Synthesis and Evaluation of novel Multifunctional Labels for Expansion Microscopy

Promovendus/a: Gang Wen

Promotor(en): Prof. dr. Johan Hofkens

Expansion microscopy (ExM) has emerged as an alternative technique to obtain super-resolution, allowing to obtain nanoscale information on biological samples, but without actually surpassing the diffraction limit of light. Rather, samples are imaged with conventional diffraction-limited microscopes via physically magnifying samples in an isotropic approach. Since its invention in 2015, ExM has aroused a tremendous attention and various ExM variants have been developed to simplify its usage and increase the imaging resolution that can be achieved. However, through common biomolecule-grafting methods, ExM is limited to some biomolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids. In addition, fluorescence loss is inevitable during radical-induced polymerization and digestion due to the incomplete anchoring of fluorescent labels. In this thesis, to solve these limitations, we design and synthesize novel multifunctional molecules.