Abstract

There has been increasing demands to image cells at the nanoscale, which nevertheless is hampered by the optical limit of 200-300 nm. With the raid advances of super-resolution optical imaging, it has been possible to break such a barrier and realize a high resolution of tens of nanometers. While the majority of super-resolution techniques rely on the modification of light field, we herein propose an alternative approach that relies on the design of fluorescent probes. By using a DNA nanostructure-enabled FRET pair that can likewise self-quench the outskirt of the focal spot, we have developed an easy-to-implement way to sub-diffraction limit imaging of cells. Parallel to our efforts on optical imaging, we have also been devoted to develop metal nanoparticle-based nanoprobes for synchrotron-based X-ray imaging of cells, which can realize high resolutions of sub-100 nm.

© 2013 Optical Society of America