A central scientific challenge of our time is to understand the molecular machinery underlying cellular function. This knowledge is needed on the one hand to develop future technology in the hope that we humans can copy some of nature’s design rules, and on the other hand to battle diseases, such as cancer, neurological disorders, and virus infections. This challenge requires the development of innovative microscopy techniques.

Our research program aims at developing new scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) techniques for biological/biomedical research. The program includes research on the imaging of biological specimen with liquid-phase electron microscopy (also termed Liquid STEM), 3D STEM, in situ STEM, and aberration corrected STEM. Our focus is on resolving the locations of individual membrane proteins within the context of intact cells. Secondly, we study processes involving nanomaterials at the solid-liquid interface.

The research is conducted by an interdisciplinary team of biophysicists, cell biologists, chemists, and computer scientists. Prof. Dr. Niels de Jonge leads the group Innovative Electron Microscopy (IEM) at the INM - Leibniz Institute for New Materials, in Saarbrücken, Germany. He is also honorary professor of physics at the Saarland University (UdS).