Past Lectures
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Prof. Joerg Bewersdorf | November 6, 2024
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NIS hosted a lecture with speaker Prof. Joerg Bewersdorf, Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Cell Biology, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Professor of Physics at Yale University.
Super-Resolution Microscopy to Investigate Cellular Complexity at the Nanoscale
Super-resolution optical microscopy has become a powerful tool to study the nanoscale spatial distribution of molecules of interest in biological cells and tissues over the last years. Imaging these distributions in the context of other molecules or the general structural context is, however, still challenging. Prof. Bewersdorf will present two recent developments from his lab that tackle this challenge: pan-Expansion Microscopy expands a fixed cell or tissue sample physically by about a factor of 20 in all three dimensions, thereby making small structures resolvable with just a standard confocal microscope. Since most proteins are retained in our expansion process, proteins and other cellular components can be labeled in bulk. This provides ultrastructural context to the nanoscale organization of proteins and thereby presents an all-optical imaging alternative to complex correlative light/electron microscopy. Second, FLASH-PAINT introduces with transiently binding adapters a novel approach that allow for spectrally unlimited multiplexed imaging (super-resolution or conventional) in a rapid, highly efficient, and gentle way without any need for washing steps. Super-resolution imaging of more than 10 labels in the same sample can now easily be achieved.Financial Interest Disclosure: J.B. is co-founder of panluminate, a startup company related to Expansion Microscopy.
Joerg Bewersdorf is a Professor of Cell Biology and of Biomedical Engineering at Yale University. An optical physicist/biophysicist by training, he has been a long-time contributor to the field of super-resolution light microscopy development and the application of these techniques to cell biological questions. Learn more about Prof. Bewersdorf and his research at https://bewersdorflab.yale.edu/.
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Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz (Franklin Lecture) | March 27, 2024
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In conjunction with the Department of Chemistry, NIS co-sponsored a Franklin Memorial Lecture with speaker Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus.
Emerging Imaging Technologies to Study Subcellular Architecture, Dynamics, and Functions
Powerful new ways to image the internal structures and complex dynamics of cells are revolutionizing cell biology and bio-medical research. In my talk, I will focus on three emerging technologies capable of revealing new properties of cellular organization at scales ranging from nanometer to atomic resolution. Whole cell milling using Focused Ion Beam Electron Microscopy (FIB-SEM) was used to reconstruct the entire cell volume at 4-nm voxel resolution, revealing all membrane-bound organelles and their trafficking intermediates at isotropic resolution. Single particle tracking using Halo dyes revealed unexpected features of mRNA trafficking, including sites where secretory proteins are translated on ER and their regulation by lysosomes. Finally, High Resolution Template Matching (HRTM) of ribosome subunits in cryo-EM images of intact human cells afforded a look at ribosomes at different stages of peptide elongation at the atomic scale. Together, these new tools open-up a plethora of questions related to mechanisms of cell structure/function that can now be studied in intact cells at the nanometric/molecular level.Dr. Lippincott-Schwartz is a group leader and head of 4D cellular physiology at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus. She studies the machinery inside cells, investigating the organization and interplay of membrane-bound organelles and cytoskeletal structures. Using fluorescence-based technologies and super-resolution microscopy techniques, she and her team parse the molecular complexity of the subcellular landscape in the context of functions such as cell motility and cell-to-cell communication. On a larger scale, Dr. Lippincott-Schwartz aims to reveal how the inner workings of neurons enable complex brain behaviors such as development, computation, and healing, under normal and pathogenic conditions. Learn more about Dr. Lippincott-Schwartz and her research at https://www.janelia.org/lab/lippincott-schwartz-lab.