Press release: Funding extended for Collaborative Research Centre at Göttingen University

Nr. 114/2011 - 07.06.2011

DFG (German Research Foundation) supports scientists with nearly eight million euros

(pug) The DFG (German Research Foundation) has extended its funding of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 755 “Nanoscale Photonic Imaging“ at Göttingen University for another four years. The DFG will support the scientists starting July 1, 2011 with a total of nearly eight million euros. The Collaborative Research Centre was set up in July 2007. Along with the University’s Faculties of Physics and Mathematics and Computer Science, Göttingen’s Max Planck Institutes for Biophysical Chemistry and for Dynamics and Self-Organization and the Laser-Laboratorium Göttingen are also participating in the project. Prof. Dr. Tim Salditt at the University’s Institute for X-Ray Physics is the Centre’s spokesperson.

The scientists of SFB 755 are studying complex biomolecular fluids and biological cells. In order to understand their fundamentals, it is necessary to obtain images of the spatial structure, dynamics and interactions of macromolecules. These systems are so vastly complex that it is not possible to fully characterise them by means of conventional microscopic and spectroscopic imaging methods. That is why the Göttingen researchers developed new photon-based imaging techniques that feature high spatial and temporal resolution. Their research focuses on high-resolution optical microscopy, the optics of short wavelengths within the range of soft and hard x-rays as well as on the mathematical and numerical processing of photonic images.

“In the past years we have made huge progress in enhancing the resolution of fluorescence microscopy, which now allows us to produce sharper images of protein networks even inside living cells. Thanks to x-ray microscopy, we can create three-dimensional images of density distribution patterns in cells without staining or thin sections. Emerging new mathematical methods enable us to decode correctly the image data from the measured data,“ the SFB’s spokesperson, Prof. Salditt explains. In the second funding phase the Collaborative Research Centre with its current total of 19 projects has hired many new scientists. The researchers will be devoting intense efforts to further developing these methods and their range of applications.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Tim Salditt
Georg August University Göttingen
Faculty of Physics – Institute for X-Ray Physics
Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen
Phone +49 (0)551 39-9427, Fax +49 (0)551 39-9430
Email: tsaldit@gwdg.de
Internet: www.sfb755.uni-goettingen.de