Por Simão Coelho (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras).
The ability to visualise the interplay of biological complexes has demonstrated immense potential to transform modern science and impact human health. Microscopy is rapidly evolving to cover this need, with significant advancements taken every year. Super-Resolution Microscopy (SRM) methods are recent technologies that allow light microscopy to achieve sub-diffraction resolution imaging. SRM has greatly expanded our knowledge of structural organisations, functional conformations, and dynamics of protein complexes within cellular environments.
My focus is on developing and applying the next-generation of SRM imaging techniques to decode immune signalling. Here, I will present some recent advances I have developed which include, Actively Stabilised microscope, direct laser writing for single molecule imaging and 3D interferometric lattice light-sheet microscopy. Results include (sub)-nanometer sample stability, direct distance measurements between molecular species with < 20 nm accuracy, and live cell single mRNA dynamics with ~10 nm.
