Light microscopy is a widely used technique for the study of cell and molecular biology, however the relatively low spatial resolution of the optical microscope presents significant limitations. Sub-cellular structures and molecular complexes essential for biological function exist on length scales from nanometers to micrometers. When observed with light however, structural features smaller than ~ 0.2 micrometers are blurred and difficult or impossible to resolve. In this talk I will discuss a method for far-field fluorescence microscopy which extends the resolution of the microscope beyond the classical diffraction limit. Approaches based on high-precision localization of single fluorescent molecules are widely applicable to biological imaging and require relatively simple experimental apparatus. The spatial resolution of this method is theoretically unlimited, and a resolution improvement of an order of magnitude over conventional optical microscopy has been experimentally demonstrated.


Wednesday, February 9, 2011, 11:45. ICFO's Blue Lecture

Hosted by Prof. Melike Lakadamyali