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 (SXM) 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’, which started 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. The capabilities of this compact imaging device, combined with complementary light and electron microscopy approaches, will be demonstrated through a series of virology use cases to generate new scientific knowledge on the viral life cycle and host cell response to viral infection. The use cases are chosen to cover viruses utilizing different genetic materials, such as RNA for SARS-CoV-2 and DNA for Herpes viruses, transmission of viruses (Hepatitis E) between species and development of antiviral drugs (for Hepatitis C). The project focuses specifically on mechanisms of virus-cell interactions usable for development of antivirals and oncolytic viral therapies.  

The CoCID project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101017116.