SUPER RESOLUTION MICROSCOPY APPLIED TO BIOLOGICAL STUDIES

In recent years super resolution microscopy started a revolution in the biological microscopy field. By applying smart methods of light detection and sample illumination it is possible to circumvent the diffraction limit, bringing the resolution down to 100 nm (SIM) or 10nm (STORM/PALM). In this lecture I will introduce state of the art techniques of super resolution fluorescence microscopy such as: Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM), Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM) e Photo Activated Illumination Microscopy (PALM) [Winners of the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 2014]. I will also present recent results of our group using these techniques to study toxicity in cardiomyocytes after the treatment with chemotherapy agent. Vascular complications of chemotherapy have become a major issue in public health, considering that the survival rate of cancer patients have increased with new treatments and drugs.