The “Superresolution” research network, founded by the German Ministry of Education and Sciences, demonstrated a new widefield microscopy technology with resolutions better than 20 nanometers. The method is based on special dyes, which’s fluorescence can be optically and reversibly switched on and off in aqueous solutions. The dyes are bond to cellular structures by using a functional group. By switching the dyes on and off, the fluorescence emission is separated in time until only those dye molecules fluoresce that have enough distance to allow their localization as single molecules. After several thousand switching cycles, a total image is constructed (dSTORM – direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy). Involved in the project were the work groups of Prof. Dr. M. Sauer and Prof. Dr. J. Mattay (University of Bielefeld, Germany ), Prof. Dr. K.-H. Drexhage (University of Siegen, Germany), Prof. Dr. J. Enderlein (University of Goettingen, Germany), and Prof. Dr. S. Hell (Max Planck Institute of Biophysical Chemistry, Goettingen, Germany).
www.biophotonik.org
Cytoskeleton of a fixed cell. Left: Fluorescence image at standard conditions. Right: dSTORM image using molecular switches.
