Light microscopy is a central tool in biological research, allowing scientists to observe living cells and organisms with details invisible to the naked eye. Since its inception in the 17th century, it has evolved through key innovations in optics, staining, electronics and informatics. Major milestones include phase contrast, differential interference contrast, immunofluorescence, genetically encoded fluorescent proteins, confocal microscopy and super-resolution microscopy.
The discovery of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) revolutionized molecular biology, while 21st-century advances, such as super-resolution microscopy and artificial intelligence, have pushed imaging capabilities even further. Modern microscopes now integrate digital imaging, advanced optics and computational analysis for enhanced visualization and interpretation.
Photonic Imaging for Biology outlines major microscopy techniques that have driven biological discoveries, starting with fundamental principles and covering a range of methods, including brightfield, fluorescence, confocal, light-sheet, single particle tracking, photoperturbation, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and super-resolution microscopy. The book concludes with a chapter on image analysis, highlighting recent progress in artificial intelligence. Each chapter focuses on specific techniques and their applications, strengths and limitations.
1. Principles of Light Microscopy, Guillaume Dupuis.
2. Contrast-based Label-Free Imaging and Phase Measurement, Pierre Bon.
3. Fluorophores and Labeling Methods for Fluorescence Microscopy, Jip Wulffelé, Dominique Bourgeois.
4. Quantitative FRAP and FCS, Cyril Favard.
5. Single-Particle Tracking for Nanoscale Dynamics of Biological Samples, Antony Lee, Laurent Cognet.
6. In Depth Microscopy, Tom Delaire, Rémi Galland.
7. Structured Illumination Microscopy, Alexandra Fragola.
8. STED Imaging of Neuronal Morphology, Veera Venkata Gopala Krishna Inavalli, Urs Valentin Nägerl.
9. Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy: From Imaging Cellular Structures to Quantitative Image Analysis, Marina S. Dietz, Mike Heilemann.
10. Image Processing and Image Analysis in Microscopy, Daniel Sage, Anaïs Badoual.
Jean-Baptiste Sibarita is a physicist and expert in quantitative live-cell microscopy. He leads a CNRS R&D team at the University of Bordeaux, France. He has developed several innovative imaging techniques and software, authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and patents in the fields of microscopy, image analysis, cell biology and neuroscience, and has led multiple academic and industrial collaborations.