SC335 Super-Resolution Optical Microscopy

Tuesday, May 18, 2010
1:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m.
Stephen Lane¹,², Thomas Huser¹; ¹Lawrence Livermore Natl. Lab, USA, ²Univ. of California at Davis, USA
Level: Advanced Beginner (basic understanding of topic is necessary to follow course material)


Course Description

After a brief introduction of the more historic super-resolution microscopies, mostly based on near-field approaches, we will turn to their modern remnants and then extensively discuss recent far-field approaches with high promise for applications in cell biology and biomedical imaging. These include single molecule localization techniques (PALM, STORM), as well as shaping of the excitation volume (STED, structured illumination). We will introduce the concepts behind these techniques, discuss their implementation, requirements on hardware and software, image procession, and recent applications to bioimaging.


Benefits and Learning Objectives

This course should enable you to:

  • Identify and discuss different approaches to super-resolution optical microscopies.
  • Identify the resolution limit of conventional far-field optics and understand how sophisticated approaches can circumvent this fundamental law.
  • Distinguish between different state-of-the-art approaches to achieving image resolution beyond the diffraction limits.
  • Discuss the pros and cons of the different approaches, and understand why the majority of them focus on fluorescence as contrast mechanism.
  • Explain the basic background needed to begin implementing similar approaches in your own labs.
  • Determine which techniques are best suited for specific applications in materials science, biological and biomedical imaging.

Intended Audience

This course is intended for scientists and technicians in industrial, academic and government laboratories; graduate students; postdoctoral fellows; optics researchers; or teachers interested in optical super-resolution microscopy.


Biography

Stephen Lane is associate director for science at the NSF Center for Biophotonics at the University of California at Davis. He has been working in the areas of optical sensing and diagnostics for more than 30 years.

Thomas Huser is an associate professor in the department of internal medicine, University of California at Davis, and chief scientist for the NSF Center for Biophotonics. Huser obtained his doctorate in physics from the University of Basel, Switzerland, where he worked on near-field optical microscopy.

At Davis, they both apply fluorescence, Raman and super-resolution microscopy to biological and medical problems.