Novel developments in optical technology and photophysics
made it possible to radically overcome the diffraction
limit (ca. 200nm laterally, 600nm along the optical
axis) of conventional far-field fluorescence microscopy.
Presently, three principal ‘nanoscopy’ families have been
established: Nanoscopy based on highly focused laser
beams; nanoscopy based on structured illumination excitation;
and nanoscopy based on localisation microscopy
approaches. With such ‘superresolution’ or ‘nanoscopy’
techniques, ithas become possible to analyse biostructures
with a substantially enhanced light optical resolution
down to a few tens of nanometre in 3D, and a few nanometre
in the object plane, corresponding to 1/100 of
the exciting wavelength. These methods allow to study
individual membrane complexes, cellular protein distributions,
nuclear nanostructures, bacteria or individual
viruses down to the molecular level; they open new perspectives
to combine molecular and structural biology to
unravel the basic mechanisms of life and their emergence
fromfundamental laws. |
