Venue: Centre Broca
Francesca Pennacchietti
Postdoctoral researcher in Ilaria Testa’s team
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Invited by Gregory Giannone and Jean-Baptiste Sibarita
Title
Quantitative live-cell imaging at the nanoscale
Abstract
Observing the interplay of organelles and macromolecular complexes inside living cells and tissues calls for the continuous development of minimally invasive optical systems performing at high spatio-temporal resolution. Reversibly photoswitchable fluorescent proteins (rsFPs) play a key role as tags in optical nanoscopy. Their characteristic state transition between a long-lived dark state (OFF) and a fluorescent state (ON) allows to decrease the intensities required for imaging by several orders of magnitude compared to short-lived electronic transitions. Consequently, techniques such as REversible Saturable/Switchable OpticaL Fluorescence Transition microscopy (RESOLFT), when combined with rsFP switching, are ideal for non-invasive investigations of living systems at the nanoscale.
In this talk, I will highlight how the switching properties of the rsFPs are the major driving forces in the development of new imaging schemes for faster and gentler nanoscopy and how they can extend the level of information accessible from a super-resolution microscope.