Associate Professor Eva Arnspang Christensen, Department of Green Technology, University of Southern Denmark

Unravelling the Mechanisms Causing Diseases by Imaging Proteins and Organelles in Cells using Super-Resolved Microscopy and Advanced Analysis Tools

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy and expansion microscopy, enables imaging of cellular structures and localizing proteins in cells with nanometer resolution. Expansion microscopy is a method that physically magnifies the sample, allowing for the acquisition of super-resolution images by using conventional microscopes. Super-resolution, when combined with image analysis techniques, provides a powerful tool to investigate the complex cellular environment and decipher the mechanisms underlying how e.g. AT1R organized in the plasma membrane. Angiotensin type 1 receptor, AT1R plays a pivotal role in maintaining salts and fluids homeostasis, cardiac adaptation, and blood pressure regulation within the cell. This study aims to unravel the AT1R organization at the single-molecule level and also explore how their interactions with ligand complexes may influence their distribution within cells.

In Parkinson’s Disease, a highly prevalent neurodegenerative disease among older adults, protein aggregation, mitochondrial dysfunction and neuroinflammation are pathognomonic features. However, the mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the interaction between α-synuclein oligomers and organelle membranes by using live cell confocal and STED microscopy. The results revealed that α-synuclein oligomers lead to mitochondrial fragmentation.