Super-resolution microscopy builds multicolour 3D images from 2D

Super-resolution microscopy is a method that can ‘see’ beyond the limits of light. By exploiting fluorescence, super-resolution microscopy allows scientists to observe cells and their interior structures and organelles. The interior structures of cells are made up of multiple proteins, and microscopy can typically use only one or two fluorescent colors. As such, it can be difficult to distinguish between different proteins and decipher the complex architecture, to understand the underlying assembly mechanisms of the cell’s interior structures. Scientists from the Suliana Manley lab at Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a technique to analyze and reconstruct super-resolution images and re-align them in a way that multiple proteins can be placed within a single 3D volume.