Scientists at TU Delft have made an important advancement in
a new microscopic technique that is widely used in medical research. They
demonstrate what the resolution of this localisation microscopy is and how the
best resolution can be achieved as quickly as possible. This week their
findings are being published online in the scientific journal Nature Methods.
Much sharper images
Fluorescence microscopy is an important technique in
biomedical research. This method makes it possible to deduce information, for
example about the functioning of cells, from the light emitted by certain
fluorescent molecules in cells. Fluorescence microscopy used to produce images
with resolution ranging from 200 to 300 nanometres. In recent years, however,
scientists have employed a trick that allows you to view images around ten
times sharper: localisation microscopy. This technique makes it possible to
obtain much better and much more informative images of the interior of the
cell.