TALLAHASSEE, FL – FSU scientists say they have developed a new light microscope capable of looking at proteins on the molecular level.

The prototype for the new microscope, as well as the initial conceptual work, was personally funded with $25,000 from its inventors, Harald Hess and Eric Betzig. Harald Hess will soon become director of the applied physics and instrumentation group at Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Farm Research Campus in VA, and Eric Betzig is currently a group leader there.

The finished microscope was created with the assistance of FSU’s National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. FSU researchers Michael Davidson and Scott Olenvch, along with researchers from Janelia Farm and the National Institutes of Health, put together the powerful instrument.

Researchers said the microscope is so powerful that it allows scientists to examine the fundamental organization of the key structures within cells. This new microscope greatly surpasses the resolution of conventional optical microscopes, which are inherently limited by the wavelength of light and are unable to distinguish objects separated by less than 200 nanometers. The new approach, called photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM), allows scientists to discriminate molecules that are only two to 25 nanometers apart.

“As the technology advances, it may prove to be a key factor in unlocking the molecular-level secrets of intracellular dynamics,” said Davidson, who directs the magnet lab’s Optical Microscopy Group.

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