There are many different technologies for imaging the cellular and molecular components of life. Each technology reveals essential features, and is indispensable for full understanding of fundamental living processes. However, each also has limits that constrain its specific application. For instance, X-ray crystallography reveals the atomic structure, but requires the sample to be crystalline; NMR reveals molecular structure and dynamics, but cannot handle large molecular complexes; AFM can measure forces on (living) surfaces, but does not allow views of the inside of the sample; electron microscopy reveals the molecular architecture of the cell in nm resolution, but requires the sample to be fixed or frozen; there are many modes in light microscopy that give molecular information on localization and intermolecular distances, but their resolution is limited. All these modes of imaging are complementary and their areas of application only partially overlap. Cyttron aims to integrate these modes of imaging in a single platform, which requires tuning and optimizing the various constituent technologies and creating a common visualization and modelling platform which allows easy correlation of multi-modal data.

In this lecture series we will discuss the theory, application and integration of the important technologies for studying the molecular and cellular structures of life. There are 14 lectures by specialists in the field, 3 workshops on current developments and a conference on the biological applications of Cyttron. The lecture slides (Powerpoint presentations) can be down-loaded by students. Annotated slides will be distributed after the lecture series, together with a collection of review papers. The majority of the techniques covered in the lectures is also discussed in the book “Principles of Physical Biochemistry” by KE Van Holde, WC Johnson and PS Ho (ISBN 0137204590), which students are strongly advised to read. Students participate actively in the workshops and can gain a maximum of 30% of their final mark with a presentation to their colleagues. The lecture series is finished off by a written open-book exam with which students can earn the remaining 70% of their final mark. In total, 6 ECTS can be earned.

For program and lectures notes see the teaching session at http://www.bfsc.leidenuniv.nl/