Collaborative Research: IDBR Type A: QSTORM-AO - Wavefront-shaping light-sheet microscopy with photoswitchable quantum dots for superresolution imaging in thick tissue

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An award is made to the University of Georgia to develop a novel super-resolution microscope for biological research. For students and early-career researchers, this close collaboration at the intersection of biology, physics, optics, and chemical engineering will provide an invaluable training experience, and it will be enriched with professional development in interdisciplinary science communication skills. All team members will contribute to the development of an online team blog, lab notebook, and public website that will capture the progress of the research within a broader historical, scientific, and visual context, curated by the Boston Museum of Science. The Museum of Science team will also disseminate this work to thousands of science museum visitors, students, and the broader community with live presentations, demonstrations, podcasts, and a short NOVA-style film on the quest to see more clearly and deeply into the mysteries of life. The film will be directed by a multiple award-winning NOVA producer.This instrument will combine holographic imaging using high resolution spatial light modulators and new techniques for correcting distortion induced by light scattering in thick biological tissue to achieve molecular-scale resolution inside organisms important for modern biological research, such as fruit flies and zebrafish. At The Ohio State University, semiconductor nanotechnology will be combined with DNA origami to create intensely bright and switchable light emitters, individually targetable to selected molecules operating within biological systems. This novel combination of high-precision technologies will provide investigators an unprecedented view of important subcellular biological processes, such as neuronal signaling in intact organisms, potentially contributing to breakthroughs in areas of molecular and systems biology, biological engineering, medicine, and human health.