University Chemistry ›› 2015, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (1): 1-9.doi: 10.3866/PKU.DXHX20150101

• Chemistry Today • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014: Super-resolved Fluorescence Microscopy

Sun Yujie, Chen Xuanze   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Biomembrane and Membrane Biotechnology, Biodynamic Optical Imaging Center (BIOPIC), School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • Published:2015-02-25

Abstract:

Super-resolution microscopy is probably one of the fastest developed and most eye-catching new optical imaging techniques during the past few years. These group of techniques break the optical diffraction limits and increase the spatial resolution from several hundred nanometers to tens of nanometers, providing a powerful tool for life sciences. The mainstream super-resolution techniques are based either on point spread function engineering or single molecule localization. The major contributors were awarded by the 2014 Nobel Chemistry prize. This review provides a brief history of the development of super-resolution techniques and their working mechanisms. An out-look is also proposed for the future of super-resolution imaging.

Key words: Optical diffraction limit, Super-resolution fluorescence imaging, Stimulated emission depletion(STED), Stochastic reconstruction microscopy, Single molecule imaging