SIM/STORM research microscope

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: Funded in 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 548257578

The application presented here requests a super-resolution light microscope. The microscope applied for can combine two high-resolution technologies, "stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy" (STORM) and "structured illumination microscopy" (SIM). Such an instrument allows a resolution well below the diffraction limit and can resolve structures down to around 15 nm. Furthermore, in living cells, basic cellular processes such as the formation of membrane protrusions can be temporally resolved and mapped using "live tracking". Such a microscope is not available at the department's location and closes a large gap in urgent scientific needs. With this microscope, cell surface receptors can be imaged in super resolution and their organization can be characterized, single-molecule movements in living cells can be analyzed, basic cellular mechanisms such as cellular lipid dynamics and ferroptosis can be understood, intracellular vesicle movements in leukemia can be characterized, basic RNA functional mechanisms such as RNA DANN-DANN triplexes can be elucidated, and the mechanisms of brain tumor development can be deciphered. In summary, there is an enormous need for such an instrument in the department and beyond.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: SIM/STORM Forschungsmikroskop
• Instrumentation Group: 5040 Spezielle Mikroskope (außer 500-503)
• Applicant Institution: Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
• Leader: Dr. Sebastian Scheich