Fast STED microscopy with continuous wave fiber lasers.

We report on fast beam-scanning stimulated-emission-depletion (STED) microscopy in the visible range using for resolution enhancement compact, low cost and turn-key continuous wave (CW) fiber lasers emitting at 592 nm. Spatial resolutions of 35 to 65 nm in the focal plane are shown for various samples including fluorescent nanoparticles, immuno-stained cells with a non-exhaustive selection of 5 commonly used organic fluorescent markers, and living cells expressing the yellow fluorescent protein Citrine. The potential of the straightforward combination of CW-STED and fast beam scanning is illustrated in a movie of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of a living cell, composed of 100 frames (6 microm x 12 microm), each of them acquired in a time shorter than 0.

Stimulated emission depletion nanoscopy of living cells using SNAP-tag fusion proteins.

We show far-field fluorescence nanoscopy of different structural elements labeled with an organic dye within living mammalian cells. The diffraction barrier limiting far-field light microscopy is outperformed by using stimulated emission depletion. We used the tagging protein hAGT (SNAP-tag), which covalently binds benzylguanine-substituted organic dyes, for labeling.

A rapidly maturing far-red derivative of DsRed-Express2 for whole-cell labeling.

Fluorescent proteins (FPs) with far-red excitation and emission are desirable for multicolor labeling and live-animal imaging. We describe E2-Crimson, a far-red derivative of the tetrameric FP DsRed-Express2. Unlike other far-red FPs, E2-Crimson is noncytotoxic in bacterial and mammalian cells.

Direct observation of the nanoscale dynamics of membrane lipids in a living cell.

Cholesterol-mediated lipid interactions are thought to have a functional role in many membrane-associated processes such as signalling events. Although several experiments indicate their existence, lipid nanodomains ('rafts') remain controversial owing to the lack of suitable detection techniques in living cells. The controversy is reflected in their putative size of 5-200 nm, spanning the range between the extent of a protein complex and the resolution limit of optical microscopy.

Live-cell imaging of dendritic spines by STED microscopy.

Time lapse fluorescence imaging has become one of the most important approaches in neurobiological research. In particular, both confocal and two-photon microscopy have been used to study activity-dependent changes in synaptic morphology. However, the diffraction-limited resolution of light microscopy is often inadequate, forcing researchers to complement the live cell imaging strategy by EM.

Stimulated emission depletion (STED) nanoscopy of a fluorescent protein-labeled organelle inside a living cell.

We demonstrate far-field optical imaging with subdiffraction resolution of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in the interior of a living mammalian cell. The diffraction barrier is overcome by applying stimulated emission depletion (STED) on a yellow fluorescent protein tag. Imaging individual structural elements of the ER revealed a focal plane (x, y) resolution of <50 nm inside the living cell, corresponding to a 4-fold improvement over that of a confocal microscope and a 16-fold reduction in the focal-spot cross-sectional area.

Fluorescence nanoscopy by ground-state depletion and single-molecule return.

We introduce far-field fluorescence nanoscopy with ordinary fluorophores based on switching the majority of them to a metastable dark state, such as the triplet, and calculating the position of those left or those that spontaneously returned to the ground state. Continuous widefield illumination by a single laser and a continuously operating camera yielded dual-color images of rhodamine- and fluorescent protein-labeled (living) samples, proving a simple yet powerful super-resolution approach.

Photostable, amino reactive and water-soluble fluorescent labels based on sulfonated rhodamine with a rigidized xanthene fragment.

Highly water soluble fluorescent dyes were synthesized and transformed into new amino reactive fluorescent labels for biological microscopy. To this end, rhodamine 8 (prepared from 7-hydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinoline (7) and phthalic anhydride in 85 % aq. H(3)PO(4)) was sulfonated with 30 % SO(3) in H(2)SO(4) and afforded the water soluble disulfonic acid 3 a (64 %).

Nanoscale resolution in GFP-based microscopy.

We report attainment of subdiffraction resolution using stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy with GFP-labeled samples. The approximately 70 nm lateral resolution attained in this study is demonstrated by imaging GFP-labeled viruses and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of a mammalian cell. Our results mark the advent of nanoscale biological microscopy with genetically encoded markers.