Super-resolution imaging across the Biosciences

用荧光染料标记样本中的特定对象，然后使用荧光显微镜对它们进行成像，这是一种彻底改变了我们发现蛋白质、DNA、RNA和其他细胞结构在细胞和组织中如何组织的能力的工具。然而，直到最近，分辨精细细节的能力被限制在大约0.25微米(大约比人类头发的宽度小300倍)。这是因为细节或分辨率的多少取决于光的波长和用于成像样品的物镜的所谓数值光圈，这两个特性不能超过固定的限制。然而，大约20年前，开始开发克服这种分辨率障碍的新方法，统称为超分辨率成像，导致2014年将诺贝尔奖授予这项技术的关键开发者(Hell、Moerner和Betzig)。超分辨率成像正在迅速成为研究人员揭示物体在细胞内如何组织的精细细节的关键工具，揭示了我们以前不知道存在的新细节。在这项研究中，我们希望通过实施一种易于使用、多功能且可以非常详细地成像的商业系统，向广泛的研究人员开放一种特定类型的超分辨率成像，称为‘单分子定位显微镜’，这几乎是我们目前使用标准荧光显微镜所能实现的20倍。这一新的显微镜将在从癌症到心脏病和失明的一系列研究领域揭示细胞和组织内蛋白质组织的新见解。

Labelling specific objects in samples such as cells and tissues with a fluorescent dye, and then imaging them using a fluorescent microscope, is a tool that has revolutionised our ability to discover how proteins, DNA, RNA and other cellular structures are organised within cells and tissues. However, until recently, the ability to resolve the fine detail was limited to about 0.25 microns (approximately 300x smaller than the width of a human hair). This is because the amount of fine detail or 'resolution' depends on the wavelength of light and the so-called numerical aperture of the objective lens used to image the sample, two properties that cannot be altered beyond a fixed limit. However, about 20 or so years ago, new approaches to overcome this resolution barrier, collectively known as super-resolution imaging, started to be developed, leading to the award of the Nobel Prize to key developers of this technology (Hell, Moerner and Betzig) in 2014. Super-resolution imaging is rapidly becoming a key tool for researchers to uncover the fine detail of how objects are organised within cells, revealing new detail that we did not previously know existed. In this research, we want to open up a specific type of super-resolution imaging called 'single molecule localisation microscopy' to a wide range of researchers, by implementing a commercial system that is easy to use, multifunctional and can image in much great detail, almost 20x better than we can currently achieve with a standard fluorescence microscope. This new microscope will reveal new insight into protein organisation within cells and tissues across a range of research areas, from cancer to heart disease and blindness.