Probing Beneath the Surface: Next Level Microscopy

Dr Tom Vettenburg, a University of Dundee physicist has been awarded £1.4million in funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to develop the next generation of microscopes.

Dr Vettenburg who was awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, said that because ordinary microscopes cannot see through the outer ‘skin’ of a growing organism, they leave many questions unanswered – questions he intends to bring into focus by developing a computational microscope that can see beyond the blur of deep tissue.

“The invention of the optical microscope made it possible to highlight the fine features of living cells with unprecedented clarity,” said Dr Vettenburg, Lecturer in Physics at the University’s School of Science and Engineering.

“However, cells isolated on a microscope slide often do not behave as they would in their natural environment and despite the recent development of planar illumination light-sheet microscopes, which allow visualisation of transparent organisms during development, many tissues are simply too opaque to be studied.

“We lack the tools necessary to keep track of cell migration and differentiation and all too often we only see a blurry haze beyond the first layers of cells. To deepen our understanding of nature, we first need to overcome the depth limit in microscopy.”

Dr Vettenburg believes that the grant will allow him and his team to visualise the biological development process as it happens, which in turn could benefit fields such as regenerative medicine.

“Currently, an estimated 70% of the UK's healthcare expenditure goes towards the management of chronic disease. Developing a direct view into the inner workings of the biological development process is essential to develop effective regenerative-medicine therapies that can, in the long term, turn chronic diseases into curable conditions.”

UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships support early career researchers and innovators with outstanding potential. More than 70 top researchers from across the country receive a portion of a £78 million cash boost as part of UK Research and Innovation’s Future Leaders Fellowships.