| Supervisor Organisation | PhD Awarding Entity: | phd location |
|---|---|---|
Heidelberg University | Heidelberg University | Heidelberg, Germany |
Research Focus
Chromatin organization plays an important role in the regulation and maintenance of genes in the normal biological process and in response to environment.
The disruption of the organization of chromatin has a significant impact on many cell processes, often associated with many pathological processes such as aging and cancer. Recent advances in microscopy techniques open up new opportunities to directly visualize higher-order chromatin architecture, its compaction status and its functional states at nanometer resolution in the intact cells or tissue.
The project aims to develop correlative imaging based on super resolution fluorescence and soft x-ray microscopies in 3D via full-field rotation. Such full-field rotation will enable structural and functional studies to probe chromatin architecture in key cellular processes at nanometer resolution in 3D.
Full-rotation, tomographic imaging is the unique way to obtain 3D cell structure with isotropic resolution. While means for full-rotation soft x-ray tomography are established, super-resolution techniques are typically limited to 2D information or confocal geometry. This project focuses on development of axial super-resolution microscopy which is compatible with thin glass-wall capillaries used in soft x-ray tomography.
Methodology
Full-rotation, tomographic imaging is the unique way to obtain 3D cell structure with isotropic resolution. While means for full-rotation soft x-ray tomography are established, super-resolution techniques are typically limited to 2D information or confocal geometry. This project focuses on development of axial super-resolution microscopy which is compatible with thin glass-wall capillaries used in soft x-ray tomography.
Aim 1
Development of axial super-resolution microscopy on thin glass-wall capillaries, including sample preparation, image acquisition and plunge freezing.
Aim 2
Development of fiducial markers and volume analysis pipelines to correlate soft x-ray tomography and super-resolution microscopy.
Aim 3
3D mapping of chromatin compaction by means of correlative approach to understand formation of memory in brain cells.
Pictures Attached
3D Distribution of hetero- and eu-chromation by SXT
Role/Focus of PhD:
Your roles:
- Development of sample preparation pipelines for super-resolution and x-ray imaging
- Optimisation of 3D super-resolution imaging in terms of contrast, spatial resolution, and imaging time
- Development of correlative pipeline with super-resolution and soft x-ray microscopy
- For selected cells, correlative imaging with automatic and quantitative mapping of chromatin density (Mb/nm3) within nuclei of entire cell
Your profile:
- M.S. in Physics, Engineering, Biophysics, Cell or Molecular Biology or related disciplines
- interest in imaging techniques, joy in solving technical puzzles
- experience in handling microscopes
- experience in data analysis or programming using MATLAB/Python/R
- ability to express yourself in English language
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Application Deadline: 18th August 2023 (Closed)