Multiscale superresolution microscopy

A new microscope technique will stitch together images from the nanoscale to the millimetre scale—a range spanning five orders of magnitude—in a single, video-rate view. Today’s microscopes force a trade-off: you can see tiny details in a single cell, or you can watch a whole group of cells move, but not both at once. This project removes that barrier by fusing computational imaging, spectral imaging, and fluorescence lifetime imaging into one system. The student will build algorithms and optical designs that map biological structures and chemical concentrations in three dimensions, from cell membranes up to entire cell collectives, without stopping to switch instruments. If it works, biologists and clinicians could watch, in real time, how a drug spreads through a tumour or how immune cells organise at a wound site—details now invisible at either scale alone. The work is fundamental science: it pushes the limits of how we capture light and turn it into quantitative data. Past leaps in superresolution microscopy have already reshaped cell biology; this project extends that reach across length scales, opening doors to questions about how molecular events drive tissue-level behaviour.