Have you heard of super-resolution microscopy or cryo-electron microscopy? For most people, these techniques are completely unknown, but they are microscopes that allow you to see far beyond what the eye sees. It is possible to observe the structures of extremely small organisms with the help of supermicroscopes.
Over the past three decades, advances in imaging technology have revolutionized biology and biomedical science. Researchers can now see biological processes with unprecedented resolution, and this provides crucial insight into human health and disease states at the subcellular level. With the help of machine learning or AI it is possible to analyze images by computers and increase speed by automated high content imaging.
The need for advanced imaging is not limited to biomedicine and biology. Microscopy is also essential in biotechnological research, involving organisms from bacteria and fungi to plants and animals.
Oddmund Bakke from the University of Oslo is heading the research network "Bridging Nordic Microscopy Infrastructures-II (BNMI-II)", which is part of NordForsk's research infrastructure initiative.
"If someone had told me at the end of the 1980s, when I was a young researcher with relatively primitive microscopes, that within a few decades we would be able to study living biological processes at the molecular level with such precision, it would have sounded like science fiction," says Oddmund Bakke and adds:
"Advanced microscopes have become one of the most important discovery tools in biomedical and natural sciences."
Seeing the invisible
A smartphone camera can zoom in five or ten times. By comparison, modern electron microscopes can reveal structures at the nanometer scale, small enough to study viruses, proteins, and the internal organization of cells.
Microscopes have been around for centuries and helped scientists understand the basic building blocks of life. Today, we know that living organisms are made up of cells that are organized into tissues and organs. Modern microscopy now allows researchers to look inside cells and study their internal structures and processes.
"It is remarkable that we can now observe details that were previously impossible to see. A major breakthrough came in the 1990s, when new imaging methods made it possible to study proteins made flourescent in living cells and organisms in real time. Previously, cells often had to be chemically fixed, which meant that researchers could only capture static snapshots," says Oddmund Bakke.
Ties between Nordic researchers
Oddmund Bakke shows NordForsk's envoy into a dark laboratory with blinds in front of the windows. Here, the University of Oslo houses some of the most advanced microscopes and imaging instruments in the Nordic region.
In the room, we greet one of the Icelandic researchers from the BNMI-II network, who is visiting. He has come to get an introduction to how to use one of the microscopes that will be transferred to Iceland as the Oslo facility will receive some new microscopes in their new life science building. One of the main aims of the network is to ensure mobility between countries, sharing the use of microscopes and knowledge.
The network has researchers from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, and the collaboration is valuable, says Oddmund Bakke:
"It is absolutely crucial that we work together in the Nordic Region, because this is a rapidly developing scientific field, and when we join forces across the Nordic countries, we can compare ourselves with larger countries such as France, Germany and Italy. The Nordic countries are very similar and we have a lot in common. We need these ties between us, and it is very important that we meet each other across countries. In our network of imaging facilities, we meet at our yearly imaging symposium and exchange valuable knowledge, making it much more interesting to work with microscopy and improve the help we can give the research scientists that use our microscopes," says Oddmund Bakke.
Will there be as much new developments in microscopy in the next 40 years as there has been in the previous 40 years?
"Microscopy is ultimately limited by the laws of physics, so there are theoretical limits to how much detail we can see. At the same time, researchers have repeatedly succeeded in overcoming what once seemed to be fundamental barriers. Advances in related scientific fields are also extremely rapid, and techniques that were considered impossible just a few years ago are now standard. This makes it very difficult to predict what will be possible in the future. But one thing is certain: we will continue to see remarkable progress."
