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“Imaging methods, which prove to be increasingly important in biomedical research, have undergone revolutionary development in recent decades. One aspect of this is the improvement in the resolution of microscopic methods, which allows direct observation of ever finer details of biological systems. In 2014, Stefan Hell won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the development of nanoscopy, through the so-called STED microscope with super-resolution in the nanometer range. The Faculty of Medicine is currently renting a STEDYCON microscope manufactured by the inventor's company,” said György Vámosi, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Biophysics and Cell Biology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Debrecen, to hirek.unideb.hu.
György Vámosi explained the significance of the new equipment as follows: the resolution of conventional light microscopes is about half the wavelength of visible light: 200 nanometers, which is one fifth of a millimeter. Objects that are closer than this, or finer details, cannot be separated from one another. STED microscopy uses laser pulses to shrink the volume element, which originally had a minimum diameter of 200 nanometers, to about one tenth of that, at 20 nanometers. Thus, the resolution is increased by a factor of ten.
“This allows direct observation of biological macromolecules in the 5-20 nanometer size range. In addition, this can be achieved for two differently colored molecules at the same time, allowing the interactions of biological macromolecules, which usually do not act alone but in functional complexes, to be studied,” the researcher added.
(Left: confocal microscope image, right: super-resolution STED microscope image)
As mentioned above, this super-microscope is already being used by the institutes of the Faculty of Medicine (the Institute of Biophysics and Cell Biology and the Institute of Life Sciences) in several research projects, including cancer research and skeletal muscle research, but other institutes and clinics are also welcome to share it.
“The Faculty of Medicine strives to provide researchers with state-of-the-art facilities. The rental of this STED microscope is an integral part of the instrument procurement concept that was launched at the faculty a couple of years ago. We hope that we will soon have the opportunity to purchase the microscope that we have just rented so far,” said László Mátyus, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Debrecen.
Euro-BioImaging is the ESFRI consortium of European imaging laboratories, in which Hungary participates with two multi-site Nodes, or service laboratories, coordinated by the University of Debrecen. The representatives of Hungary in the organization are János Szöllősi, Professor Emeritus of the Institute of Biophysics and Cell Biology, and Senior Research Fellow György Vámosi. The STEDYCON microscope, operated by Damjanovich Szolgáltató Laboratórium [Damjanovich Service Laboratory] as part of what is called Cellular Imaging Hungary Node, is thus available for use by foreign researchers in addition to university, academic and industrial users, with expert assistance from István Rebenku, the manager of the service laboratory.
Our laboratory is also involved in two EU-funded projects (ISIDORe and CanSERV) to develop photodynamic therapies. Microscopes will also continue to be used in conducting scientific studies. Projects like this and several others that are similar could lead to joint applications for funding and publications in the future.
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