The EIC Pathfinder Open project CHEM-SCAN aims to build a radically new technology for the noninvasive functional imaging of single cells in tissues and organoids with unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution.

Cancer is the second most common cause of death for Europeans. Despite our best efforts to diagnose, understand, and treat cancer at its earliest stage, its occurrence continues to rise. For most Europeans chemotherapy will remain an essential component (alongside surgery) of their treatment options despite the continuous progress of alternatives, such as immunotherapy.

The development of chemoresistance, i.e. the ability of cancer cells to evade treatment, has, however, become a major challenge for current cancer therapy and significantly contributes to most tumor relapses and deaths. Critically, individual tumor entities and even cases within the same cancer type show remarkably heterogeneous response to chemotherapeutic agents, making standardized treatment protocols often ineffective.