In Other Words

In our lab we do fundamental research. The work we do thus will very unlikely results in a product you can buy in half a year on the market. So what do we do? We wonder. We wonder how something works. Then we look at what is known, and most likely we find many details which are still unknown. And there the fun begins! If we want to understand a specific thing, for example how cells divide, we need to understand also the tiny parts in the process which we do not know yet. Often we do not understand that yet because there is no straight forward way to study it.

In our case, we wonder how it works so well to separate the DNA just before cell division (most of the time). And what goes wrong in case of certain diseases. Unfortunately, we cannot just have a look to see what happens, as the parts we want to see are even much smaller than light itself! Luckily for, however, a STED microscope was invented by Stefan W. Hell. This was such a great help to look at small things that it was awarded with a Nobel prize. In our lab we use this microscope to look into complete and living cells. How this microscope works is explained in this video which was made for the science communication contest Fame Lab 2020.

If you want to know more about the microscope or the work we do, for example for a school project, you can alway contact us!