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Home > Research > NIBIB Intramural Labs > Laboratory of Cellular Imaging and Macromolecular Biophysics > LCIMB Supramolecular Structure and Function

The SSF research group provides resources for determining the shape and organization of supramolecular assemblies and the chemical composition of cellular organelles. SSF’s physical scientists, biologists and engineers, with expertise in quantitative high-resolution electron microscopy and nanoscale spectroscopy, collaborate with intramural investigators to develop and apply innovative imaging technologies. The goal of these studies is to relate structure to function at the subcellular and molecular level.

Areas of Research and Interest

Primary research goals include:

Determining the three-dimensional organization of cells at the level of individual supramolecular assemblies
Improving analytical sensitivity of electron energy-loss spectroscopy towards single atom detectability to address new biological questions
Developing novel molecular labeling approaches
Measuring regulatory elements such as phosphorus and calcium in individual macromolecules and assemblies
Determining quantitative distributions of diffusible ions for applications in cell biology
Designing image and spectral acquisition and processing techniques based on the physics of electron scattering to extract new types of compositional and structural information
Developing low temperature methods such as hyperbaric freezing and cryosectioning to preserve the distributions of diffusible ions at the subcellular level and to maintain the native configuration of supramolecular assemblies

These technologies are applied to problems in structural and cell biology including: