Seeing Beyond the Limits With Super-Resolution Microscopy

Abstract

When I was young, I wanted to be an astronaut and I was a hard-core science fiction fan. I was always drawn to heroic characters that invented something new that resulted in an amazing breakthrough. When I started my scientific career, I did not want to do something small—I wanted to do something that would be really different and impactful. This is why I chose to work on one of the most difficult problems in the field of optical (light-using) microscopy—how to see objects that are smaller than the wavelength of visible light. This meant challenging a limit that was long believed to be unbreakable. In my research, I developed a method called photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM), which enabled us to break that limit with the help of glowing (fluorescent) molecules. Using the PALM method, and other methods based on glowing molecules, scientists can learn new things about living cells and single molecules and significantly advance our understanding of life.