PicoRuler: Molecular Rulers for High-Resolution Microscopy

Opening the Door to Investigate Complex Processes in Cells

04-Dec-2023 - Good news for researchers working with high-resolution fluorescence microscopy: Biocompatible molecular rulers are available for the first time to calibrate the latest super-resolution microscopy methods. Latest super-resolution microscopy methods now achieve an optical resolution in the range of ...

Viral Impostors: Breakthrough for Virus Research

The penetration of viruses into cells can now be tracked with unprecedented accuracy thanks to innovative design for pseudoviruses

06-Nov-2023 - Pseudoviruses resemble impostors: although harmless, they are designed in such a way that they can hardly be distinguished from their dangerous relatives. This makes them an invaluable tool in virus research. They can be used to precisely analyze infection pathways of dangerous virus variants. A ...

Cell Membranes in Super Resolution

For the first time ever, expansion microscopy allows the imaging of even the finest details of cell membranes. This offers new insights into bacterial and viral infection processes

04-Dec-2020 - Expansion microscopy (ExM) enables the imaging of cells and their components with a spatial resolution far below 200 nanometres. For this purpose, the proteins of the sample under investigation are cross-linked into a swellable polymer. Once the interactions between the molecules have been ...

High-end Microscopy Refined

New details are known about an important cell structure

06-Jul-2020 - For the first time, two Würzburg research groups have been able to map the synaptonemal complex three-dimensionally with a resolution of 20 to 30 nanometres. The synaptonemal complex is a ladder-like cell structure that plays a major role in the development of egg and sperm cells in humans and ...

Stagediving with biomolecules improves optical microscopy

03-May-2018 - Physicists from Dresden and Würzburg have developed a novel method for optical microscopy. Using biological motors and single quantum dots, they acquire ultra-high-resolution images. The resolution of conventional optical microscopy is limited by the fundamental physical principle of diffraction ...

Microscopy: Nine at one blow

05-Feb-2016 - Advance in biomedical imaging: The University of Würzburg's Biocenter has enhanced fluorescence microscopy to label and visualise up to nine different cell structures simultaneously. Fluorescence microscopy allows researchers to visualise biomolecules in cells. They label the molecules using ...

High-Performance Microscopy for Membrane Receptors

05-Jun-2015 - In a new Collaborative Research Centre scientists from Würzburg and Jena are examining the function of membrane receptors with the most modern light microscopy. The objective is to gain new findings about how these receptors work and to develop the high-performance light microscopy further. ...

Molecular learning machines under the microscope

21-Aug-2014 - Neurotransmitters play an important role in the communication of nerve cells. Major details of the processes involved have been unclear until recently. Scientists of the University of Würzburg have now shed light on these processes by using a new technique. All human thoughts, feelings and ...

Living cells made to fluoresce

13-Aug-2010 - Individual molecules and their dynamics can also be made visible in living cells using conventional fluorophores at a resolution of around 20 nanometers. How this is done is being revealed for the first time by researchers from Würzburg, Bielefeld, and New York in the journal Nature ...