With light into the nanoworld (Supercol - ITN)
It sounds like trying to scan a vinyl record with a hammer: Light is actually too "coarse" to image small particles on the nanometer scale. However, in their project "Supercol"- funded by the European Union - scientists want to achieve just that: The investigation of nanoparticles with light. To make this possible, they are combining Nobel Prize-winning methods with modern computer processes.
The goal: the development of novel nanoparticles for biomedical applications such as biosensing. The results of the SuperCol project will be presented at an event of the European Materials Research Society on June 1st in Strasbourg. Using a combination of super-resolution microscopy and computer simulations, scientists can now determine the position of molecules on the surface of nanoparticles much more precisely.
In the future, this could enable new biomedical applications.
Authors:
Rodrigo Rivas Barbosa, Dr. Emanuela Zaccarelli