Novel functional imaging
This project aims to develop novel high-throughput microscopy techniques and computational tools to study complex dynamics at the single particle level over large imaging volumes.
Motivation
Over the past decades the development of better imaging tools and novel microscopy approaches has been inspired by Feynman’s vision in “There’s Plenty Room at the Bottom”, where many problems to complex phenomena occurring at the nano- and micro-scale could be answered by simply looking at them closely. Recently, technological advances in computing power, light sources and photon detectors have made such vision possible by enabling the observation of molecular processes and dynamic events at the single particle level even in complex environments such as in vivo systems. Besides observing dynamics phenomena, one of the main goals of modern imaging techniques is to provide quantitative information. Nevertheless, quantitative-based imaging of complex phenomena at the single particle level faces two major challenges. On the one hand, it requires robust statistics, which translates into the need of higher throughputs. While, on the other hand, the complexity and rich aspect of the data generated leads to a bottleneck in the analysis. Tools that meet these two challenges will be transformative in the fields where they are applied and lead to a new generation of fundamental questions.
Research focus
- Developing and implementing novel functional imaging approaches.
- Achieving high dynamic range and large field of view imaging to follow dynamics over long periods.
- Using machine/deep learning tools to improve analysis throughput and to elucidate previously uncharacterised dynamics.