Super-Resolution Optical Microscopy in Biology

Optical super-resolution microscopy in neurobiology.

Understanding the highly plastic nature of neurons requires the dynamic visualization of their molecular and cellular organization in a native context. However, due to the limited resolution of standard light microscopy, many of the structural specializations of neurons cannot be resolved. A recent revolution in light microscopy has given rise to several super-resolution light microscopy method...

Review of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy for biology.

Several methodologies have been developed over the past several years for super-resolution fluorescence microscopy including saturated structured-illumination microscopy (SSIM), stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED), photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM), fluorescence photoactivation localization microscopy (FPALM), and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM). Whi...

Super-Resolution Localization Microscopy

Light microscopy techniques have been vital to our understanding of biological structures and systems since their invention in the late 16 Century. However, conventional light microscopy techniques are limited by the diffraction limit of light, preventing us from seeing anything smaller than approximately 200 nm in x and y and approximately 500 nm in z. Many molecules and structures of interest...

Three-dimensional super-resolution imaging by stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy.

Recent advances in far-field fluorescence microscopy have led to substantial improvements in image resolution, achieving a near-molecular resolution of 20 to 30 nanometers in the two lateral dimensions. Three-dimensional (3D) nanoscale-resolution imaging, however, remains a challenge. We demonstrated 3D stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) by using optical astigmatism to determi...

Super-resolution optical microscopy: Seeing the smaller picture.