Fluorescence microscopy offers a wide array of tools for visualizing microscopic events. The intrinsic diffraction of light has historically made it difficult to use fluorescence to distinguish structures closer than 200nm apart. Super-resolution microscopy refers to techniques that selectively activate fluorescent molecules to map their position with up to 10 times more accuracy than conventional fluorescent microscopy. With the aim of promoting the use nanoscale imaging in biomedicine, Bionand has established one of Spain´s first N-STORM super-resolution platforms dedicated to practical applications. The Nikon N-Storm system is capable of localizing molecules with a resolution of up to 20nm.
Applications:
>> Structure determination of nanometric structures: e.g. nuclear pore receptors where individual subunits can be differentially labelled
>> High resolution neuron tracing: Super-resolution imaging has been shown to greatly improve the accuracy of neural maps given then many neural projects are below limit of conventional microscopy
>> Correlative microscopy: the higher resolution of super-resolution fluorescence makes it easier to associated with structures detected by electron microscopy
>> Single molecular studies: e.g. synapse neuroreceptor distribution
>> Nanoscale cytoskeletal and vesicle trafficking studies