The SFB 1078 kindly invites you to the following colloquium talk:

Prof. Renee Frontiera hosted by Karsten Heyne (FUB):

Title: Super-resolution and chemically-specific Raman imaging

Abstract: Super-resolution microscopy techniques have revolutionized imaging and found numerous applications in probing and understanding biological processes on nanometer length scales, due to their unprecedented ability to break the optical diffraction limit by several orders of magnitude. However, most current super-resolution microscopies require fluorophore-labeled samples, which are highly subject to degradation, limiting the scope and time resolution of super-resolution measurements. Our lab has developed an imaging technique capable of achieving similar spatial resolution without the need for external fluorescent labels, by combining aspects of stimulated Raman microscopy with stimulated emission depletion microscopy. This microscope provides far-field Raman images with resolution well below the diffraction limit. In addition to providing nanoscale information on chemical composition, the technique also enables interrogation of local environmental impacts on chemical reaction dynamics. We have used this chemical specificity of Raman spectroscopy to uncover the role of intracellular proteins in mediating the unpackaging of polymeric gene therapy delivery vehicles. This trackable delivery system should be broadly applicable to study nucleic acid delivery mechanisms. Overall, Raman chemical imaging is a powerful approach for sub-diffraction resolution as well as for providing mechanistic insights in complex environments.

Short Bio: Renee R. Frontiera is the Northrop Professor of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota. Her research group uses Raman spectroscopic techniques to examine chemical composition and chemical reaction dynamics on nanometer length scales and ultrafast time scales. She received her Ph.D. in 2009 from the University of California – Berkeley in Richard Mathies’ group, and did her postdoctoral research with Richard Van Duyne. Her research group at the University of Minnesota was founded in 2013, and she is the recent recipient of an NSF CAREER award, a DOE Early Career award, and an NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA). She was named one of Chemical & Engineering News’s “Talented 12”, and has won a Journal of Physical Chemistry Lectureship, the American Physical Society’s “Future of Chemical Physics” lectureship, and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award.