Advanced Imaging Techniques for Chemical and Structural Biology

Dear Colleagues,

Super-resolution microscopy (SRM) has become a promising tool for examining cellular biological processes, in vivo and in vitro. It has drastically evolved over the recent few years, with novel ideas—such as structured illumination microscopy (SIM), stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, and sub-diffraction resolution imaging by subsequent localization of single molecules (PALM, fPALM, STORM, dSTORM, etc.)—rapidly emerging and offering new ways to resolve structures beyond the diffraction limit. Therefore, these approaches, which are capable of breaking the impenetrable fence and resolving complex mechanisms that exist inside biological structures that are smaller than the diffraction-limited spot, are in high demand. Although various studies have been conducted from instruments’ point of view, now there is a dire need to focus on the design and development of better probes for SRM.

To date, many fluorescent probes have been employed for SRM, e.g., fluorescent proteins, organic dyes, quantum dots, carbon dots, and many more. Each one of these possesses its own limitations, with fluorescent proteins undergoing fast photobleaching, organic dyes and quantum dots being known for their toxic nature, and the structure of carbon dots being unidentified. Moreover, there are a limited number of ways that can be used for optical switching (important parameter for localization based SRM), which restricts their utilization as an efficient probe for SRM. For the long-term tracking of single molecules and real-time super-resolution imaging, these techniques require the SRM probe to be further developed, requiring it to be brighter and more photostable. Additionally, the probe should be small in size; however, attaining a size at the sub-nanometer scale is still a big challenge. Advancements in nanotechnology have provided us with the opportunity to develop such probes. Other crucial characteristics of designing probes include their nontoxicity and biocompatibility. These aspects should be the main focus of researchers working in the field of SRM.

Dr. Aditya Yadav
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Imaging is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• fluorescence
• super-resolution microscopy
• STED
• PALM
• STORM
• SIM
• photobleaching
• photostability
• brighter SRM probe
• nanomaterials