BN-seminar
Time: 4pm
Location: zaal G, Lorentzweg 1,

Single-molecule localization methods for super-resolution fluorescence microscopy

Mark Bates
Department of NanoBiophotonics, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical  
Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany

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 methods for far-field fluorescence microscopy which  
extend 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 these methods is theoretically unlimited, and a  
resolution improvement of more than an order of magnitude over  
conventional light microscopy has been experimentally demonstrated.