Imaging the molecular world of life

As the fundamental unit of life, a cell is comprised of numerous different types of molecules that form intricate interaction networks and function collectively to give the cell its life. Dissecting the inner workings of a cell requires imaging with molecular-scale resolution such that molecular interactions inside the cell can be directly visualized. However, the diffraction-limited resolution of light microscopy is substantially larger than molecular length scales in cells, making many sub-cellular structures difficult to visualize. Another major challenge in imaging is the low throughput in the number of molecular species that can be simultaneously imaged and identified, while genomic-scale throughput (i.e. the ability to simultaneously image thousands of molecular species) is needed for addressing systems level questions. In this talk, I will describe imaging methods to overcome these challenges and biological applications of these methods. I will first describe STORM, a super-resolution imaging method that overcomes the diffraction limit and allows three-dimensional imaging of living cells with nanometer-scale resolution. I will present both technology development of STORM and discoveries of novel cellular structures enabled by STORM. I will then briefly describe MERFISH, a genome-scale imaging method that allows mapping of the transcriptome and genome in single cells and the distinct types of cells in complex tissues. A more detailed description of this genomic-scale imaging method and its applications will be presented in the Applied Physics/Physics colloquium on Tuesday.

Speaker: Xiaowei Zhuang, Harvard