell microscopy at super-resolution).