Hertha Sponer College Advanced Methods Course

Hertha Sponer College Advanced Methods Course (Internal Event)

HSC Advanced Methods Course “Labeling of biomolecules for live-cell nanoscopy”

Description:

The lectures and practical session are intended for the students who have a basic knowledge of physics, biology and chemistry. During the lectures, students will be introduced to the basics of fluorescence and optical microscopy. The principles of super-resolution microscopy will be discussed. Next, I will discuss why fluorescence labeling in important for biological experiments and how to label proteins, DNA, RNA, lipids and carbohydrates in living cells. Theoretical part will consist of three lectures. The lectures are intended to be 1,5 hour-long and will be followed by discussion. The practical part will consist of simple sample preparation and visualization procedures, which can be performed in the molecular biology laboratory. I will cover practical aspects of the cell line selection, the sample preparation, the microscope operation. Students will stain live primary human fibroblasts and record short movies which allows tracking the dynamics of cells. The commercialized fluorescent probes will be used for cytoskeleton and DNA staining in living cells. My group has an access to the commercial STED/SMLM/MINFLUX microscopes which can be used for the live-cell imaging.

Schedule:
Dates: March 9^th – 11^th, 2026, block course, full day

Registration required: heike.conrad(at}med.uni-goettingen.de

Supervisor: Gražvydas Lukinavičius, HSC Instructor, RG Chromatin Labeling and Imaging, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences (MPI-NAT)