Kavli Research & Enterprise Discussions (K.R.E.D) - Rainer Kaufmann

Kavli Research & Enterprise Discussions (K.R.E.D)

Our Kavli Research and Enterprise Discussion (K.R.E.D) will be given by Rainer Kaufmann. Rainer Kaufmann is a Group Leader at Centre for Structural Systems Biology, Hamburg, Germany.

 

Rainer Kaufmann talk banner

 

Rainer's talk is entitled "Cryo Super-Resolution Fluorescence Microscopy for Correlation with Cryo-ET".

 

Date: 10 January 2024

Time: 14:30

Room: Phase 2 - Seminar Room 20-138

 

This is an event for University staff only.

 

The abstract is below. 

 

Super-resolution methods present a true game changer for the field of correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM). They allow bridging the big resolution gap between conventional fluorescence microscopy (FM) and electron microscopy (EM). Cryo-immobilisation by fast-freezing techniques has been introduced to allow imaging in vitreous (glass-like) biological samples with superior structural preservation. On the one side, cryo-EM has evolved into a routine method for structural biology. Particularly cryo electron tomography (cryo-ET) offers insights into intact cells at unprecedented resolution. On the other side, super-resolution FM under cryo-conditions is still at a very early and experimental stage. However, the combination of both cryo-microscopy methods has great potential to open up a wide range of new application possibilities in structural and cellular biology. In my talk, I will discuss the challenges, our current solutions and the prospects for super-resolution cryo-CLEM.

 

Biography

 

Rainer Kaufmann is a group leader at the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) and associated with the Department of Physics at the University of Hamburg, Germany. He gained his PhD in Physics from the University of Heidelberg developing single molecule based super-resolution fluorescence microscopy methods. Afterwards he spent 6 years as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Oxford, with a focus on combining super-resolution fluorescence microscopy with electron microscopy. He set up is lab in 2017 at the CSSB in Hamburg with a Freigeist-Fellowship of the Volkswagen-Foundation. His current research focuses on the development of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy under cryogenic conditions and its combination with cryo electron microscopy.