Yide Zhang

2018 Best Biological Publication Imaging Award

The 2018 Best Biological Imaging Publication 2018 was awarded to Yide Zhang, a PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering under the direction of Dr.Scott Howard. Zhang and coworkers published a paper entitled “Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy by stepwise optical saturation”. 

This paper demonstrates true super-resolution microscopy using the NDIIF’s conventional fluorescence microscopes. Super-resolution microscopy is a ground breaking technology that allows researchers to see features smaller than the diffraction limit of light. Many techniques have been developed and used to produce significant biological results, and the impact of super-resolution microscopy was recognized in the awarding of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to the first pioneers in the field. However, these techniques require expensive specialized equipment and can be limited to simple samples. This paper describes and demonstrates a method for achieving super-resolution imaging using commonly available microscopes in a way that allows for 3D super-resolution imaging in scattering tissue. Super-resolution in this paper is accomplished through a new understanding of how focused light interacts with saturable fluorophores. This means that anyone currently using conventional scanning fluorescence microscopy can use the technique to improve their resolution. This is the first demonstration of the technique which subsequently has been used to achieve the first ever super-resolution frequency-domain fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy and long-term, 3D in vivo imaging of zebrafish neurons during spinal chord formation.The study was published in Biomed. Opt. Express 9, 1613-1629 (2018).